Bezos to Amazon shareholders: It’s not only Day One, ‘the alarm clock hasn’t gone off yet’

Bezosamaonpod2

The official business at Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting at Seattle Center this morning was quick and to the point, as shareholders re-elected Amazon’s board and rejected a shareholder proposal asking for more transparency in the company’s “politically motivated spending.” Then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took to the podium for a broad overview of the company’s… Read More…

Xbox One: How Microsoft is trying to change the game

xbox

It was great that Microsoft included several former Xbox bigwigs — Robbie Bach, J Allard, and Ed Fries — in the opening video montage at the Xbox One unveiling today. Seeing them was a reminder of just how much has changed since the game-centric early days of Microsoft’s console business. In fact, the Xbox is… Read More…

These sensor-infused socks track your steps and ID injury-prone running styles

heapsylon.jpg

In the past few years, you’ve heard of smartphones, smart-watches and most recently, smart-glasses. Now, courtesy of a Redmond-based startup, we have yet another ordinary product attached to your body that’s becoming more intelligent: smart socks. Meet Heapsylon, a company founded two years ago by three Microsofties that is developing what is essentially a pedometer… Read More…

Images: Amazon.com wants to build a massive biosphere in Seattle (perfect for workers and mature trees)

amazon-hq-spherical

Amazon.com is charting a new course for one of its proposed downtown Seattle office buildings, unveiling new drawings this week which show a massive spherical greenhouse-like structure capable of housing multiple forms of plant life as well as mature trees. And, yes, of course, throngs of Amazon workers will be permitted too. The new proposal,… Read More…

5 things I learned while working on the original Xbox

xbox

[Editor's Note: With Microsoft preparing to unveil the third generation of the Xbox on Tuesday, we asked GeekWire Chairman Jonathan Sposato to share his lessons learned while working on the original Xbox games effort, in this installment of his Startup Jedi column.] Before Xbox was an entire division of hundreds, it started out as a… Read More…

You did what? Why we chose debt over venture capital

money-keithcooper

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… Read More…

Bootlegs 2.0: Lively app allows you to take concert memories home for $9.99

lively444444

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… Read More…

Q&A with Tableau CEO Christian Chabot: ‘We’ve been working our whole lives to become an overnight success’

Tableau-ipo1111

Seven years ago in small office space in the Fremont neighborhood, Tableau Software CEO Christian Chabot boldly told me that his 25-person enterprise software company would be the next billion dollar company from Seattle. ”We believe it, like we believe anything,” Chabot said at the time. Today, that belief finally became a reality as Tableau skyrocketed in… Read More…

When your startup feels less like a hockey stick and more like a hip check

hockey-check

We all love to talk about the “hockey stick” moment for a company, referring to the point when users and usage really starts to take off. It’s fun.  It’s exciting.  And  it’s so elusive we all want to dissect what the specific company actually did to achieve the stratospheric growth. But what about the hip check? What’s… Read More…

The next Xbox: Why this launch is so critical for Microsoft

xbox

Next Tuesday, May 21, is a Very Big Day for Microsoft. With the rest of the technology world watching, the company will take the stage at 10 a.m. Pacific time in Redmond to reveal the new generation of Xbox, whatever form (or name) it may take. This is the world into which this new Xbox… Read More…