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How Silicon Valley VCs would react to a pitch from the greatest geek ever, Nikola Tesla
By Taylor Soper at 5:13 pm on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
GeekWire's Greatest Geek of All Time is making headlines again, and this time it relates directly to the startup world. Palo Alto-based Northern Imagination produced the parody video above to help promote its Kickstarter campaign for a Wi-Fi-enabled Nikola Tesla statue in Silicon Valley. It's a comical clip that sheds light on the short-attention span of … Read More...

Here’s what Microsoft is paying its new CFO Amy Hood
By Todd Bishop at 4:52 pm on 05/20/2013 | Leave a Comment
Microsoft's newly appointed chief financial officer, Amy Hood, will start at an annual base salary of $570,000, along with Microsoft stock valued around $6.5 million based on today's share price, according to regulatory filings from the company today and last week. That's in addition to a potential cash bonus based on future performance. Hood was named to the position … Read More...
Wave Welcomes New Seattle Regional Business Solutions Director!
Wave Business Solutions would like to welcome Michael Villanueva as the newest member of the Wave Business Solutions leadership team. Michael will lead the Seattle West Division sales executives in Wave’s fastest growing business segment. Michael comes to us from Time Warner Cable Business Services in LA. Welcome to the Wave Business Solutions family Michael!

Study: The biggest social collaboration tool inside big companies is … Facebook?
By Todd Bishop at 2:45 pm on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
Salesforce.com, Microsoft, IBM and many smaller companies are competing aggressively in the market for enterprise social collaboration, offering advanced tools specifically designed to help workers communicate and share insights. But it turns out the dominate social collaboration tool inside big companies is plain old Facebook, followed by Twitter. That's one of the … Read More...

Nike Accelerator Spotlight: FitDeck turns exercise into a card game
By Taylor Soper at 2:36 pm on 05/20/2013 | Leave a Comment
Editor’s note: Nike Accelerator Spotlight takes a look at the ten startups participating in the Nike+ Accelerator, a three-month startup program based in Portland, Ore. and put on by Nike and TechStars. GeekWire is featuring each company leading up to the June 10 demo day. Many bad ideas percolate inside college dorm rooms. Phil Black and his roommates, however, … Read More...

You did what? Why we chose debt over venture capital
By Liz Pearce at 1:55 pm on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
If you’re an entrepreneur, there’s a good chance that many of your conversations — and a good chunk of your inner dialogue — are consumed by thoughts of fundraising. You can’t open a web browser or email or Twitter without being bombarded by opinion pieces, research, case studies, and news on the topic. On this site alone, searches for “fundraising” and … Read More...
Digital marketing firm AudienceScience trims staff
By John Cook at 1:43 pm on 05/20/2013 | Leave a Comment
AudienceScience is cutting staff again. The Bellevue digital marketing company, formerly known as Revenue Science and digiMine, has laid off employees. "AudienceScience had a small strategic layoff to further align employee skillsets with its enterprise technology offering," the company said in a statement. The company declined to say how many people were let go, though … Read More...

Fraction calculator invented by 12-year-old now Amazon’s Free App of the Day
By Taylor Soper at 11:22 am on 05/20/2013 | 2 Comments
It started with some frustation over math homework at the dining room table, but now, the ideas of 12-year-old Isabel Hughes are front-and-center on Amazon's App Store. Earlier this year, we wrote about the cool story of how Isabel and her father, Aidan, teamed up to develop best-selling calculator apps sold across several platforms. Today marks a milestone for the … Read More...

The next Xbox: What to expect from Microsoft’s new console
By Taylor Soper at 10:51 am on 05/20/2013 | 6 Comments
Well, we're almost there. In less than 24 hours, the tech world will be listening and watching in anticipation as Microsoft officially unveils the next generation of the Xbox. The console market has been struggling, but Microsoft — which has led in the U.S. in console sales for 28 consecutive months — is aiming to shake things up with its third-generation … Read More...

Sony teases PS4 hardware in new video, one day before Xbox launch
By Taylor Soper at 10:46 am on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
Less than 24 hours before Microsoft reveals the new generation of Xbox, Sony has just posted a teaser video showing off aspects of the Playstation 4 console. But if you were looking for high-def pictures of the new console, you'll be disappointed. The 39-second clip shows a blurry black box and quick glimpses of the console itself — a tease, really. If you didn't … Read More...

