Zulily’s Darrell Cavens on developing a clear focus

Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens at GeekWire's Startup Day in September.

Darrell Cavens is the CEO of Zulily, the Seattle-based daily deals site for moms, but his history in the online business goes much further back, as an executive at online diamond retailer Blue Nile and before that at Starwave, working on properties such as ESPN.com and ABCNews.com. At the recent Seattle 2.0 Startup Day, presented by… Read More…

Haiku Deck’s Adam Tratt: ‘Startup storytelling for the win’

adamtratt

Tech industry veteran Adam Tratt has told a story or two in his day, but more than that, he has experienced first-hand the value of “entrepreneurial storytelling” — the ability for startup founders to convey their vision in a compelling way, creating inspiration out of thin air. Tratt and the team at Seattle startup Giant… Read More…

Bootstrapping a startup: Less cash, more cowbell

stevemurch1x

Steve Murch knows a thing or two about building a startup without taking outside funding, as the founder and CEO of bootstrapped startup BigOven, a mobile grocery and recipe service with more than 7 million downloads and 1.6 million registered users. A veteran of companies including VacationSpot, Escapia and Expedia, and a student of a certain “Saturday… Read More…

Co-founding a startup: The good, the bad, the ugly

simplymeasured

What are the secrets to success and pitfalls to avoid when putting together a startup’s founding team? One of the most candid and insightful talks at the recent Seattle 2.0 Startup Day addressed that topic with an unvarnished look at the early days of the Seattle startup known today as Simply Measured. Aviel Ginzburg and… Read More…

Wireless vet Mary Jesse: ‘Concentrate on company culture from the beginning’

Mary Jesse

Mary Jesse, the founder and CEO of group messaging startup Ivy Corp., is an electrical engineer and veteran startup leader who was instrumental in developing and deploying the first large scale wireless data systems in the U.S. A veteran of McCaw Cellular, she was inspired by the way the wireless pioneer fostered a sense of… Read More…

Jonathan Sposato: ‘Everything I need to know about design I learned in a hotel’

jonspo2

Jonathan Sposato is a serial entrepreneur, the former CEO of photo editing site Picnik and the only person to have sold two startups to Google. And if you’ve ever worked with Jonathan, as we do in his role as GeekWire chairman, you know that he has deep insights into the world of design. He talked… Read More…

Decide CEO Mike Fridgen: ‘Branding, startup style’

Mike Fridgen, CEO of Decide.com

Mike Fridgen has learned a few things about branding in his life as a serial entrepreneur. The CEO of Decide.com was co-founder and CEO of TripHub before going on to work for companies including Farecast and Microsoft. He shared some of his branding lessons learned at Seattle 2.0 Startup Day, presented by GeekWire this past weekend…. Read More…

Brenda Spoonemore: ‘A biz dev playbook for startups’

Brenda Spoonemore talks to the Startup Day audience about business development.

Brenda Spoonemore is a serial entrepreneur, currently co-founder and CEO at vacation rentals and reviews startup Dwellable, but her experience includes a role as senior vice president of interactive services for the NBA, overseeing the league’s digital business, operations, licensing and strategy. In other words, she has been immersed in business development and partnerships on… Read More…

Jordan Weisman: ‘Warning: Startups may be dangerous to your health (and ego)’

jordanweisman

Jordan Weisman is a veteran game designer who made headlines this year for an epic Kickstarter campaign, raising $1.8 million for Shadowrun Returns, a revival of the franchise from his current company, Harebrained Schemes. The serial entrepreneur is known for startups including FASA, Virtual World Entertainment, Wizkids, 42 Entertainment, and Smith & Tinker. Weisman shared… Read More…

Box CEO Aaron Levie: The full Startup Day interview

aaronlevie

We had a great time talking with Aaron Levie, the CEO of Box, during the closing keynote at Startup Day this past weekend. The 27-year-old entrepreneur from Mercer Island talked about a range of topics — including his daily schedule, raising money and competing with Microsoft — but the conversation focused heavily on the opportunities for startups… Read More…