June 28, 2024
Controversial ‘Tesla tax’ bill targeting EV credits is zooming through Washington Legislature
April 25, 2025
The Tesla showroom at University Village in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) A late-breaking bill to create a new tax that would impact Tesla is speeding its way through the Washington state Legislature. Supporters say the measure would help close the state’s revenue shortfall and...
Microsoft rolls out Recall and other AI features to all Copilot+ PCs, nearly a year after unveiling
April 25, 2025
A Copilot+ PC display at the Microsoft Store at the company’s headquarters. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) After a series of delays, Microsoft is broadly releasing its flagship AI-powered features for Copilot+ PCs, aiming to deliver on a vision unveiled nearly a year ago. It’s part of a...
‘A real blow’: Washington state sales tax on tech and digital services rattles industry
April 25, 2025
The Washington state capitol in Olympia. (GeekWire File Photo / John Cook) A host of tech-related businesses will soon be subject to Washington’s retail sales tax under legislation approved by lawmakers on Thursday — and it’s sending shockwaves through the industry. Senate Bill 5814 updates...
Phoebe Gates launches e-commerce startup — here’s what her famous parents think
April 25, 2025
Phia compares the best fashion prices across the internet. (App Store Images) Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, is the co-founder of a new e-commerce shopping tool that launched this week — and the subject of a profile in The New York Times that details...
Seattle’s newest VC fund: Fortson raises $50M to invest in early stage software startups
April 25, 2025
From left: Cole Younger, founder & general partner at Fortson VC; Melissa Alexander, chief of staff; and Cade Younger, associate. (Fortson Photo) Seattle’s got a new venture fund. Fortson VC has raised $50 million to invest in early stage software startups in the Pacific Northwest and...
Tech Vets: Kevala CEO Todd Owens leads startup much like he navigated his role on Navy submarine
April 24, 2025
Todd Owens, left, with Naval Academy buddies on “Commissioning Day” in 1994, when they graduated and became commissioned officers. (Photo courtesy of Todd Owens) [Editor’s note: “Tech Vets: Profiles in Leadership and Innovation,” is a GeekWire series showcasing U.S. military veterans leading...
Tech Moves: F5 taps new CISO; Auger gets a chief AI scientist, WRF CEO retiring
April 24, 2025
Christopher Burger. (LinkedIn Photo) — Christopher Burger is now chief information security officer for F5, a Seattle-based networking and security giant. Burger will lead cybersecurity strategy, programs and governance. “F5 has been at the forefront of application delivery and security for...
Araceli Biosciences raises $11.2M for imaging and AI analysis systems to help speed drug discovery
April 24, 2025
Matt Beaudet, CEO of Araceli Biosciences. (LinkedIn Photo) Portland-based biotech company Araceli Biosciences raised $11.2 million in new funding to fuel the expansion of its high-content imaging technology and AI-powered analysis used to speed drug discovery. Araceli’s flagship platform is...
The ‘triangle’ model that Madrona’s Matt McIlwain uses to assess founders and startup pitches
April 24, 2025
Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain at the firm’s 30th anniversary celebration last month in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) It’s fascinating to learn how venture capitalists decide which startups to back. Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain shed light on his mental model for...
Nobel winner David Baker on moving from the ‘lunatic fringe’ to the protein design revolution
April 23, 2025
Nobel laureate David Baker, right, speaks with BioCentury’s Simone Fishburn at the Life Science Innovation Northwest conference in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) University of Washington biochemist David Baker is a hot ticket. Baker, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in October,...
Chainguard doesn’t have an office. Here’s how the $3.5B cybersecurity startup makes remote work.
April 23, 2025
Chainguard hosts two company-wide retreats per year, including this one in Nashville. (Chainguard Photo) Chainguard has more than 350 employees, just raised $356 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion — and has zero physical offices. The 4-year-old cybersecurity company is a...
Landmark women’s health study led by Fred Hutch is targeted for cancellation by feds
April 23, 2025
Fred Hutch Cancer Center campus in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Lisa Stiffler) The Trump administration is taking steps to cancel an historic women-focused health initiative that includes multiple institutions and is overseen by Seattle’s Fred Hutch Cancer Center. The Women’s Health Initiative...
