There’s nothing quite like a comeback story. And there’s perhaps no better example of one in Seattle’s tech industry than that of Isilon Systems. Co-founder Sujal Patel retold that tale today at the WTIA’s TechNW event, reliving how the online storage company emerged from a near death experience to be sold to EMC for $2.25 billion last year.
But it was his parting comments, envisioning the future of the Seattle tech region in 2024, that really caught my attention. (Probably, in part, because I will be moderating a panel later today on this very topic).
In some respects, Patel called on the region’s entrepreneurs, service providers and “large anchor tenants” like Microsoft to embrace a new Seattle tech landscape.
“We have the opportunity to take this next wave of disruption and innovation that is going to go on, and capture it and make it a Seattle thing,” said Patel, citing the role of the University of Washington, Microsoft, Amazon, TechStars, the venture capital community and the many service providers. “All of the things that we need … are represented in the room here.”
“That future is ours to lose,” Patel continued. “We can make this region as good as any region, and second only to Silicon Valley in terms of startups and innovation, and really when you think about all the problems we have in this country today, innovation is the way we are going to get out of it.
Here’s the video of Patel’s remarks:
