Nike Accelerator Spotlight: GeoPalz motivates kids to exercise with reward system

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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. Check out past Spotlights below.  As technology becomes more prevalent in today’s world, seeing… Read More…

Exo Labs crowdfunding iPad-enabled microscope cameras for schools

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Exo Labs, the Seattle startup that developed a microscope camera that can link to your iPad, now wants to put its product in the hands of students and teachers at no cost to them. The company is close to hitting its Kickstarter funding goal and once reached, Exo Labs plans to give 40 cameras to teachers and… Read More…

Mobisante raises $4.2M for smartphone-based ultrasound imaging system

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Mobisante, the Redmond-based company that makes ultrasound technology viewable on a smartphone or tablet, just pulled in $4.2 million in fresh funding to continue providing customers with a low-cost alternative to other expensive high-end portable ultrasound systems. Founded in 2009 by Sailesh Chutani — a former Microsoft mobile exec — and David Zar — a researcher at Washington… Read More…

10 startuppers are coming to Seattle to party in this sweet mansion (and maybe build their businesses too)

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Now, all they need is a reality film crew. Ten startup entrepreneurs are coming to Seattle from around the world to set up camp in an awesome 6,000-square-foot mansion in the tony Clyde Hill area, just a few minutes from Bill Gates’ massive home in the suburb of Medina. Call it the Real World: Startup… Read More…

Nike Accelerator Spotlight: Nextstep.io teaches you about yourself with exercise data

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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. Check out past Spotlights below.  There are countless fitness activity trackers available… Read More…

Q&A: Photo sharing upstart Linea raises $4 million to fix ‘broken photo libraries’

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It’s 2013 — nearly 10 years after the founding of Flickr and more than a year after Facebook bought Instagram — and yet we still can’t seem to find the perfect way to store and share photos. Well, here comes Linea, a new Seattle startup that just scored $4 million in angel financing from undisclosed… Read More…

Dreading your next layover? This startup wants to make waiting for flights fun

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If you’ve flown for business, odds are you’ve had a frustratingly long layover before. Trying to kill five or six hours in an airport sitting in uncomfortable seats and eating mediocre, yet overpriced food, is a hassle. Seattle-based Smart Layover hopes to change that with a new cross-platform mobile app for iOS, Android and Blackberry…. Read More…

Stop being a founder, and start being a CEO

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A lot of founders don’t make it as a CEO. Not that they can’t, but they don’t. None more glorious that Andrew Mason and his middle finger salute to the capital markets. “Just kidding – I was fired today.” ~ Andrew Mason (Former CEO of Groupon) So why don’t they make it? Well, it’s complicated…. Read More…

Ex-Microsoft VP emerges with stealth startup Highspot

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Robert Wahbe, who spent 16 years at Microsoft as corporate vice president of product management in the Server and Tools Division, has emerged at the helm of a stealthy Seattle startup by the name of of Highspot. We discovered the startup in a SEC filing this morning, which indicated that the company has raised $2.25… Read More…

Automating the acquihire: ExitRound plays matchmaker for startups with nowhere else to turn

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It’s the hard truth of startups. Most new companies never make it. Jacob Mullins has seen this reality play out hundreds of times as a former venture capitalist who previously led marketing efforts for Microsoft’s BizSpark program and served as director of business development at VentureBeat. In those roles, he’s encountered plenty of startups that… Read More…

Meet the 11 startup grads from the Portland Seed Fund

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Portland is certainly growing as a startup city, and now there’s a new batch of companies ready to make their mark in the Rose City. The two-year-old Portland Seed Fund just graduated its fourth class of early-stage companies. The incubator, a unique public-private partnership supported by various government agencies and organizations, gave the startups $25,000 in capital to get their… Read More…

The VC drain: Yes, we’re a big importer of capital too

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At the Technology Alliance annual luncheon this week in downtown Seattle, industry leaders lamented the sad state of the educational system. Zillow co-founder Rich Barton and Apex Learning CEO Cheryl Vedoe spoke in detail about how Washington state isn’t doing a good job of educating our own students, relying on “imported” talent to fuel the innovation… Read More…

WhitePages rings up acquisition, buys call and text blocking app Mr. Number

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WhitePages has acquired Mr. Number, a popular Android app that allows users to easily block spam calls and text messages. “We’ve watched Mr. Number develop their platform into the leading call blocking and spam identification offering on the market, continuing to address a growing consumer need to both identify and avoid unwanted calls and texts,”… Read More…

Slick video shows why Portland is an awesome city for tech startups

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When we sat down with Elemental CEO Sam Blackman earlier this month, the GeekWire Startup CEO of the Year wasn’t shy about his thoughts on Portland being the hottest startup spot in the country. “In my opinion, if you are a software engineer graduating from college right now, there is no better city you can move to than Portland,” said Blackman, who… Read More…

SEOmoz changes name to Moz, unveils new analytics software

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For nearly a decade, Rand Fishkin’s Seattle startup has been directly associated with search engine optimization, so much so that SEO was embedded right in the company’s name: SEOmoz. But things are evolving and changing in the SEO business, and at SEOmoz. Today, the company is dropping SEO from its name, adopting the new moniker… Read More…

Nike Accelerator Spotlight: Chroma.io rewards exercise with customizable fighting robots

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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.  There are a lot of startups out there that reward exercise with… Read More…

Bang With Friends: Behind the scenes (and under the covers) with this controversial app

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There are several ways to get reassurance and peace-of-mind for a great startup idea: tons of traffic or a nice round of funding are just a couple examples. But for Colin Hodge and Omri Mor, founders of the creative-yet-controversial app Bang With Friends (BWF), it came in the form of a big smile after a night… Read More…

12 ways to get and keep top talent, even on a bootstrapper’s budget

Is Amazon about to step on REI and others? Photo: Alan Cleaver

Most startup founders don’t mind putting off their payday indefinitely — they’re in it for the long haul by nature, and tightening their belts is par for the course. But bootstrapping presents a special challenge when it’s time to start scaling up and hiring: Without killer talent, your startup might fail. But just because you’re… Read More…

Fast-growing Solavei scores fresh cash, aims to top $100M in revenue

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Solavei, which rewards customers for signing up friends, family and co-workers for its wireless service, has scored $2 million in fresh funding from boutique investment banking firm Clark Dodge & Company, GeekWire has learned. The cash is part of a larger financing round that is expected to close in the coming months, and it brings total funding… Read More…

Dave McClure’s 500 Startups backs online presentation upstart 9Slides

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9Slides, the maker of online presentation software that syncs video with slides, has raised capital from Dave McClure’s 500 Startups as well as angel investors such as Terrapass co-founder Karl Ulrich and Tom Miner. 9Slides rolled out its iPad app in February, competing alongside fellow Seattle area startup Haiku Deck. The company’s other backers include Rudy… Read More…