Genome barcoder NanoString Technologies files to raise up to $86 million in IPO
By John Cook at 10:31 am on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
When it rains, it pours. Just a few days after Tableau wowed Wall Street with a spectacular IPO, another Seattle company is looking to make the leap into the public marketplaces. This time, it is NanoString Technologies, a maker of genomic analysis tools. NanoString was spun out of genomics pioneer Leroy Hood's Institute for Systems Biology in 2003. The … Read More...

Shares of Tableau still surging after strong IPO, now valued near $2B
By John Cook at 10:15 am on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
Everyone is talking about Yahoo's big buy of Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash. It's a sexy story, in part because Yahoo is trying to revive itself with the ultra-hip New York online media powerhouse. But I am still watching the aftermath of Tableau's blockbuster initial public offering. After pricing shares last Thursday night at $31, Tableau came out screaming on The … Read More...

Amazon axes Zombieland, keeps Alpha House and Betas for original comedy shows
By Taylor Soper at 9:56 am on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
The geeks are in and the zombies are out. That's what Amazon has reportedly decided for the first rounds of cuts of its original comedy TV content. About a month ago, Amazon's TV production leg made pilot episodes for eight comedy shows available on Prime and asked the public to pick its favorites. Zombieland writer-producer Rhett Reese recently tweeted that … Read More...

Take a picture with your voice? Microsoft wants a patent on it
By Todd Bishop at 9:47 am on 05/20/2013 | 1 Comment
Tired of using a timer to snap a picture? Microsoft has a solution for you. Well, it's not a particularly original solution, at least not at this point. But the company is hoping to patent the approach. A newly surfaced patent application, first reported by Patent Bolt, describes a method for "voice-controlled camera operations," in which a person can use voice commands … Read More...

Tech Moves: Joanna Lord named CMO at BigDoor; Brian Arbogast joins the Gates Foundation; and more
By John Cook at 9:23 am on 05/20/2013 | 2 Comments
—Online marketing whiz Joanna Lord has left her VP job at SEOmoz to become chief marketing officer at BigDoor, the Seattle gamification startup. In her new role Lord will oversee branding, content, community and other functions for the Seattle-based company. Keith Smith-led BigDoor raised $5 million last year, bringing total funding to $13 million. "The first thing … Read More...

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on $1.1 billion Tumblr deal: ‘We promise not to screw it up’
By John Cook at 7:55 am on 05/20/2013 | 3 Comments
Well, this kind of says something. In her first public remarks about the blockbuster $1.1 billion cash purchase of Tumblr, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promises "not to screw it up." Meanwhile, Tumblr CEO David Karp notes that the fast-growing blogging platform, which boasts 300 million unique visitors per month and 120,000 signs up every day, will get "better faster" with … Read More...

Bootlegs 2.0: Lively app allows you to take concert memories home for $9.99
By John Cook at 12:01 am on 05/20/2013 | 3 Comments
Has this ever happened? You just saw an amazing musical performance at one of your favorite concert venues, and you'd like to relive the action. Up until now, you've pretty much had to rely on low-quality YouTube clips if you wanted a replay of the show. But a new Seattle startup called Lively is looking to transform that experience, launching an app … Read More...

3 copywriting tips for startup entrepreneurs
By Carol Schiller at 8:32 pm on 05/19/2013 | 1 Comment
In a perfect world you’d probably hire a professional marketing copywriter to write all the copy you need for your start-up business; your website, emails, blog posts, even your investor pitches would all be crisper with a pro doing the heavy lifting. But the reality is that many entrepreneurs are stuck writing their own copy until they can afford to hire help. So if … Read More...

Report: Yahoo buying blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion
By John Cook at 10:59 am on 05/19/2013 | 10 Comments
Yahoo is reportedly buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash, a deal that was first reported by All Things D. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reports that the Yahoo board has approved the deal. It would mark the biggest deal yet for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and it would give the company a big shot-in-the-arm when it comes to reaching … Read More...

Kubrick meets Bing: Why this promotion missed the mark
By Mark Firmani at 8:31 am on 05/19/2013 | 5 Comments
On my way to lunch last week, I saw what looked like a cross between an oversized moving crate and that big black obelisk from 2001 – A Space Odyssey. The box sat in an awkward position on a sloping parking lot, right in the middle of Seattle's South Lake Union, or Geek Town as we call it, thanks to the thousands of Amazon developers that work in a series of … Read More...

