Does anyone want to move to Seattle? (Schlosser photo)

We’ve been talking a lot about the lack of investment dollars flowing to entrepreneurial ventures in the Seattle area. But let’s not forget all of the good stuff going on. A post today from Business Insider and a comment on GeekWire from Founder’s Co-op director Andy Sack brought that message home.

It has been a huge couple of weeks for Seattle, with Zillow’s blockbuster IPO and PopCap’s massive sale to EA for as much as $1.3 billion. Business Insider’s Matt Rosoff uses that as a springboard to tell more of the story here.

How did Rosoff come up with his list?

There’s no explanation given, but the journalist did identify some up-and-comers in the Seattle area (though a few on his list are certainly past the startup phase).

“The city is a tech hub — and the fastest-growing tech jobs market in the U.S. — but it’s still small and isolated enough to have a tight-knit and insular startup scene,” writes Rosoff.

So, without further ado, here’s who he picked and here’s his full report:

Cheezburger: The fast growing online comedy network has the same amount of Web traffic as The Wall Street Journal.

Zulily: While keeping a low profile, Zulily is growing like gangbusters with its daily deal service for kid’s clothing and toys.

Swype: The maker of a virtual keyboard for mobile devices that allows users to input text with the swipe of a finger rather than the traditional tap.

Groundspeak: One of the early pioneers in geocaching.

Redfin: Seattle is a hotbed for online real estate — as evidenced by Zillow’s IPO today. Redfin, an online real estate brokerage firm, could be the next big company to emerge in the space.

Decide.com: Developed by the folks who sold online travel startup Farecast to Microsoft, Decide is attempting to tell people when to buy consumer electronics.

Apptio: One of the few enterprise software companies in the bunch, Apptio is led by serial entrepreneur Sunny Gupta who makes no excuses about building the region’s next big software company.

Rand Fishkin

SEOmoz: Rand Fishkin’s SEOmoz is growing like mad, with plans to top $12 million in software revenue this year.

Big Fish Games: Bigger than PopCap in terms of revenue, the casual game maker is hardly a startup at this point. Could it follow up PopCap’s blockbuster sale?

WildTangent: Another more established player in Seattle’s gaming market, WildTangent operates an online ad network and gaming portal.

Impinj: The maker of RFID technologies plans to follow in Zillow’s wake as the next IPO from the Seattle tech community.

PayScale: The 75-person online salary comparison site just scored $7 million, bringing total funding to $32 million.

BuddyTV: Andy Liu’s startup was an early adopter of the social TV wave.

Giant Thinkwell: Celebrity-based gaming, with special appearances by Sir Mix-A-Lot.

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