GeekWire

It doesn't always come naturally to us, as cynical reporters, but every Thanksgiving week on the GeekWire Podcast, it's our tradition to take a step back and take stock of the positive things in technology, business, and science. This year's installment offers several reminders of the technologies that we might take for granted, gradual advancements that we incorporate into our lives over time, to the point that we suddenly can't remember what we did without them: automated scoring for sports pools among friends; remote printing over the internet; natural language processing; language translation; mobile ticketing; and drone photography; to name a few. We hear from several readers and listeners about what they're grateful for right now, including robotic process automation, continued advocacy for diversity in tech, and support networks for startup founders. In a contrarian twist this year, GeekWire's John Cook also talks about some of the silver linings in these cloudy economic times, including a return to more realistic (and potentially realizable) valuations for tech startups. We're also seeing a silver lining in the job market right now, as layoffs open up the market for hiring by smaller companies. And in an even more contrarian view, John shares why he's thankful for ... Elon Musk! Be sure to listen to his reasoning before getting out your pitchforks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon became the latest tech giant to make layoffs in its corporate workforce this week in the face of the economic downturn, but the manner in which the plan unfolded left some employees scratching their heads, at best. Foreshadowed in a Nov. 10 Wall Street Journal report foreshadowing cutbacks in Amazon's devices division, the scope became clear with a New York Times report Nov. 14, saying that the company planned to lay off about 10,000 corporate and tech workers. But that number was an approximation, not a precise count or a specific target, because Amazon is leaving the decisions to leaders in its divisions. It also took couple days for Amazon to officially acknowledge the layoffs, with a memo from Devices and Services chief Dave Limp, and later from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, explaining that the job cuts could extend into next year. The reaction was a mix of frustration, fear, uncertainty, and also acceptance, as GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser discovered when he visited the Amazon campus in Seattle this week. Kurt joins us to share what he saw and heard. Also this week: the impact of the downturn on high-tech real estate brokerage Redfin, and our thoughts on a potential collaboration between Jeff Bezos and Jay-Z. Share your perspective for next week's show: What are you thankful for in tech? Is there a technology that has changed your life, your job, or your company for the better this year? Or a trend in the economy or the industry that you're especially grateful to see? Send a message or a voice memo with your thoughts to [email protected] for a chance to be included in next week's episode. With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The year was 2011, Facebook was serving a mere 600 million users, and Mark Zuckerberg was making his pitch to a crowd of prospective hires inside the company's office near Pike Place Market — explaining why the social network had chosen Seattle for its first remote engineering hub. "We were like, alright, at some point, we should probably think about opening up offices in other places," he said. "And we figured that Seattle would be a good starting place, because it's culturally pretty similar to the Bay Area, pretty close by. ... It's the same time zone. So it's easier to schedule time to hang out and talk with folks." Originally an experiment, it quickly became much more than that. "We've been totally overwhelmed with awesome folks we've had the opportunity to talk to, from Microsoft, Amazon, Google, different startups here," he said. "And it's just really impressive. It has definitely blown away our expectations for how quickly we were going to be able to find good people." The trend only continued from there. In the decade that followed, Facebook grew to more than 8,000 people across numerous offices in the Seattle area, as the company grew to reach nearly 3 billion users across the globe, and dramatically expanded its footprint under the Meta umbrella ... until this week. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss Zuckerberg's decision to cut 11,000 jobs, or 13% of Meta's workforce; examine the company's growth in the Seattle region as an emblem of Silicon Valley's global ambitions; and consider the new realities of popular tech business models in the face of the economic downturn. With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon has grown dramatically over the past decade, surpassing 1.5 million employees and extending its reach into nearly every corner of commerce and society. But now, the turbulent economy is forcing the tech giant to make a series of difficult decisions, cutting back in many areas while making strategic bets in others. It’s far from alone in facing these decisions. However, with its reach across e-commerce, physical retail, cloud computing, robotics, AI, transportation, logistics, and many other areas, Amazon is a microcosm of the larger economy. That makes it worth examining not just for its own future but for the broader implications. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we take a closer look at the forces influencing Amazon’s business, and how the company is responding. See this GeekWire post for more information and related links. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fully autonomous vehicles are closer to commonplace than you might expect, as cars and big rigs gain the ability to operate safely on our streets and highways. As one of the pioneers in the field, Chris Urmson has been there from the beginning, competing in the landmark DARPA Grand Challenge before going on to lead Google’s self-driving car initiative. Now he’s following through on the vision as the CEO of Aurora, which is developing self-driving technology for use by a variety of car and truck makers. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we're playing highlights from our conversation with Urmson at the recent GeekWire Summit. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can the online world move from the digital equivalent of medieval times to a new era of civilization?That was the question on Charlie Bell’s mind when the veteran engineering leader decided to leave Amazon after more than 23 years and join Microsoft to lead its $15 billion cybersecurity business, taking on what he described as “one of the greatest challenges of our time.” More than a year into that quest, Bell joined us recently at the GeekWire Summit for a status report — sharing insights on the state of digital security, and the potential for progress in the years ahead. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we're featuring highlights from Bell's conversation on stage with GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Special Coverage: GeekWire Summit 2022. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we hear the pitches made by four startup CEOs in the 32 seconds it takes to get to the top of Seattle's historic Smith Tower, on their way to winning their respective episodes on this season of GeekWire's Elevator Pitch series. It's a preview of the upcoming season finale, in which each of the four will make a final pitch at the GeekWire Summit next week, live on stage. Episode 1 winner: Amina Moreau, CEO of Radious, an online marketplace that turns houses, apartments and other residential properties into workspaces, rentable by the day. Episode 2 winner: Devin Miller, co-founder and CEO of SecureSave, a purpose built emergency savings solution designed to help people feel and be financially secure. Episode 3 winner: Erin Quick, co-founder and CEO of PairTree, a service that provides tools, resources and support to navigate and simplify the process of adoption. Episode 4 winner: Katherine Sizov, CEO & co-founder of Strella Biotechnology, creators of sensing technology that predicts the ripeness of produce. More: GeekWire Elevator Pitch Season 3, and the GeekWire Summit, Oct. 6-7.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hybrid work is here to stay, but some big changes are needed to make it work. That was the message from Microsoft this week as the tech giant presented the results of a new study showing a disconnect in the perceptions of productivity between workers and leaders at companies around the world. Meanwhile, the number of meetings for many workers has soared since the beginning of the pandemic, in what appears to be the new normal at many companies. But there has also been a significant rise in multi-tasking during those meetings, as distractions threaten to undermine communication and productivity. That's our first topic on the GeekWire Podcast this week, as we go over some of the takeaways from Microsoft's study and preview the upcoming GeekWire Summit, where the future of work will be a recurring theme. Then we turn to the next generation of smartphones, and to the next generation of smartphone users. John Cook provides an update on his efforts to ensure that his 12-year-old adopts his first smartphone in a healthy and sustainable way, and offers Todd Bishop some tips for a parallel situation in my own household. Finally, we talk about John's initial experience with the iPhone 14, his first new smartphone in several years, and spend a little time doing some remedial tech support in the process. Edited and produced by Curt MiltonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Business, government and environmental leaders from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia met at the U.S.-Canada border this week to discuss the next steps in the quest to become the world's first sustainable mega-region. The Cascadia 2050 Vision conference was led by former Washington state governor Chris Gregoire, the CEO of Challenge Seattle and the co-chair of the steering committee for the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, a cross-border initiative that brings together leaders from Washington state, Oregon and British Columbia. Gregoire joins us on this episode to discuss the key innovations and funding initiatives that make her optimistic about the prospects for achieving long-term climate goals. Boston Consulting Group report: How the Cascadia Innovation Corridor can serve as a global model for sustainable growth Cascadia Daily News: Cascadia 2050 Vision conference brings together international leaders Bill Gates encouraged by U.S. climate initiatives as ‘mega-region’ grapples with long-term challenges Microsoft’s outgoing environmental chief reflects on bold actions and navigating ‘hiccups’ Hosted by GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop; edited and produced by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week is Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor who specializes in areas including privacy, artificial intelligence and robots. He's one of the organizers of We Robot, an annual conference where scholars and practitioners discuss legal and policy questions relating to robots and artificial intelligence. It's taking place this year at the University of Washington from Sept. 14-16. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are now decades into the digital revolution, so why haven't high-tech audio streams caught up to old-fashioned radio waves? That was my question on last week's GeekWire Podcast, after conducting an experiment inspired by the tradition of tuning into the play-by-play announcers while watching a baseball game in the stands. During a Seattle Mariners game at T-Mobile Park, I found that the audio streams from various smartphone apps, were at least 30 seconds behind the action on the field, and sometimes even further behind. That compared to a lag of just a few seconds when listening on a $22, battery-powered AM transistor radio. I offered my theories about the reasons for this, and heard from a bunch of people who listened to the podcast or read the article last week. One was streaming media veteran Rob Green, who was group manager of Microsoft's Digital Media Division from 1998 to 2006, a pivotal era for the industry. He went on to lead a variety of tech and digital media startups, including a past role as CEO of Seattle-based Abacast, which streamed broadcast radio stations online. Green is a longtime GeekWire reader who emailed me after last week's post: "Simply put, streaming requires buffers to work correctly, hence the delay you experienced," he wrote. "Broadcast expects a perfect network, and streaming expects an imperfect network, and they are respectively architected accordingly." I jumped on the line with him to learn more, and you can hear his comments on this week's episode, along with an explanation from Major League Baseball, and a fun story about the early days of live-streaming baseball games from Seattle tech veteran Daryn Nakhuda.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, recorded on location at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, we pit old-fashioned terrestrial radio against a newfangled digital audio stream for play-by-play in the stands. Then, we debate pros and cons of baseball analytics and robot umpires. And finally, we experience the highs and lows of Amazon's latest retail technology at the tech giant's hometown stadium.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon is one of the most extraordinary business stories of our time. Many people in the tech industry have a general understanding of this story, picking up bits and pieces of its lore and culture over the years. But what are the real reasons for Amazon's success? What can today's startup entrepreneurs learn from what Jeff Bezos did? And where is the company headed next? Two investors spent the better part of two months researching Amazon in their spare time to answer questions like those, and they just shared what they learned. Ben Gilbert, managing director at Seattle-based Pioneer Square Labs, and David Rosenthal, a San Francisco-based angel investor, this week released an episode of their podcast, Acquired, that spans nearly 4-and-a-half hours, providing a deeper understanding of Amazon and new insights into how the company works. Gilbert joins us on this week's episode of the GeekWire Podcast to discuss some of the key takeaways and highlights from their Amazon deep dive. With Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited and produced by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle investor and business leader Tom Alberg, who died last week at the age of 82, was a key figure in the e-commerce and wireless industries, and in the Seattle startup community, through his roles as an early Amazon investor and longtime board member, executive at McCaw Cellular, and co-founder of Madrona Venture group. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, Todd Bishop and John Cook share their own insights from Alberg's life. See our earlier coverage for more on Alberg’s legacy; read tributes from his friends and colleagues; and see Madrona’s LinkedIn post for more remembrances from those who worked with and knew Alberg during his life and career.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we play highlights and share takeaways from the recent earnings calls of Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet, seeking a clearer understanding of what's next for the tech economy. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook; audio editing and production by Curt Milton. Related headlines and links: Microsoft earnings come up short, hit by global economic trends and cutbacks Amazon stock rises 10% as tech giant beats revenue expectations amid ‘inflationary pressures’ CNBC: Alphabet misses on earnings and revenue for second quarter The Verge: Facebook reports drop in revenue for the first time Marketwatch: Apple raises $5.5 billion in debt after upbeat earnings, iPhone sales offset fears of a consumer pullback See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tributes and memories have been pouring in from longtime friends and colleagues of Cranium creator Richard Tait since the Seattle entrepreneur's death on July 25 the age of 58 from complications due to COVID-19. A passionate and visionary entrepreneur known for being tough, Tait had a generous spirit, effusive personality, and rare ability to connect with people he encountered. This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we're listening back to a conversation that Tait recorded with Fuel Talent CEO and founder Shauna Swerland in 2018 for her podcast, What Fuels You. It's inspiring, insightful, and bittersweet, and we're grateful to Shauna for allowing us to share it with you here. Read our earlier coverage for more on Tait's life and career, and memories from friends and colleagues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon's head of global corporate affairs, Jay Carney, the former White House press secretary under President Obama, made some news of his own this week, announcing that he's leaving the Seattle-based tech giant after more than seven years to join Airbnb. This week on the GeekWire Podcast, in light of the news, we're listening back to highlights from our 2019 interview with Carney at the GeekWire Summit. RELATED COVERAGE: Jay Carney checks out of Amazon, lands at Airbnb: Inside ex-White House press secretary’s tech careerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do people on your team multitask in meetings, or focus intently on the person speaking? The answer to that question will help to how much your organization prioritizes attention, which is one of the "7 Forms of Respect" in the framework and book of that name by Julie Pham. Don't worry, this isn't about setting rules. Pham is not giving advice on having laptops open or closed in meetings, for example. Instead, she's providing a way to establish and communicate the priorities of different people, teams, and companies — defining organizational culture not by abstract concepts but by desired behaviors. That insight is key to understanding and benefiting from the new book by Pham, a Seattle-based entrepreneur, marketer, consultant, journalist, historian, and former non-profit executive. It's called 7 Forms of Respect: A Guide to Transforming Your Communication and Relationships at Work. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, Pham discusses the practical applications and benefits of the "7 Forms of Respect" with GeekWire co-founder John Cook. Audio editing and production by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Astro is our first consumer robot. It’s not going to be our last.” Ken Washington, the executive in charge of Amazon’s first home robot, speaks confidently about the future despite mixed reviews and early skepticism about Astro’s usefulness. A nuclear engineer by training, Washington was chief technology officer at Ford Motor Co., overseeing initiatives including autonomous vehicles, before joining Amazon as VP of consumer robotics last year. He sat down with us at Amazon re:MARS in Las Vegas.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microsoft President Brad Smith, like many in tech and the broader world, hoped 2022 might bring a bit of a break in the onslaught of national and global challenges. Halfway through, the reality has been anything but. "This has been another year where, to use an old phrase, we have to borrow from our sleep in order to get everything done," the Microsoft president said in an interview this week in his office in Redmond. "I don't think any of us thought, when the year began, that we'd find a major war in Europe." But helping to defend Ukraine in the Russian cyberwar is just one issue on Microsoft's radar. In the first six months of the year, the company has made a series of moves driven by the turbulent economy, new state and national legislation, growing pressure from employees and investors, a shifting labor market, regulatory challenges, and a pending acquisition that would be the largest in its history. Microsoft boosted employee compensation, significantly reduced its use of non-compete agreements, and announced plans to publicly disclose salary ranges in job posts nationally starting next year. The company commissioned an outside review of its sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies and practices, and announced plans for a civil rights audit, joining a larger industry movement. It also removed confidentiality clauses from agreements involving internal allegations of misconduct. Microsoft pledged a new approach to the prospect of labor unions in its current and future workforce, seeking in part to appease regulators weighing the company's proposed $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. The company has continued to press ahead on its climate initiatives in the midst of all of this, attempting to navigate the challenge of higher energy prices while focusing on the environmental crisis. And then there's the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. That's where we started our wide-ranging conversation with Smith this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, recorded on location at Amazon re:MARS in Las Vegas, we sit down with Tye Brady, Amazon Robotics chief technologist, to talk about the company's new warehouse robots. Then we jump on the line to reconnect with recent GeekWire Podcast guest Philip Su, a former Microsoft and Facebook software engineering leader who worked the peak season last year inside an Amazon warehouse, to get his take after he watched the keynote. Hear more about Philip Su's experience in his 15-episode podcast series, Peak Salvation, and in our prior GeekWire Podcast conversation, published June 11. Watch Amazon Robotics chief technologist Ty Brady's re:MARS keynote here, and see our earlier coverage of Amazon's new robots, including videos of them in action. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In many ways, Jeff Bezos would seem to have it all. But when is enough enough? In the new book, "Career Self-Care: Find Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work," Inc. magazine columnist and Seattle-area author Minda Zetlin points to the Amazon founder's push for financial incentives in the company's search for a second headquarters as a prime example of "the dirty little secret about success." After Amazon's choice of Queens, N.Y., backfired due to objections over financial incentives, a report by Bloomberg News revealed that Bezos and Amazon had originally been motivated in part by envy over the incentives that Elon Musk and Tesla were getting from Nevada for building their gigafactory there, despite much different circumstances. Zetlin sees in this anecdote a lesson for the rest of us. "We spend our whole lives pursuing success. But where is that spot, exactly?" she says. "If you're the richest person in the world, which he was at that time, and you're still not satisfied, you're still not happy, you're still jealous of somebody else, it just seems to illustrate that there is no there there." Zetlin's book draws on her reporting, interviews and experiences to examine self-care with the underlying assumption that, for many of us, work and the rest of our  lives are now inevitably intertwined. she joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to talk about these topics and more from her book. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Audio editing by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philip Su, a software engineering leader turned non-profit founder, decided to shake up his life last fall — seeking an antidote to his seasonal depression in a job with more structure and less pay than he had experienced in many years. Su worked the peak season at Amazon's giant flagship warehouse south of Seattle, in Kent, Wash., known by the code name BFI4 inside the company. It was a life-changing and eye-opening experience, as Su documents in his 15-episode podcast series, Peak Salvation. A former Microsoft software engineer who was the second employee at Facebook's Seattle engineering office, Su led the London engineering office for Facebook (now Meta), then founded and ran the global health software nonprofit Audere before adding Amazon warehouse worker to his LinkedIn profile. A newcomer to the front lines of global fulfillment, Su readily acknowledges that there could very well be good reasons for some of the quirks that he perceived as dysfunctions. Not only that, but he was a short-term worker, with a tenure of less than two months. He’s no logistics expert. However, he brought fresh eyes and an engineer’s mind to the e-commerce giant’s operational nerve center. So we asked Su what changes he would make, based on his experience and observations.  With GeekWire's Todd Bishop; Audio editing by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What the heck is going on in the economy, and how will the current market gyrations and geopolitical uncertainty impact startups and venture capital? To help answer these questions we invited Tim Porter to join us this week on the GeekWire Podcast. He's a Madrona Venture Group managing director who has invested in early-stage technology startups at the Seattle-based venture capital firm for the past 15 years, in areas including cloud, AI and enterprise software companies. Follow along with our extended notes from the discussion. With GeekWire co-founder John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton; Theme Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conceding that the rise of labor unions in tech may ultimately reach its own business, Microsoft released a new set of principles Thursday acknowledging the rights of its employees to organize, pledging to work constructively with any who do, and making it clear that it hopes they won't feel the need.  The move follows a union vote last week by the quality assurance team inside Activision-Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software, maker of Call of Duty. Microsoft needs regulatory approval for its $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. Its approach contrasts with its fellow Seattle-area corporate giants Amazon and Starbucks, which have opposed the formation of labor unions by their workers. What's really going on here? On this episode, we talk with Microsoft President Brad Smith — getting his explanation of the principles, the reasons for creating them, and the broader context around them. We also get reaction and analysis from Marcus Courtney, who led an effort to organize Microsoft's temporary workforce starting in the late 1990s as co-founder of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Addressing the issue of warehouse worker safety in response to a shareholder question this week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy described the company's safety initiatives — most of them related to technology and invention. The focus on innovation is "true to their DNA," says former Amazon general manager and retail category leader Andrea Leigh, who is now founder and CEO of the Allume Group, an e-commerce learning company.  Looking at it from Amazon's perspective, the approach makes sense, she points out: "If you have half a million or more warehouse workers, you are probably thinking about it algorithmically."  But labor unions and employees are focused more on the individual human impact. "And I think those two points of view just won't ever marry," Leigh says. That's one of the takeaways from this discussion with Leigh, recapping and analyzing Amazon's annual meeting this week. Several shareholder proposals at the meeting addressed employee issues including warehouse worker safety and unionization.  Related Coverage In unusually close votes, Amazon shareholders send messages on exec pay, labor, and environment Amazon shareholders approve 20:1 stock split, vote down record 15 proposals at annual meeting Here’s how Amazon plans to rein in costs in quest to restore its consumer business to profitability Has Amazon found its fourth pillar? Revisiting a key question for the company’s future  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week is Matt Hulett, a veteran of the Seattle tech community and the author of the new book, Unlock: 5 Questions to Unleash Your Company’s Hidden Power, published by Page Two Books. A former executive with companies including Expedia, Mpire, Rosetta Stone and RealNetworks, Hulett is now the CEO and president of PetMed Express, a publicly traded, Florida-based online pet pharmacy.  We talk about finding the right market segment to pursue, how startups and investors should approach the potential of an economic downturn, tips for competing with tech giants, the role that private capital can play in turning around struggling businesses, and how to think about competition, among other topics. Read our notes on the discussion here. Related Stories Book Excerpt: 5 questions that will help unleash your company’s hidden power Expedia Group unveils new tech platform for travel industry, and scoring system for hotels Facing NASDAQ delisting, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser makes bid to take company private Startups, superheroes, and the economy at a crossroads: Voices from Seattle’s tech community See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

PITTSBURGH — In his 22 years at Amazon, including his role as the first CEO of the company’s Worldwide Consumer business, Jeff Wilke always kept the place he was raised, and the people he grew up with, in the back of his mind. “I always wanted to lead in a way that if I went back, and people from high school could ask me anything about what I was encountering, the decisions I made, how I made them, that they’d be proud of me,” Wilke said. Born at Allegheny General Hospital in 1966, Wilke grew up in the community of Green Tree, Pa., just outside of Pittsburgh. He wore flannel shirts to class at the public high school, Keystone Oaks, and played baseball in the shadow of the water tower still visible from the Parkway on the drive into the city. In addition to shaping his values as a leader, his hometown gave him a first-hand view of the decline of the steel industry that had put Pittsburgh at the center of the industrial revolution. In the decades that followed, Pittsburgh’s role in the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence have made the city an emblem of U.S. resilience and reinvention. Since leaving Amazon last year, Wilke has returned to his industrial roots as the chairman and co-founder of Re:Build Manufacturing, a Massachusetts-based company seeking to revive the U.S. manufacturing industry. Re:Build has made nine acquisitions, in areas including engineering services and advanced materials, with 600 employees in eight states. We caught up with Wilke as part of GeekWire’s recent return to Pittsburgh, talking about his upbringing and history in the city, and his outlook for the future of robotics, AI, automation and U.S. manufacturing. Previous Podcast: After helping Amazon reinvent commerce, Jeff Wilke turns attention to reviving U.S. manufacturing Related Coverage: GeekWire's return trip to PittsburghSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After holding the GeekWire Awards virtually for the past two years, there was a feeling of real catharsis Thursday evening as hundreds of people streamed through the doors of the Showbox Sodo in Seattle for our annual celebration of the Pacific Northwest's top tech startups, leaders, and innovations. For the finalists in the 2022 GeekWire Awards, recognition at the superhero-themed show came with the added bonus of knowing that their companies made it through a period of unprecedented challenge and change. But the week also brought a new sense of uncertainty about what's to come. [Related Post: 2022 GeekWire Awards revealed: Community celebrates big winners in Pacific NW tech] Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's widely cited memo on Monday was a flashpoint for the tech industry, adding to existing concerns by warning of a “seismic shift” in the markets, signaling tougher times and tighter belts ahead. Some of the startup CEOs in attendance acknowledged reading his message closely. So we took our cues from the backdrop, literally and figuratively — inviting tech leaders aside at the event to ask questions such as: What's your take on the possibility of new economic realities? What are your biggest challenges and priorities for the rest of the year? And, of course: which superhero best reflects your company's ethos? The result was a glimpse into the collective psyche of the tech community in a key U.S. innovation hub, at a pivotal moment for the country and the world. Guests on this episode, in order of appearance: Xiao Wang, CEO of Boundless Immigration, finalist for CEO of the Year. Maria Karaivanova, co-founder & COO of WhyLabs. Varun Puri, co-founder of Yoodli, winner of Young Entrepreneur of the Year with his co-founder Esha Joshi. Lisa Gurry, COO of Truveta, winner of Health Innovation of the Year Dave Cotter, chief product officer of Leafly, and chair of the Washington Technology Industry Association, sponsor of the Public Policy Champion for Innovation Award. Laura Ruderman, Technology Alliance CEO. David Kirtley, founder and CEO of Helion, finalist for Innovation of the Year. Stephanie Winslow, Teacher, South Kitsap High School, one of three STEM Educators of the Year. Grant Goodale, carrier experience officer, Convoy, past winner of Next Tech Titan. Mo Bhende, co-founder & CEO at Karat, finalist for Next Tech Titan. Faisal Masud, CEO of Fabric, finalist for Next Tech Titan. Kiana Pan, president of CodingDojo, honoree in the Geeks Give Back category. Tushar Garg, CEO of Flyhomes, finalist for Workplace of the Year. Byron Baker, head of design at Blink UX, sponsor and judge in UX Design of the Year. Thanks to the tech leaders who answered our questions, to our GeekWire Awards attendees, finalists, and sponsors, and to our social media partner Jordan Curtis of Line Leader Media for his help with this episode.  Read about all of the GeekWire Awards finalists and winners in our special coverage. Related Episodes: Immigration and tech: New realities, old problems, and what’s at stake for the future Key trends in digital commerce, with the former Amazon exec leading Seattle’s newest unicorn Ungrading? Letting kids teach IT? GeekWire Award-winning STEM teachers share innovative strategies See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the most memorable lines of the past two decades in video games was delivered not by a character in a game but by an executive on stage. “My name is Reggie. I’m about kicking ass and taking names — and we’re about making games,” declared Reggie Fils-Aimé, introducing himself during Nintendo’s presentation at the E3 convention in Los Angeles in 2004. The line represented a new attitude from Nintendo, a statement that the legendary game company hadn’t given up in its battle against the would-be bosses of the industry, Sony and Microsoft. It marked the beginning of a resurgence for the Japanese company and its Redmond, Wash.-based subsidiary, Nintendo of America, which Fils-Aimé would go on to lead as president and chief operating officer. But it actually wasn’t how that line was originally drafted. The last-minute change is one of many behind-the-scenes stories told by the retired Nintendo of America executive in his new book, “Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo.” The book combines Fils-Aimé’s life story with leadership insights and some eye-opening anecdotes for fans of Nintendo and video games, including inside details about his working relationships with legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and late Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata. Reggie Fils-Aimé joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to talk about his career, his book, and what’s next in video games. He also shares the story of that pivotal introductory line, how it was originally supposed to be delivered, and the larger significance of the change that was made on the eve of the event. Read more on GeekWire.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's going to be a long time before robots replace sports mascots, but it might be better for one of our GeekWire colleagues when they do. That's one of the more lighthearted takeaways from our return trip to Pittsburgh, where GeekWire co-founder John Cook somehow managed to make enemies with yet another pro sports mascot, but we also came away with some more fundamental insights into the state of robots, automation and artificial intelligence: Supply chain challenges and labor shortages are changing the national conversation about automation, and accelerating adoption of robotics especially in manufacturing and distribution. Amazon's ambitions for rapid delivery are boosting robotics and automation across the e-commerce industry by prompting competitors to follow suit with their own solutions to increase logistics efficiencies. Robotics startups and autonomous driving companies are finding success in business and enterprise markets, as evidenced by Aurora Innovation's work with Paccar and FedEx on a self-driving truck. Many consumer robotics companies are still trying to do too much in making multi-purpose robots, rather than focusing on doing one thing well, as illustrated by the initial reception to Amazon's Astro home robot.