Seattle’s venture capital firms, startups, and tech leaders are gearing up for the inaugural Seattle Tech Week — a 4-day marathon scheduled from July 31 to Aug. 4 featuring everything from panel discussions to a boat cruise and even some pickleball.
The idea for Seattle Tech Week sprouted during a planning meeting at Madrona Venture Group, said Maria Gilfoyle, a Madrona investor. Madrona previously hosted a well-attended angel investor meetup earlier this year and noticed similar week-long events in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“The purpose is to bring together this thriving and vibrant Seattle tech ecosystem,” Gilfoyle said. “We want to create an environment for founders to easily mingle and connect. We also want to create a way for tech employees to have more exposure to the startup ecosystem.”
The events can also spotlight Seattle to “everyone in the broader tech landscape,” Gilfoyle said, noting that many out-of-town investors have visited Seattle this summer.
“There is interest from tech employees from across the U.S. that are coming to Seattle for this week of events,” she said.
AI is certainly a main theme of the week, with at least one AI-focused event each day:
- Supercharging Your Startup with AI, hosted by Trilogy Equity Partners principal Elisa La Cava. (July 31)
- AgTech: AI and Innovation Tech to Grow Better Crops, hosted by Pollen Systems CEO and founder Keith McCall. (Aug. 2)
- Cutting Through The Noise: Differentiation in AI Panel & Lunch, hosted by Symbl founder Surbhi Rathore, Flying Fish managing partner Geoff Harris, and Ascend VC founding partner Kirby Winfield. (Aug. 3)
- Health Tech AI Happy Hour, hosted by mpathic CEO and founder Grin Lord. (Aug. 3)
Seattle-based companies and venture firms are organizing, financing, and hosting events. Some are partnering with larger companies such as J.P. Morgan and Microsoft for sponsorship. No one is profiting from the event, Gilfoyle said.
Around 1,000 people have signed up to attend next week.
A number of Seattle venture firms, startups, tech companies, and banks are slated to host events next week: Ascend, Graham and Walker, Techstars, PSL, Fuse, Microsoft, Google, TF Labs, Startup Haven, Clean Energy Ventures, AI2, OctoML, Trilogy, and more.