Cybersecurity startup Chainguard lands $356M at $3.5B valuation, up from $1.1B a year ago
April 23, 2025
Chainguard founders, from top left, clockwise: CEO Dan Lorenc, CPO Kim Lewandowski, CTO Matt Moore, and distinguished engineer Ville Aikas. (Chainguard Photos) Follow-up: Chainguard doesn’t have an office. Here’s how the $3.5B cybersecurity startup makes remote work. Chainguard announced...
Solar power servicing company Omnidian raises $87M to spark growth
April 23, 2025
Solar panels. (American Public Power Association Photo used via Unsplash) Omnidian, a Seattle company that manages solar power performance and services the panels for commercial and residential installations, announced an $87 million investment today. The new funding will support three focus...
Khosla and Madrona back a Seattle startup reimagining internal help desk support
April 23, 2025
Ravenna co-founders Kevin Coleman (left) and Taylor Halliday. (Ravenna Photo) Seattle startup Ravenna has raised $15 million from top-tier venture capital firms and notable angel investors to streamline how companies handle internal help desk requests. Khosla Ventures,...
Meet your new AI teammate: Microsoft sees humans as ‘agent bosses,’ upending the workplace
April 23, 2025
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discusses the company’s Copilot initiatives at its 50th anniversary event in Redmond on April 4, 2025. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) If you’re still getting used to the idea of using AI chatbots at work, brace yourself — Microsoft says that’s just the beginning....
Plug and Play selects 10 startups for first accelerator program out of new Seattle location
April 22, 2025
Plug and Play first Seattle-area accelerator program will provide free office space for participating companies out of SNBL Global Gateway in Everett, Wash. (SNBL Photo) Plug and Play is off and running with the inaugural batch of startups selected for an accelerator program based out of the...
High-tech fridge startup Tomorrow shuts down, founder cites consumer hardware headwinds
April 22, 2025
Andrew Kinzer. (Tomorrow Photo) Tomorrow, a Seattle startup that aimed to build a high-tech refrigerator to extend the life of produce, is shutting down. In a LinkedIn post, Tomorrow founder Andrew Kinzer cited difficulties with consumer hardware in the current macroeconomic...
New leader at Washington State Academy of Sciences leverages experts to inform state officials
April 22, 2025
Melanie Roberts, executive director of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. (WSAS Photo) At the risk of sounding terribly reductionist, one could describe the Washington State Academy of Sciences as a super precise AI agent, ready to provide lawmakers and state officials with scientific...
Scientists process test images at Rubin Observatory in preparation for ‘First Look’
April 22, 2025
The Rubin Observatory’s LSST Camera is about the size of a small car. (Credit: Rubin Observatory / NOIRLab / SLAC / NSF / DOE / AURA / F. Munoz) The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has begun generating test images of the night sky, thanks to the Simonyi Survey Telescope and its giant camera...
Meet the ‘powerhouse’ who makes sure Washington’s tech sector keeps growing
April 22, 2025
Joseph Williams is being honored as this year’s Public Policy Champion for Innovation at the GeekWire Awards. (Washington Dept. of Commerce Photo) Joseph Williams is uniquely equipped to help guide and grow Washington’s tech industry. With a career that spans academia, corporate tech, and...
Proposed law to tax short-term rentals in Washington fails to advance after Airbnb pushback
April 22, 2025
A political committee backed by Airbnb mailed flyers to voters in Washington state about its opposition to a proposed tax on short-term rentals. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) A proposed tax on short-term rentals in Washington state that drew opposition from Airbnb did not move forward in the...
University of Washington students step into the ‘VC mindset’ — and compete on a global stage
April 21, 2025
From left: Ankit Anand, Nick Bedbury, Ilya Veil, Jaisav Bajoria, and Fargol Araghi. (Photo via UW) It’s not easy figuring out the ins and outs of venture capital without founding a startup or landing a gig inside an investment firm. That’s what makes a class at the University of Washington’s...
