Podcasts in Seattle
Shows
Talking SPACapalooza with angel investor Spencer Rascoff
When we reached out to entrepreneur and angel investor Spencer Rascoff on Tuesday with notes about appearing on the GeekWire podcast — an appearance that was scheduled several weeks ago — we mentioned possible discussion topics around SPACs, real estate trends and any other big tech news events of the week. And then we made the age-old journalistic error, pointing out that it had been a "pretty slow news week so far, but I am sure something will pop in the next day or two that might make life interesting." Indeed it did. But we had no idea that this…
JJohn Cook
SSpencer Rascoff
The Future of Femtech
This week we're presenting a new episode of the GeekWire podcast 2025: Tomorrow, Today featuring a discussion with Julie Sandler of Pioneer Square Labs. It's one in a series of conversations with technology investors on the 2025 podcast. Find more episodes at geekwire.com/2025podcast. We'll be back next week with our regular weekly show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
JJohn Cook
JJordan Voss
JJulie Sandler
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Heather Redman (Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Flying Fish) on the psychology of investing, the power of community, and lessons in diversity, equity, and inclusion
Flying Fish Partners is a venture firm focused on AI, machine learning, and robotics. Heather Reman is an operator turned investor who co-founded Flying Fish. Her mantra is about community. And she applies this across domains - from startup investing to non-profits, education, politics, and leadership. She goes behind the scenes on the psychology of investing, the power of community, and her lessons on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
HHeather Redman
Mike Howell
Michael Howell is co-founder and CEO of Dolly, a Seattle based tech company, that was created in 2015 to re-imagine the moving and delivery experience by putting the customer in control. Dolly has grown into the leading on-demand, final-mile delivery provider for big and bulky goods trusted by national retailers like The Container Store, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel, and many more. Mike’s passion for the customer experience and using data to uncover and act on business insights that solve problems has been the cornerstone of his entrepreneurial success. Prior to Dolly, Michael was a co-founder at Wetpaint, a media…
GeekWire at 10 years: Reflections on an extraordinary decade in Seattle tech
This Sunday, March 7, will mark 10 years since GeekWire’s launch. Looking back, we couldn’t have picked a better decade as GeekWire’s first, given our focus on Seattle and Pacific Northwest innovation. This was the moment that Seattle tech came into its own. We’ve covered the rise of the cloud, Amazon’s boom, Microsoft’s rebirth, the arrival of Silicon Valley engineering centers, disputes, mergers, IPOs, and the emergence of thousands of startups. And in the past year, we’ve covered Seattle as a center of the scientific and philanthropic response to a world-changing pandemic. What happens here matters everywhere. This has become…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
Andrew Sampson
Andrew is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rainway, leading the way in building a best-in-class game streaming technology. Rainway’s mission is to unleash the future of computing, collaboration, productivity, and development by using real-time interactive streaming to change the way that desktop software is built and distributed. Andrew is an experienced software engineer, a 2018 Thiel Fellowship alumni, and has been featured on Forbes 30 Under 30! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Michel Feaster
Michel is the Co-Founder and CEO of usermind, responsible for company vision, strategic direction, planning and execution. Usermind, the leader in Experience Orchestration (XO), is changing the way enterprises use what they know about customers to actively shape experiences in real time. Michel’s enterprise software career spans almost 20 years with roles in sales, products, strategic marketing and general management. Before founding usermind, Michel was VP of Products at Apptio, where she drove product strategy, defined the category and discipline of Technology Business Management and helped grow the company from 30 to almost 400 employees. She also spent almost 8…
Forest Key
Forest is Founder and CEO of Voodle, a short video app for business teams to capture, share and discover important business moments as they happen where they work – home, office, or on the road. Forest is a serial entrepreneur with a 30 year passion for innovation in video platforms. Previously founder and CEO of hospitality marketing SaaS provider buuteeq, and visual effects software tools innovator Puffin Designs. He was a founding partner of China based UX design and development studio for OTT video applications Redsafi, and the founder CEO of Pixvana which spent 4 years developing a VR video…
FForest Key
Liz Pearce
Liz is co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Fresh Chalk, a social network aiming to give you a faster and more efficient way to find trusted recommendations. The site allows users to search through local service providers (like plumbers or vets) and products (like electronics or beauty products) to see which have been recommended by their friends. Prior to Fresh Chalk, Liz was with LiquidPlanner for 11 years, starting as the company's marketing contractor and working her way up to COO and ultimately to CEO in 2012. Liz is an entrepreneurial leader who got ground-level marketing and product management experience at…
LLiz Pearce
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Peter Hamilton (former TUNE CEO) on profitable growth, team vs family, and his path from CMO to CEO and $80M ARR
TUNE grew to $80M ARR and 350 people over the last 7 years, resulting in two acquisitions. They raised $36M from top VCs, but it wasn't the typical VC-backed startup. Peter Hamilton started as a marketer when he responded to a Craigslist post and later became CEO. He shares how TUNE built two distinct product lines, found profitable growth, innovated on brand and customer service, the parallels between oprah singing and company building, and how TUNE's acquisitions unfolded.
