There was a ton of new capital flowing into the Seattle tech community this week. So what does it mean?
That’s where we begin as we return to the studio for this brand new episode of the GeekWire radio show. We start with the news of Zulily’s initial public offering — which skyrocketed in its debut at the end of the week, and did very well for its founders and investors, as Wall Street reacted favorably to the company’s prospects offering online deals for moms and kids.
[Listen to the show via the audio player below or directly via this MP3 file.]
From there we cover the story of online real estate company Redfin’s $50 million funding round, and the $21.5 million in funding for online learning company creativeLive.
In the second segment, we discuss Microsoft’s decision to end its controversial stack rank employee review process. (Be sure to check out commentaries on that topic from former Microsofties Jonathan Sposato and Christopher Budd.)
We also talk about Steve Ballmer’s newly published explanation of his decision to leave Microsoft — plus, on the topic of Ballmer, something funny that happened to GeekWire’s Taylor Soper and me this week on the Microsoft campus.
In the third segment, we share the surprising back story on how RealNetworks came up with the name for its new ringback tone service for smartphones.
And finally, we explain the background of the “Seattle 10” — a new list that we debuted this week in partnership with the Museum of History & Industry and the new Bezos Center for Innovation. These companies — and their giant cocktail napkins — will be a featured component of the upcoming GeekWire Gala on Dec. 4 at MOHAI.
App of the Week: Tiny Death Star for Android and iPhone, a recommendation from GeekWire’s Blair Hanley Frank.
Name that Tech Tune: Win tickets to the GeekWire Gala