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're coming to you  from Pittsburgh, where GeekWire is reporting on the future of robotics, AI and automation this week in conjunction with the Cascadia Connect Robotics, Automation & AI conference, organized by Seattle-based Cascadia Capital, which is underwriting our independent coverage of this topic. This week's podcast is with Matthew Johnson-Roberson, the director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, which has been the source of numerous breakthroughs in robotics and automation since its founding in the late 1970s. Johnson-Roberson spent part of his childhood in Seattle, where he went to Garfield High School. He was a CMU computer science undergrad who went on to get his doctorate in robotics at the University of Sydney and worked at the University of Michigan before returning to CMU as the leader of the Robotics Institute earlier this year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Innovation is alive and well in STEM classrooms across Washington state, inspiring students to seek opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math. At the GeekWire Awards on May 12, we're celebrating the accomplishments of three STEM Educator of the Year honorees who are excelling in their jobs by embracing creative, rule-breaking teaching strategies in their classrooms. These educators are eschewing traditional grading structures, putting students in charge of teaching lessons and empowering them with real-life, project-based learning. We recently sat down to chat with our honorees along with DreamBox Learning CEO and President Jessie Woolley-Wilson to learn more about their efforts to breakdown traditional barriers. DreamBox is the sponsor of this award, now in its second year. The STEM Educator of the Year honorees are: Johanna Brown, a teacher at Pullman High School who brought Advanced Placement chemistry and computer science to her Eastern Washington high school, led their Science Bowl team to championships and embraces a "gradeless" classroom. Devina Khan, a computer science and information technology instructional designer at the West Valley Innovation Center who partnered with an international program to connect female students with STEM professionals, coached students to earn tech certifications and helped kids share their tech expertise with the broader community in ag-focused Yakima County. Stephanie Winslow, a teacher at South Kitsap High School who was one of the first STEM-certified career and technical educators in Washington and teaches AP environmental science, astronomy and earth science classes. She is also an advisor for STEM Club. The GeekWire Awards recognize the top innovators and companies in Pacific Northwest technology. Our STEM educator honorees and other award finalists were selected based on community nominations, along with input from GeekWire Awards judges.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Does it seem like activity is picking up out there in the tech world? Big fundings may be happening less frequently (with notable exceptions such as Convoy) but the return of events and in-person meetings seems to have created a collective energy that's been missing for the past two years. In that spirit, we've got a grab bag of topics on this week's show: New era for Netflix: News that Netflix is exploring a lower-price tier, supported by advertising, has us thinking back to our recent episode with Anthony Skinner, tech chief of advertising measurement and analytics company iSpot, who foreshadowed this move. We also marvel at the brief lifespan of CNN+, and lament all the streaming subscriptions on our monthly bills. Amazon's next big business? Amazon's unveiling of a new program called "Buy with Prime" will let Prime members buy items on non-Amazon e-commerce sites, and it's a key step toward a standalone Amazon shipping business, perhaps meeting the qualities of a "dreamy" business that Jeff Bezos outlined in his 2014 letter to shareholders. Paul Allen's legacy: The reported sale of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection fits a pattern of his estate divesting some of his more fanciful projects, while sticking with his core investments in technology and science. It also hints at what's ahead for Living Computers Museum, the Seattle Seahawks, Cinerama, etc. More topics: GeekWire's upcoming trip to Pittsburgh; the May 12 GeekWire Awards; our recent episode with Soviet-born Seattle tech CEO Sergei Dreizin; and an upcoming episode with Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former Nintendo of America president, about his new book. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook; Audio editing and production by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sergei Dreizin is co-founder and CEO of software engineering company Akvelon, based in Bellevue, Wash. Born and raised in Moscow, he moved to the U.S. in 1992, after the Soviet Union's collapse, getting his computer science degree from the University of Minnesota before going to work for Microsoft in the Seattle area. But he maintained personal connections to Russia, and Akvelon established a large engineering operation in the country — numbering about 800 people, or more than half the company's workforce. Akvelon also has 300 people in Ukraine, with a large office in Kharkiv, a city near the Russian border that has come under heavy attack. On March 11, Akvelon shut down its operations in Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  But that was just the beginning of the story, as Dreizin explains on this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast in conversation with GeekWire co-founder John Cook. See GeekWire.com for written excerpts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we explore the state of the art in robotics and artificial intelligence with Martial Hebert, dean of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh. A veteran computer scientist in the field of computer vision, Hebert is the former director of CMU's prestigious Robotics Institute. A native of France, he also had the distinguished honor of being our first in-person podcast guest in two years, visiting the GeekWire offices during his recent trip to the Seattle area. As you'll hear, our discussion doubled as a preview of a trip that GeekWire's news team will soon be making to Pittsburgh, revisiting the city that hosted our temporary GeekWire HQ2 in 2018, and reporting from Cascadia Connect Robotics, Automation & AI conference, with coverage supported by Cascadia Capital. More details soon. Hosted by GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited and produced by Curt Milton, with music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's the impact of the words we use? Augmented writing platform Textio uses machine learning and natural language processing to take the guesswork out of business communication, offering predictive analytics designed to help companies recruit a diverse workforce and build an inclusive culture.  The 120-person Seattle-based tech company, led by CEO Kieran Snyder, has been going through a transformation of its own during the past two years, expanding its product lineup while taking its own workforce fully remote, and recruiting more people outside the Seattle area. In the process, the company built its own in-house online tool for participatory time-boxed conversations, for team-building and collaboration among its employees. Dubbed "Umeo," it's not a product ... at least not yet.  