GeekWire 200 May Update: Zulily, CreativeLive and Duxter make a move

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It’s a big day for the Seattle startup community, with Mayor McGinn this morning announcing a new initiative to support startup entrepreneurs, and our very own GeekWire Awards tonight recognizing the region’s top companies, most innovative technologies and hardest-working geeks. We’ve also just released the latest update to the GeekWire 200, our monthly index tracking the Seattle… Read More…

Seattle launches new initiative to support entrepreneurs, hoping to build a startup kingdom

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You wouldn’t know it judging by the spoonfuls of hot chili that Mayor Mike McGinn is wolfing down, but it’s a picture-perfect and rather warm May afternoon in the Emerald City. As we chat about how Seattle can become a global startup hub, McGinn looks outside his vast seventh floor City Hall office window to… Read More…

Startup Spotlight: Socedo dives into social media to help you find sales leads

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Socedo co-founder Aseem Badshah came up with the idea for his startup after helping big brands like Microsoft and Guess boost their presence on Twitter and Facebook. Badshah realized that businesses were doing a good job of broadcasting their messages and responding to customer inquiries, but not taking advantage of driving new sales leads via… Read More…

Startup vets Ethan Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg are cooking up new connected devices

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Ethan Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg are software guys. Lowry is best known as one of the co-creators of the wildly popular Urbanspoon mobile app, while Heitzeberg worked at companies such as SnapVine, MediaPiston and Whitepages. But the well-known coders and entrepreneurs are spending their free time kicking around ideas in an entirely new realm …… Read More…

Hackathons at startups: Creative ‘fresh air’

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Every now and again, we hear about hackathons: Startup Weekend, Facebook’s famed all-nighters, Hack Week at Dropbox. However, in a startup, it’s so difficult to imagine how organizing a hackathon can be anything but harmful: “What do you mean, take a couple work days and drop what we’re doing? We’re in a race with competitors!… Read More…

Tech Moves: Amazon vet joins Relaborate; MG Siegler leaves CrunchFund; Jawfish; and more

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Last week, we noted how difficult it is for startup companies to compete against Amazon.com and other tech giants in the region for software engineers. Well, here’s a counterexample. Relaborate, a new technology  startup, just tapped software developer Grant Gavares as chief technology officer. Gavares most recently spent three years at Apptio, and before that… Read More…

Panna brings celeb chefs into home kitchens with digital tutorials, raises $1.35M

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From cooking shows to cooking competitions, it’s no secret we like watching chefs at work — it’s nearly as exciting as the dish itself. Maybe it’s something about the live action of it all, a sort of performance art of ladles and cast iron. Maybe we just like to feel like there’s visual evidence the… Read More…

Should you avoid raising startup capital early on? 10 founders weigh in

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There’s more than one school of thought about startup financing. After all, there are some very successful companies that have managed just fine without VC money, often on purpose. But as one entrepreneur we polled puts it below, if you really want to see your startup grow and thrive, then the question might be quite… Read More…

A giant sucking sound: Seattle startup CEOs say Amazon is sucking up all of the tech talent in the city

A sign outside Amazon's HQ in Seattle shows the company's amazing appetite for new hires. Photo: Matt Shobe

It’s tough enough to do a startup, let alone when you’re competing for talent against a juggernaut like Amazon.com. I’ve heard that a lot in recent weeks, especially as the Seattle online powerhouse continues to gobble up engineers, developers and executives from the startup ranks (most recently Charlie Kindel, and before that entire teams of… Read More…

Startup Spotlight: Tohula helps families connect with nature (and earn rewards)

The Tohula founders on a brainstorming session in the outdoors.

It’s going to be a gorgeous weekend in Seattle, and I’m already planning to get the family outdoors to enjoy some much-needed sunshine. (Mountain Loop Highway or Chuckanut Drive is the question?) With Tohula, a new Redmond startup led by nature lovers, tech geeks and Founder Institute grads Sebastien Fouillade and Matthieu Lefort, I could chronicle my experiences… Read More…