Podcasts in Seattle
Shows
Startup secrets; Windows 11 launch; In defense of the Blue Yeti
A global pandemic might seem like the wrong time to pursue a new startup idea, given all the uncertainties, but in many ways, the timing couldn't be better. That's one of the insights from our GeekWire Podcast conversation this week with Seattle-area entrepreneur and investor Shirish Nadkarni, author of the book From Startup to Exit: An Insider’s Guide to Launching and Scaling your Tech Business. The changes in user behavior and tech platform shifts caused by the pandemic dovetail with one of the lessons Nadkarni is hoping to get across to entrepreneurs. "Look for opportunities where there is either some…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
SShirish Nadkarni
Kirt Debique
Kirt Debique is the CEO & CTO of SyncFloor, a B2B platform providing licensed access to high-quality commercial music for use by businesses and creators. Built around the concept of natural language music search, SyncFloor has created an intuitive and innovative engine for music discovery, and the patented SyncFloor platform connects customer websites, services, and applications to music from the world's best labels and publishers. The company is also the maker of SongsForPodcasters, a modern podcast-specific music licensing experience made for consumers, small businesses, and creative professionals. A twenty year Microsoft veteran with experience as an engineer, architect, technology strategist…
David Wolf
David Wolf is the founder and CTO of JetClosing, a tech startup in the Real Estate space working to make all-digital home closings the new normal. A UW and Stanford CS graduate, he has worked in the Seattle area tech scene for over 20 years. Prior to JetClosing, he worked At Amazon, where he ran the team who built the Amazon retail shopping iPhone app, used by millions worldwide. He also led teams at other local tech companies like Xome, Motricity, and Infospace. David also happened to be one of Redfin’s first customers in 2006, and is passionate about transforming…
How SPACs are shaking up Seattle's startup scene
An online marketplace that helps to facilitate trade between marijuana sellers and buyers will soon see its own stock traded on the Nasdaq. Another that connects pet owners with walkers, boarders and other caregivers just posted its first earnings as a publicly traded company. And a 3-year-old Redmond-based biotech company with a mere 25 employees just raised $80 million its stock market debut. SPACs are shaking up Seattle's startup scene. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we examine how special purpose acquisition companies are turning startups into publicly traded stocks at a rapid clip. The SPAC phenomenon is giving…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
LLaurel Deppen
#7 Martin Tobias: Founder of Incisive.vc | Startup Project by Nataraj
In this Episode of Startup project, Nataraj talked to Martin Tobias, Founder of Incisive Ventures. Martin is a serial entrepreneur, investor in 100+ deals as an angel, also the Founder of a leading Angel network, Element8. He is also 3x CEO, and has raised over $500M (including two IPOs). We talked about: First Angel Investment Meta Themes Capital Efficiency in North America vs India Looking at valuations with the lens of notional capital What led to his investment in DocuSign at a time when electronic signatures were not legal. Story behind starting Incisive in the middle of a pandemic Follow…
MMartin Tobias
Joe Ottinger
Joe Ottinger is a management consultant, board member, author, and thought leader in the areas of entrepreneurial leadership, Innovation, and strategy execution. After a 15 year technology career, Joe co-founded a global management consulting firm called Kotter International with Harvard Business School professor John Kotter. After Kotter International, Joe founded his own management consulting firm called Iinnovate which provides comprehensive strategic advisory services to CEOs and senior teams that are scaling, as well as CEO peer forum groups for CEOs of companies that are scaling. Joe is the author of books and articles on entrepreneurial leadership, that have appeared in…
JJoe Ottinger
Former Amazon exec Jeff Wilke on his next big thing
Jeff Wilke did something unusual when he left his role as Amazon's Worldwide Consumer CEO in March, after more than two decades with the company: he learned to code in the Python programming language. "I had lots of computer scientists that were working for me and the organization, and I was heavily involved in a bunch of architectural decisions, but I hadn't written code in years," he explained. "I didn't understand exactly what it took to turn the ideas that we had into actual code. ... So I just thought it'd be useful to update my skills after a couple…
Brian Lent
Brian Lent is a data science pioneer who has been at the forefront of data mining, machine learning, forward-thinking analytics, and leading-edge AI technology for over three decades. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Plunk—the first mobile app helping homeowners grow their largest financial asset—Brian is working with a world-class team to bring advanced data mining, AI & ML algorithms to residential real estate. Prior to Plunk, Brian founded the mobile analytics company Medio Systems, supporting 440+ million users in over 100+ countries. Brian also started one of the first data analytics teams at Amazon in the late 1990’s when…
