Comments of the week: Will this phone really take off?

boeingphone

The best comments, quotes, and random zingers we heard this week… “Do you have to turn off *this* phone during takeoff and landing?” –GeekWire reader Lawrence Lam commenting on news that aerospace giant Boeing plans to develop a new phone based on the Android operating system. “I hope the phone takes off. Pun intended.”–GeekWire reader… Read More…

Redfin’s Glenn Kelman on why it’s OK for startup CEOs to be a little bit crazy

Glenn Kelman

Are entrepreneurs better off being a little crazy — guided by their emotions? Or should they stick to good-old fashioned number-crunching, letting rationality rule the roost? That’s the topic that Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman raises today in a fascinating blog post titled “Never tell me the odds.” The entire post is worth reading for any… Read More…

Redfin on the radio: Online real estate firm experiments with ‘old media’

Photo via Jamiecat

Redfin has built its online real estate service over the years largely through word-of-mouth referrals and a very active public relations effort, one which landed CEO Glenn Kelman on “60 Minutes” a few years ago. But things are changing at the Seattle online real estate company, which earlier this month started testing what newly-appointed marketing… Read More…

Redfin and Zillow look to give home shoppers an early foot in the door with price alerts

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Sometimes in the real estate business, if you snooze, you lose. Through a new service launched today called Instant Updates, Redfin wants to make sure its customers don’t miss out on the best deals, acting with authority when prices drop on homes or new listings come on to the market. Instant Updates essentially is an email… Read More…

New iPad: First impressions, and 5 locally grown apps to try

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We’ve been spending some quality time with a new iPad here today at GeekWire, focusing on the new and updated apps for the tablet’s high-definition retina display. It’s impressive, particularly when it comes to viewing high-resolution photos, but we’re not convinced that the display alone is enough to recommend buying one of the new iPads vs…. Read More…

Redfin unveils Home Price Tool, an alternative to the Zestimate

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Everyone wants to know what their home is worth, one of the reasons that Zillow’s Zestimate has helped establish the Seattle online real estate company as a go-to source for real estate information. Now, another Seattle online real estate company is jumping into the mix. Redfin today is rolling out a new service called Home… Read More…

Redfin rumbles in to Rocky’s hometown of Philadelphia

Can Philly reposition to become the champ of startups? Photo via Wikipedia

Redfin is expanding its real estate brokerage service into the Philadelphia area, marking the 19th major market for the Seattle company and the first new city in more than a year. Philadelphia is a big market for Redfin, but also a challenging one since the average home sells for just $182,000. That compares to San… Read More…

Here are 5 tech companies from Seattle that could take the IPO plunge in 2012

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The world may be waiting on a Facebook IPO. And while there’s some chatter about whether the $5 billion public offering from the social networking giant will open the floodgates for tech offerings, The Wall Street Journal today notes that it might be a new breed that actually woos Wall Street: enterprise IT companies. That’s… Read More…

Networking is a good thing to do, but not good enough

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In a GeekWire guest post last week, Bob Crimmins said I was “flat wrong” when I advised a group of would-be entrepreneurs to focus on their product and their customers, not conferences, parties, lunches, coffees or other networking events. Bob offered a delightful guide on how to network but still I question whether networking is more… Read More…

Redfin hires former REI marketing vet Tom Vogl: A ‘piranha with a heart’

Tom Vogl

Redfin spent more than a year trying to find the right person to lead the company’s marketing department. And the Seattle online real estate company believes that it has finally found its match in Tom Vogl, a former senior vice president of marketing at outdoor retailer REI. Vogl spent six years at REI, overseeing a team… Read More…