PPeter Hamilton
Bonus: 'Venture Capital Loves Destruction'
It was one of the most tumultuous years the country and the world have ever seen. And yet, as we reported on GeekWire last week, venture capital investments in the United States broke another record in 2020, topping $150 billion for the first time, according to Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. In Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest, funding totals came in at $4.4 billion, up 15% year-over-year, according to GeekWire’s tally, derived from our running list of startup investments. What in the heck is going on? My colleague, GeekWire co-founder John Cook, put that question to Mike…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
MMike Davidson
Scott Ferris
Scott is the CEO of Attunely Inc. A proven, compliant, and trustworthy machine learning platform that makes the recovery of receivables easy, seamless, and profitable. Attunely has earned recognition as one of the Best Places to work in Seattle, #29 of 50 Best Paying Companies, and #7 of 50 Best Small Companies to work for. Scott brings over 30 years of technology executive management experience in both domestic and international markets. Scott’s career spans decades of technology innovation with US WEST, Starbucks, startup Vendaria, aQuantive, and Microsoft. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Maria Colacurcio (Syndio CEO, Smartsheet Co-Founder) on category creation, leadership lessons from parenting, skills over experience, and the power of focus
Syndio just raised a $17M series B to help companies fix gender and racial pay equity problems. It's a big, complex, and new category. They already have 100+ customers like Nordstrom, Salesforce, and Adobe. Maria was previously co-founder at Smartsheet and a tech veteran. She is all about focus and precision. And she explains how parenting 6 kids, working with veterans, startup marketing, and big companies have all helped her find focus in her mission at Syndio.
MMaria Colacurcio
2021: What to expect in tech, with Peter Lee of Microsoft
When (and how) will we all return to the office? How can startups position themselves to succeed in 2021? Which innovations will define the coming year? And which technologies will be overhyped? Last week, we recapped the top stories of 2020. This week, we look ahead to anticipate the coming year in technology and innovation. Our guest commentator is computer scientist Peter Lee, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for research and incubations, one of several tech and business leaders based in the Seattle region who responded to a GeekWire survey about what to expect in the year ahead. See omnystudio.com/listener for…
Top Stories of 2020
To say that 2020 unfolded in unexpected ways would be an epic understatement. The changes caused by the pandemic promise to impact tech, business and everything else for years to come. And that's just the start. The influence of Seattle's tech and scientific communities rippled throughout the world. The region's life sciences institutions played a key role in uncovering and battling COVID-19, and Bill Gates emerged as a leading voice for science and equity in the pandemic. Enterprise tech companies provided the bedrock for a massive global acceleration of digital technologies. A national reckoning over race, sparked by the killing…
How this Seattle tech CEO landed in the pro bowling Hall of Fame
Rob Glaser is best known as the founder and CEO of RealNetworks, the Seattle-based company that specializes in digital media, games and computer vision technology. But for about two decades, he was also part of the ownership group for the Professional Bowlers Association, along with his former Microsoft colleagues Chris Peters and Mike Slade. That's how Glaser landed in the PBA Hall of Fame earlier this year, despite never having been a pro bowler himself. It also makes Glaser the answer to what turned out to be a real stumper of a trivia question on the latest episode of the…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
RRob Glaser
Stalking Seattle's unicorns
Seattle's tech community just reached a new milestone: 10 unicorns, privately held companies valued at more than $1 billion. Their characteristics say a lot about the direction and state of the tech industry in the region, both positive and negative. Read more: Seattle area boasts 10 fast-growing unicorns: Can you name the billion-dollar startups? Joining us as a guest commentator this week: Heather Redman, co-founder and managing partner of Flying Fish Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm that focuses its investments on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Also up for discussion: the challenges of running a big tech hub like…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