BBrian Lent
Pete Christothoulou
Pete Christothoulou is an entrepreneur and company leader who has focused on building and scaling technology-driven business productivity platforms for most of his career. He's currently the founder and CEO of Xembly, a fast-growing start-up using AI to rid the world of bad meetings. Prior to Xembly, Pete was the CEO of Marchex, a conversational analytics company he co-founded and took public. After residing in Seattle for many years, Pete, his wife Heather, and two daughters, Pia and Coco, moved to Canada during the pandemic (to support their daughter's acting career) and now reside in Napa, California. See omnystudio.com/listener for…
PPete Christothoulou
Ben Gilbert of PSL and 'Acquired' on the red-hot market for IPOs, VC and acquisitions
Another day, another deal. Keeping up with the flurry of acquisitions, IPOs, SPACs and venture capital these days is no easy task. In fact, IPO dollar volume for 2021 has already reached $171 billion, surpassing the record totals of last year. Same goes for mergers and acquisitions, with record levels of deal activity tracked for 2021. The money is certainly flowing. Washington state now boasts 11 "unicorns" — privately held companies boasting valuations of $1 billion or more. Many of them — such as Highspot, Zenoti and Outreach — have raised venture capital rounds of $150 million or more in…
JJohn Cook
BBen Gilbert
Shane Kovalsky
Shane Kovalsky is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mystery, a managed marketplace for surprise & delight. In just over 2-years, Mystery has pivoted and found product market fit three times and brought smiles to 350+ businesses and more than 30,000 customers. Shane previously worked for Porch, Convoy, and ran a number of his own businesses and side hustles. He’s passionate about pesto, shared experiences, and data-driven results. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Pioneer Square Labs
This week our partners chat with Greg Gottesman, Managing Director & Co-Founder at Pioneer Square Labs, a startup studio and venture capital fund based in Seattle, WA.
GGreg Gottesman
Jessica Eggert
Jessica is the CEO and Founder of LegUp, a venture-backed Seattle-based organization that connects families to available childcare, and helps small business childcare providers grow. Prior to LegUp, Jessica spent over 10 years in operations, HR, and consulting at various companies, including Common Engine and The Riveter. She also serves as an advisor at Ethel’s Club, the first social club and digital space for people of color, and Female Founders Alliance, a startup community dedicated to accelerating the success of highly scalable companies founded by women and non-binary individuals. Alongside these roles, Jessica is a Vice Chair of the King…
JJessica Eggert
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Dave Rigotti (Inflection CEO & Co-Founder) on the path from marketer to founder, managing energy, and asking the right questions
After starting his career at Microsoft, Dave was the first marketer at Bizible. As the company grew, Dave scaled to VP and then took on marketing leadership roles at Marketo and Adobe via acquisitions. He's now founder and CEO at Inflection - a new stealth marketing tech startup. Dave operates with a small-town Ohio style and says he cares more about the process than the destination. He talked about managing energy, growing from contributor to manager to executive, and learning through customer development.
DDave Rigotti
Madrona's Steve Singh on 6 tech trends to watch post-COVID
The 2021 virtual GeekWire Awards were held this week, recognizing the top companies, innovators, entrepreneurs and technologies in the Pacific Northwest, as nominated and chosen by the GeekWire community — along with celebrity cameos. On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we’re featuring highlights from a behind-the-scenes conversation with former Docker and Concur CEO Steve Singh, managing director of Madrona Venture Group, which was hosted for finalists in advance of the awards by GeekWire co-founder John Cook. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
SSteve Singh
SSue Bird
BBobby Wagner
RRainn Wilson
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Omri Mor (Routable Co-Founder & CEO) on customer discovery, fundraising, and avoiding assumptions
Routable's growth and $30M Series B are impressive headlines. But their customer discovery process really stood out. Omri interviewed over 300 customers before writing a single line of code. After learning from past pivots and mistakes, he was relentless in the process. That work give him conviction to move fast. Just 4 years later, Routable has raised $46M, accelerated growth, and earned the love of customers like Ticketmaster, Re-Max, and Snackpass. Omri went behind the scenes on his story and shared the principles driving Routable's growth.