Paul Allen procures V-2 rocket for aircraft museum
By John Cook at 3:47 pm on 05/18/2013 | Leave a Comment
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is selling some of his abstract art, and buying a historic rocket. The eclectic Seattle billionaire has procured a rare Werner von Braun designed V-2 rocket, the first man-made object to fly into outer space. Allen's Flying Heritage Collection — located at Paine Field in Everett — is taking possession of the rocket on Monday. The … Read More...

Dogfooding: Find a way to be your own customer
By Alex Weinstein at 12:15 pm on 05/18/2013 | 1 Comment
In early ‘90s, while working on Windows NT, Microsoft popularized an idea to make everyone on the team use early builds of their own software. Back then, it was quite a painful request — imagine developing an operating system on a box prone to crashes, where your basic tools don’t quite work right. This setup undoubtedly causes loss of productivity and … Read More...

Anticipating where crime happens: Seattle rolls out ‘Predictive Policing’ across city
By Taylor Soper at 11:07 am on 05/18/2013 | 2 Comments
Back in February, Seattle rolled out a new “Predictive Policing” software in the East and Southwest Precincts, hoping to keep the city safe by using data that better predicts where crime may happen. Now, after "anecdotal success" with the software so far, it's being expanded across all five precincts in the city, Mayor Mike McGinn announced yesterday at a … Read More...

GeekWire Radio: Startup Weekend CEO Marc Nager spreads the startup gospel
By GeekWire at 9:18 am on 05/18/2013 | Leave a Comment
This week on the GeekWire radio show we speak to Startup Weekend CEO Marc Nager who is building a global empire of 54-hour entrepreneurial bootcamps. The Seattle non-profit organization, backed by the Kauffman Foundation and others, has hosted Startup Weekends in 113 countries and 325 cities. It plans to hold more than 800 events this year, including upcoming 54-hour … Read More...

Startup Spotlight: Localblox is like Facebook, but for your neighborhood
By Alisa Reznick at 6:37 pm on 05/17/2013 | 1 Comment
Facebook is nice and all, but with one billion users, it's hard to feel like there's any more than a pool of statuses and food photos. Sure, it's great for keeping in touch with old friends, but what about people who live right next door? When Sabrira Arefin and Ashfaq Rahman created LocalBlox, that's exactly what they had in mind. The Bellevue-based startup was … Read More...

InterConnection refurbishes, distributes computers to fellow non-profits for cheap
By Alisa Reznick at 4:43 pm on 05/17/2013 | 2 Comments
Whether you're Amazon or the corner doughnut shop, it can be a long, lonely road without a website or up-to-date computer these days. But for non-profits, finding the funds for these devices and tools can be tough. Thankfully, though, InterConnection has an answer. The Seattle-born non-profit refurbishes monitors, laptops and desktop PCs, selling them to non-profits … Read More...

Strong debut: Tableau closes first day of trading up 63%
By John Cook at 4:38 pm on 05/17/2013 | Leave a Comment
Champagne corks were popping this morning at Tableau Software offices as the Seattle-based company celebrated the biggest tech IPO so far this year. And I am sure the bars in Fremont — the quirky Seattle neighborhood that Tableau calls home — are crawling with newly-minted paper millionaires tonight. (Tableau execs are under a lock-up, preventing them from selling … Read More...

Amazon should introduce AWS to China the Microsoft Way, says China VC
By Robert O'Brien at 2:45 pm on 05/17/2013 | 1 Comment
What’s the best way for Amazon to take its vaunted cloud computing platform to China? Follow Microsoft’s lead. That’s the opinion, anyhow, of famed China venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee. More by contextChina • Cloud Computing, Amazon and China: An Insider’s Perspective • China’s E-Commerce Market Grows in Size, Importance and … Read More...

Microsoft: Global video-game market hits $65 billion, and consoles still lead the way
By Todd Bishop at 1:40 pm on 05/17/2013 | 5 Comments
Microsoft is getting ready to reveal the next generation of the Xbox next week, and despite signs that the console market is struggling, the company this afternoon released a big batch of stats to make the case that the industry is very much alive and kicking. Spending on all types of video games (including hardware in some cases) reached $65 billion last year, up 7 … Read More...
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