HHeather Redman
Roei Ganzarski
Roei is CEO of magniX, an electric propulsion technology company, poised to disrupt the aerospace industry with its advanced electric engines that will enable transportation capabilities and services never possible before. We dig into Roei's leadership style, and learn about how his experiences in the military, corporate finance, and time at the Boeing Company and Bold IQ all brought him to wear he is today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
RRoei Ganzarski
'Slackforce,' AWS re:Invent, and Seattle's new $9B tech company
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Salesforce strikes a deal to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion; Amazon Web Services makes some surprising news at its annual re:Invent cloud conference; and a new tech giant arrives in our backyard. Joining us on this episode is Matt McIlwain, managing director at Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group, offering his commentary on the implications of these developments in the world of cloud and enterprise technology. Special bonus: Listen to the end of the show for a new installment of our GeekWire Podcast trivia contest, with a chance to win a GeekWire mask…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
MMatt McIlwain
Kirby Winfield
Kirby is a seasoned startup operator and angel investor. He is currently the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, a pre-seed stage venture fund investing in marketplace, e-commerce/DTC, and B2B software startups in the Pacific Northwest. He is also a Techstars mentor, passionate Board member, and Board Chair-elect at Special Olympics of Washington, where he helped bring the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games to Seattle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
KKirby Winfield
Christy Johnson
Christy is an intrapreneur, entrepreneur, and strategist. She is currently building her fourth start-up, Artemis Connection, a boutique strategy consulting firm passionate about helping innovative leaders reach their goals. She loves working for forward thinking executives who want results. She has seven years of experience working in corporate strategy, including nearly four years at McKinsey & Co. Before this, Christy was an award winning economics and mathematics teacher. Come join us to learn a little more about how Christy got to where she is today! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
CChristy Johnson
AI that writes your emails; a Seattle tech visionary; and our trivia challenge returns
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week: OthersideAI thinks it can help you be more productive by using artificial intelligence to write your emails for you. But is that really a good idea? The months-old firm announced a $2.6 million seed round this week. It's one of several startups creating email products based on OpenAI's GPT3 language processing technology. We talk about the long-term implications for the industry and for humanity. Tom Alberg was an internet financial pioneer when he became one of the first investors in Amazon in 1995. He didn't stop there. He was…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
Built in Seattle with Adam Schoenfeld
Kristen Hamilton (2x founder, SVP at Guild) on the value of inquiry, overcoming fear, and honesty in the struggle
Kristen is a 2x founder, startup executive, and board member. She co-founded Onvia in 1997 which went on to IPO. Recently co-founded at Koru which sold in 2018. Now an SVP at Guild Education. But through 25 years of building start-ups she was "operating from a place of fear."
KKristen Hamilton
Biden's Seattle tech bundlers; Amazon's smart shelf; Where's Gabe Newell?
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week: Just before the election, Joe Biden's campaign released a list of its top "bundlers," people who raise big donations to the campaign. Several well-known Seattle tech names were on the list. We look at who they are and why they were raising money for Biden. Amazon released a Smart Shelf that can keep track of things like your toilet paper and then automatically reorder them when you start to run out. Another Seattle firm, Bottomless, has a similar gadget to keep you in fresh coffee beans. Cool concepts but…