Snyder, who was named the CEO of the Year in the 2021 GeekWire Awards, joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast for a conversation about the importance of language, Textio's evolution, the future of workplace technology, regional differences in business language, and her formative experience as a "Scrabble hustler" in college in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most online publishers and advertisers are accustomed to real-time analytics, the ability to see how many people are viewing a website or app at any moment, where they're coming from, generally who they are, and what they're doing on the site. But that concept was a novelty in TV advertising before a startup called iSpot.tv came along in 2012. The company, based in Bellevue, Wash., took the turnaround time for data about television ads from weeks and days to hours and minutes. A decade later, iSpot is a key partner and resource for major media platforms and advertisers. With more than 300 employees, the company has been growing organically and through acquisitions, it's increasingly becoming an alternative to industry stalwart Nielsen as a standard for audience measurement. Meanwhile, Nielsen announced this week that it will be acquired by a private equity firm for $16 billion. In the most recent example of the shift, NBCUniversal announced a multi-year agreement with iSpot to provide real-time audience measurement across platforms, starting with the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and Super Bowl LVI, and most recently for NBCUniversal's "upfront" negotiations with advertisers for the 2022-23 television season. The upfront news was announced iSpot tech chief Anthony Skinner during an NBCUniversal developers conference on the Saturday Night Live stage in March. He joins us on the GeekWire Podcast to talk about the underlying changes in how we're all watching TV and consuming content, and how analytics have evolved along the way. The company is a finalist in the category of Next Tech Titan in the 2022 GeekWire Awards, and Skinner was featured in a 2019 GeekWire Geek of the Week profile.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we talk about what could be an enduring era of remote work — for some people, at least — as enabled by new technology and illuminated by new data about migration within the United States. First up, GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop reports on his experience testing the SpaceX Starlink satellite service in my hometown in rural Northern California, including efforts to use the service from multiple locations. Then GeekWire co-founder John Cook assesses a high-profile effort by his home state, Ohio, to attract workers from Seattle and other U.S. tech hubs. And to round things out, we discuss new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau that show the population of King County, Wash., home to the tech hubs of Seattle and Bellevue, declining by more than 20,000 people last year, as other counties in the state saw an influx. Finally, we give a sneak preview of the five finalists in one of the categories for the upcoming GeekWire Awards.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Hsieh was a legendary entrepreneur who built Zappos and sold the online shoe retailer to Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009. He was known for unusual experiments in management and business structure, and for pursuing long-term passions over short-term profits, as described in his 2010 book, Delivering Happiness. A new book, Happy at Any Cost: The Revolutionary Vision and Fatal Quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, tells the rest of the story of Hsieh's life, leading up to his tragic death from injuries sustained in a fire in New London, Conn., in November 2020. The book also goes behind-the-scenes of the company's relationship with Amazon. Wall Street Journal reporter Kirsten Grind, who wrote the book with her colleague Katherine Sayre, joins me on the GeekWire Podcast to talk about what they discovered in writing the book, and what we can learn from Hsieh's life. Kirsten Grind was previously based in the Seattle area as a reporter for the Puget Sound Business Journal. Her reporting on the collapse of Washington Mutual formed the basis for her first book, The Lost Bank. Resources: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255; Crisis Text Line: 741741 Happy at Any Cost: The Revolutionary Vision and Fatal Quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, by Kirsten Grind and Katherine Sayre, is published by Simon and Schuster, and available wherever books are sold. Podcast edited by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's blockbuster trade of Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson could be the first in a series of moves that leads to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owning the team. That was the hypothesis offered by veteran Seattle sports columnist Art Thiel in a piece this week at PostAlley.org, blending smart sourcing with informed speculation. Rumors of Bezos' interest in buying the Seahawks have been around for years, but the team's deal with the Denver Broncos makes the possibility worth revisiting. Thiel, our former Seattle Post-Intelligencer colleague and the founding editor of Sportspress Northwest, joins us on this episode to discuss this theory and what it could mean for Bezos, Amazon and the NFL. More from Art Thiel: A few musings about sports journalism as the unwinding begins Blockbuster Deal(s): Russell Wilson to Denver, Seahawks Sale Next Edited by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What would happen to the divisions in our country if we set aside our phones, and our assumptions, and truly tried to understand people who are different from us? Mónica Guzmán did this in her own family, and she's convinced that the country could do it, too. The Seattle-based journalist, entrepreneur and self-described liberal starts her new book with the personal story of coming to terms with her own parents, Mexican immigrants who voted twice for Donald Trump for president. The rest of the book is a guide for the rest of us: I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Longtime readers will remember Guzmán as a technology columnist who wrote regularly for GeekWire in the early years of the site. We also worked together previously at the Seattle P-I newspaper, where she started the Big Blog for SeattlePI.com. She wrote for the Seattle Times and went on to co-found The Evergrey newsletter in Seattle. She's currently digital director of the non-profit Braver Angels, whose mission of bringing together people of different political beliefs matches the premise of her recent work. She's also the host of Crosscut's Northwest Newsmakers. We talk about her new book, and the role of technology in all of this, on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast. Hosted by GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Best Book Club Ever,” read one sign inside Amazon Books at Seattle’s University Village this weekend. On the bookshelves below it were products including an electric 1.5-liter ceramic kettle, a sugar dispenser, and a marble cheese slicer. Elsewhere in the store, shoppers browsed items as varied as a plush baby shark, a Lite Brite, Funko figurines, a USB mic, game consoles, a smart fitness scale, a WiFi router, and kitchen scissors. There was not, as far as I could tell, a kitchen sink. Yes, there were