STEM Educator of the Year: This leader turned a lockdown into a launchpad for science education
April 21, 2025
Fatima Kamal, an education program supervisor at the Pacific Science Center, works on digital content. (PacSci Photo) The COVID pandemic in 2020 shuttered school classrooms and extracurricular activities, but kids’ brains were plenty active, leaving teachers and parents scrambling to find...
Companies can leverage the true value of meetings with AI by building an ‘LLM for Leadership’
April 20, 2025
Many companies invest heavily in leadership meetings but lack an effective system to capture, organize, and leverage the resulting insights and decisions. (BigStock Illustration) Are you getting more out of your meetings than ever before? You should be. Meetings remain an inevitable practice...
Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of April 13, 2025
April 20, 2025
Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of April 13, 2025. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on...
Put down the phone: Don’t let tech prevent your present moment
April 19, 2025
A fan uses a smartphone to capture video of Seattle band Deep Sea Diver during a recent show at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Earlier this year I saw an amazing flamenco show in southern Spain. The memory is still vivid. I can hear the sharp staccato of tap...
Platforms, AI, and the future of software teams: Are we seeing a new era of human creativity?
April 19, 2025
Marcus Fontoura, Microsoft technical fellow and CTO for Azure Core, with his new book, A Platform Mindset, during a recent conversation at the company’s Redmond campus. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) This week on the GeekWire Podcast, our guest is Marcus Fontoura, technical fellow at Microsoft...
Column: Bezos lost in PR space as Blue Origin’s all-female launch backfires
April 18, 2025
Billionaire Jeff Bezos takes questions in front of Blue Origin’s mock-up for the New Shepard spaceship’s crew capsule in 2017. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Aaron Cohen, a longtime PR and brand executive. Cohen originally wrote about this topic...
Interlune wins $4.8M grant for Texas center focusing on simulated moon dirt
April 18, 2025
An artist’s conception shows Interlune’s robotic regolith harvester on the moon. (Interlune Illustration) Seattle-based Interlune has won a grant of up to $4.84 million from the Texas Space Commission to open a center of excellence at NASA’s Johnson Space Center that would focus on simulated...
Startup radar: Early stage companies use AI to boost coaching, data analysis, healthcare, and more
April 18, 2025
From top left, clockwise: Trellis Health CEO Estelle Giraud, SelfFull CEO Anya Smith; Eve Wealth CEO Sadie Raney; Tursio CEO Alekh Jindal; and Omnivista CEO Anand Tyagi. From AI to crypto, to voice agents and pregnancy apps — our latest startup radar features another intriguing batch of early...
Seattle hardware startup Mason navigates tariff uncertainty with ‘elastic’ supply chain strategy
April 17, 2025
Mason CEO Jim XIao. (LinkedIn Photo) Seattle startup Mason is seeing impacts from the tariff chaos on multiple levels. The company, which sells customized mobile devices for businesses with frontline workers, is one of many hardware makers rethinking their overseas manufacturing...
Tech Moves: Smartsheet names chief product officer; Meta vet joins Tech Alliance; and more
April 17, 2025
Pratima Arora. (Smartsheet Photo) — Pratima Arora has been named chief product officer at Smartsheet, a new senior executive role at the Bellevue, Wash.-based enterprise software giant. A longtime product and technology leader, Arora will be responsible for Smartsheet’s product management,...
From earthworms to heat shields: Trailblazing STEM educator teaches outside the textbook
April 17, 2025
Science teacher Scott McComb with students at Raisbeck Aviation High School. (Raisbeck Aviation Photo) Of all their inquiries, there’s one question the students at Raisbeck Aviation High School never ask science teacher Scott McComb. And that is, “When am I going to use this in real...
Analysis: Seattle crosswalk hack more mischievous than malicious — but not entirely harmless
April 17, 2025
An audio-enabled crosswalk button in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood was altered to sound like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) The audio enhancement feature at public crosswalks is normally meant to assist the visually impaired by providing notifications to...
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