OOmri Mor
Nick Hughes
Nick Hughes is the CEO of Founders Live and a successful American entrepreneur with business achievements in social media, digital payments, and e-commerce. He excels at interpersonal leadership, communication, business and product development. In addition to creating the global startup marketplace Founders Live, Nick stays busy as an advisor to numerous startups and occasionally takes positions in sales or biz dev roles if needed. Previously, he founded the mobile payment startup Seconds as well as helping start Coinme, a company built around expanding bitcoin and digital transactions into the physical realm via Bitcoin ATM’s. As a sought-after adviser, entrepreneurial speaker…
NNick Hughes
Urbanist Richard Florida on the overblown tech exodus and how cities will regroup post pandemic
Reports of the death of coastal cities are greatly overblown. At least that’s the view of renowned urbanist and author Richard Florida who spoke earlier this week with GeekWire contributing editor Monica Nickelsburg about the future of cities as part of the annual Crosscut Festival. “I am just amazed at the amount of gloom and doom pessimism,” said Florida, adding that any out-of-city migration appears to be temporary and is really only happening with small subsets of people. “Net-net, it doesn’t look like we’ve had a great urban exodus.” That’s just one of the fascinating observations from Florida, author of…
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Robert Wahbe (Highspot CEO & Co-Founder) on category definition, listening harder, and thinking from first principles
Highspot has reached a $2.3B valuation, 500+ employees, and $397M raised just 9 years since founding. What's made that possible? Robert Wahbe (Co-Founder & CEO) is a strategic thinker who has found many non-obvious strategies and frameworks to scale his business. He went behind the scenes on his story and shared the principles and lessons driving Highspot's growth.
RRobert Wahbe
Municipal broadband; capital gains tax; Amazon's take on soccer super league
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week: Washington state is poised to make a significant change in how its citizens gain access to the internet. Gov. Jay Inslee has indicated he’ll sign two pieces of legislation that, for the first time, will allow municipalities to set up their own direct-to-consumer broadband services. We discuss why this is a big deal and how it might work in one county. Washington state legislators appear to be on track to pass a new capital gains tax for the state that would be collected on large sales of stocks, among…
JJohn Cook
MMike Lewis
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Rebekah Bastian (OwnTrail CEO & Co-Founder) on opening to possibility, assessing risk, and blazing your own trail
OwnTrail is a platform that advances women by helping members share their *real* paths through career and life. With seed funding and an all-star team, OwnTrail is growing fast. CEO and co-founder, Rebekah Bastian, is a role model for staying open to possibility. She didn't have a masterplan and it wasn't a straight line. She joined Zillow as employee 20. Fifteen years at Zillow took her from Product Manager to VP of Product, and then VP of Community and Culture. Then author. And now founder. She goes behind the scenes on her story and OwnTrail's mission.
RRebekah Bastian
Maria Colacurcio
Maria Colacurcio is CEO of Syndio, an analytics platform that ensures workplace fairness in every stage of employment and aims to eliminate pay disparity. She is responsible for the company’s vision, strategy, building talent within the organization, and developing organizational excellence to deliver the highest levels of business value to its customers. Most importantly, she is passionate about issues surrounding equal pay, employee wellness and equity at work. Prior to joining Syndio, Maria co-founded Smartsheet.com, worked in technology and communications at Microsoft, Starbucks, and a variety of tech startups. She has a proven track record of building successful companies, with…
MMaria Colacurcio
Why this Seattle tech CEO pulled his company out of downtown Seattle, and isn't coming back anytime soon
Veteran tech executive Scott Moore, CEO of Seattle startup AdLightning, joins GeekWire's John Cook and Mike Lewis to discuss the challenges facing downtown Seattle after the pandemic. AdLightning left its headquarters in the Gibraltar building last March and exited the lease in August. The company is currently working remote, and Moore says he’s committed to getting another office at some point. But when he does, Moore says, the office won’t be in downtown Seattle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
JJohn Cook
MMike Lewis
SScott Moore
Nishant Singh
Nishant Singh is the CEO and Founder of Peach. He started the company in 2014 with a focus that daily lunch should be amazing for working professionals. Today, Peach is operational in the entire United States and deliver thousands of lunchboxes from local restaurants to offices each day. Nishant Singh has experienced the startup thrills, from raising the largest seed round in the Pacific Northwest in 2014, to taking hard steps of restructuring the business to weather changing market conditions. 7 years down the line and Nishant’s entrepreneurial spirit is fueling his ambitions to take the company to IPO. Outside…