books in this bookstore. But they were surrounded by a cacophony of commerce. Looking around at the seemingly random array of products, it felt like a bookstore subsumed by a variety store — an experiment gone awry, or more likely, an approach influenced by two different executive regimes. No wonder Amazon is pulling the plug, I thought to myself. Listen to the full story on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, or read it here, as published on GeekWire on March 7, 2022: Amazon’s bizarre bazaar: Strange final chapter for tech giant’s first bricks-and-mortar bookstore  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Understanding any subject requires knowing the numbers, and that includes looking at the long-term trends. That was one of Steve Ballmer's guiding principles as Microsoft's CEO, and it remains his mantra as founder of USAFacts, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that compiles and reports U.S. government data. Ballmer, the chairman of the L.A. Clippers and former Microsoft CEO, joins us on the GeekWire Podcast to discuss the USAFacts State of the Union in Numbers report, including the data to watch as the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and confronts the global economic impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We also discuss trends he's watching in tech, the future of the pro sports experience in Seattle and beyond, and his philanthropic initiatives with his wife Connie through the Ballmer Group in areas including homelessness and education. We last spent time with Ballmer when USAFacts partnered with GeekWire on the podcast Numbers Geek in 2018 and 2019, exploring the data behind many of the key issues facing the country. Of course, many of those issues have been upended in the time since. It was good to catch up with him and revisit some of these topics.  More: USAFacts founder and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the State of the Union in numbersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a special episode in remembrance of Zain Nadella, the son of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and his wife, Anu Nadella, who died Monday at the age of 26.  Those who knew him are remembering Zain for his wide-ranging taste in music, his bright smile and for his profound impact on his dad's life. Zain suffered from asphyxia in utero and developed cerebral palsy. Satya Nadella wrote candidly about his experience as Zain's dad in his 2017 book, Hit Refresh, and he spoke with me about Zain's influence in an interview that year on stage at the GeekWire Summit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week brought news of a big fundraising by e-commerce technology startup Fabric, a $140 million Series C round led by Softbank. With the deal, Fabric became the Seattle region’s newest unicorn startup, a privately held company valued at more than $1 billion, or about $1.5 billion in its case.  Our guest on this week’s GeekWire Podcast is Fabric’s CEO, Faisal Masud a former executive with companies including Amazon, Alphabet, Groupon, Staples and eBay. We talked about the state of physical and online retail as we emerge from the pandemic, business to business commerce, the Amazon heritage on Fabric’s executive team, competition with Shopify and Salesforce, and why Amazon itself hasn’t been able to get traction in the area Fabric is focusing on. The 300-person company offers software, APIs, and other behind-the-scenes technology used by retailers and business-to-business brands for many aspects of online commerce, including pricing/promotion, inventory management, digital storefronts, and payments/checkout.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zillow Group knows a thing or two about homes, and during the past two years the Seattle-based online real estate company has emerged as a leader enabling its employees to work from theirs — or from anywhere else they want. As companies including Microsoft and Expedia make the transition back to the office, in some cases expecting employees to spend at least half of their time working in-person, Zillow has already been through its own transition to a completely flexible approach to work.  So how’s it going? On this episode, we hear from a Zillow executive who is not only overseeing the company’s flexible work experience, but living it first-hand: Meghan Reibstein, Zillow's vice president of project management and flexible work. Related links and content Meghan Reibstein on LinkedIn: Flexible Work Improves Employees’ Quality of Life, Zillow Survey RevealsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Armoire CEO and founder Ambika Singh and her team built a women's clothing subscription service with their "bosslady" members in mind, providing an on-demand wardrobe of apparel primarily for work and events. Two years ago, the Seattle-based startup was on a roll, posting a record month in February 2020 after growing nearly 400% in 2019. But then came the pandemic. Armoire's members no longer needed to dress up for the office or to go out. So close the door on Armoire, right? Not so fast. Ambika Singh talks with GeekWire's John Cook and Todd Bishop about Armoire's survival story, how the startup's underlying business works, competition with Rent the Runway and others, its return to the office, and what's next in its startup journey. Read more: Startup survival story: Armoire’s remarkable journey from sequins to sweatpants and back againSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does Microsoft's return to the office mean for everybody else? That was one of the questions raised by the tech giant's announcement Monday that it will fully reopen its Washington state offices, including its Redmond headquarters, starting on Feb. 28. The company says it will offer flexibility but expects most employees to be back in the office at least 50% of the time. Microsoft and other big tech companies were among the first in the country to ask employees to work from home at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly two years ago. The rest of the industry followed suit. But the return could be different, based on fundamental changes in the industry and society in the meantime. For an overview and status report, we spoke with Michael Schutzler, CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association, which represents tech companies across Washington state, and has gone fully virtual itself, giving up its downtown Seattle offices for good. WTIA is also redefining its own boundaries in the process. See excerpts and links on GeekWire: Why Microsoft’s return to the office may not be the norm across the rest of the tech industry See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week, Ashley Stewart, is a Seattle-based senior tech correspondent for the news site Insider who reports on Microsoft and Amazon. She and her colleagues reported on Amazon’s executive exodus and its internal deliberations about compensation in advance of the increase in maximum base pay announced by the company this week. After the announcement, they reported on internal documents indicating the types of pay increases employees can expect. We also discuss her reporting on turmoil inside Microsoft's HoloLens business, and where recent changes leave the company in the race to create the Metaverse. And in our final segment, we compare notes on what it's like to cover these two companies, and what the differences say about their corporate cultures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.