GeekWire

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.

Amazon informed employees about a major change coming to their pay structure Monday morning. The company raised the cap for its base pay to $350,000 as part of its larger package of stock and cash compensation for corporate and tech employees. The maximum base pay has long been $160,000. The move has implications not only for Amazon employees but for the broader tech industry.  Garry Straker, senior compensation consultant at salary.com, spoke with GeekWire's Todd Bishop about the Amazon news, the future of work and the major changes taking place in the world of employee pay.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Amazon's latest results demonstrated its extraordinary flexibility and ability to overcome challenges in the broader economy using the built-in safeguards in its business, most notably the Amazon Web Services cash machine. Amazon spent an extra $4 billion to keep its business running smoothly despite a clogged economy. Plus, Microsoft hires an Amazon veteran to take on "one of the greatest challenges of our time," and Seattle startup Cloud Paper raises $5 million in new funding for its environmentally friendly, tree-free toilet paper.  With Todd Bishop and John Cook; Edited by Curt Milton; theme music by Daniel L.K. CaldwellSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The latest jaw-dropping deal in video games is Sony Interactive Entertainment's agreement to buy Bellevue, Wash.-based Bungie, maker of the Destiny series of online multiplayer first-person shooter games, originally known for developing Halo for Microsoft's Xbox. Bungie was spun out of Microsoft in 2007 and has operated as an independent company in the meantime. It's expected to be an independent Sony Interactive Entertainment subsidiary and continue to operate under its current management. Bungie is promising to expand its 900-person employee base and move into new areas of entertainment as a result of the Sony deal. Games writer Thomas Wilde joins us on this special episode to explain what the deal means for Sony, Bungie, Microsoft and the world of video games at large.  RELATED: Analysis: Sony buying Bungie is the counter-move we were waiting for The announcement Monday morning came two weeks after Microsoft struck a $68.7 billion deal for Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty and Candy Crush maker. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Data journalist and entrepreneur Sherrell Dorsey is a Seattle native whose story is a powerful testament to the potential of kids in overlooked communities, and to the possibilities that emerge when their paths are cleared. Dorsey is founder and CEO of The Plug, a venture-backed news and insights platform covering Black startups and ecosystems. Her new book is Upper Hand: The Future of Work for the Rest of Us. Read an excerpt from Dorsey's book on GeekWire: Seattle’s ‘Motown of tech’ changed Sherrell Dorsey’s life — now she’s passing it alongSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hope Cochran, managing director at venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group in Seattle, was previously the chief financial officer of King Digital, the maker of Candy Crush and other hit mobile games. She led King through its initial public offering in 2014, and its $5.9 billion acquisition in early 2016 by Activision Blizzard. That gives her a unique perspective on Microsoft's deal this week to acquire video-game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.  We also talk about Cochran's career, including her past role as the chief financial officer of Clearwire leading up to its $15 billion acquisition by Sprint; and her current role at Madrona investing in fintech and gaming companies, including Seattle-based VR gaming company Rec Room, where she's a board member. We also discuss her leadership role in the Onboarding Women group created by Madrona and several other Seattle-area businesses to increase the percentage of women on public company boards. Cochran herself is on the boards of public companies Hasbro MongoDB and NewRelic. Cochran majored in economics and music at Stanford, and she gave a fun and inspiring answer when asked to name the song that best represents her as an investor. Listen to the end of the show for that. More: Hope Cochran on The Room podcast and Madrona's Founded and Funded podcast. Editing and production by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So much of what happens in the startup world comes from serendipitous moments, random interactions that lead to fresh insights and new collaborations. And so much of that has traditionally happened at events, meetups, coffee meetings, and other in-person gatherings. Two years into the pandemic and remote work, what are the implications? That's our first topic on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, with entrepreneur, software engineer and investor Aviel Ginzburg, general partner at Seattle-based seed-stage venture fund Founders Co-op. The former Techstars Managing Director for Amazon's Alexa Accelerator, Ginzburg was co-founder of social analytics platform Simply Measured, acquired by Sprout Social in 2017. Before that, he was one of the first software engineers at Appature, which was later acquired by IMS Health. We also dive into NFTs, crypto, Web3, and the Metaverse, getting his take on each as an investor and entrepreneur (and longtime World of Warcraft gamer). We discuss how he and Chris DeVore, the Founders Co-op managing partner, are looking to differentiate themselves from other VCs and investors at a time when so much funding is sloshing around. And we take a look at our newly published list of unicorn companies in the Seattle area, which include some of Founders Co-op's portfolio companies, as well as one big one that got away.  With GeekWire's Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alexa, open the pod bay doors. Amazon's voice assistant hasn't quite reached the level of HAL, the iconic AI from 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, we learned this week that Alexa is going to space later this year, and around the moon, for a technology demonstration on the Orion deep-space capsule as part of NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. Veteran space reporter Alan Boyle, GeekWire contributing editor, joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to explain what Alexa will be doing during the mission, and what the partners on the demonstration — Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco — hope to prove in the process. Then we discuss some of the key milestones from the past year in space, including Blue Origin taking the first paying passenger on a suborbital commercial flight, plus highlights from SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and others. And we look ahead to upcoming events to keep an eye on, as detailed by Alan in his annual space recap and preview. And in our final segment, we come back to Earth, as podcast producer Curt Milton and I discuss celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's surprising disclosure about what we thought was a well-known Amazon company. Also check out Alan's podcast, Fiction Science.   By the way, we used Alexa Skill Blueprints to get Alexa to impersonate HAL in the opening of this week's show. You'll hear a very different response if you ask Alexa the same question on your own device.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This year was a bit of a blur — fighting through waves of Delta and Omicron. But there was other important news this year, too. And before we wave goodbye to 2021, we thought it would be fun to test your geek knowledge. Spoiler alert: we give the answers as we go, so if you want to test your knowledge first, you can take an interactive version of the quiz in the post for this episode at geekwire.com, then come back here and listen.  Edited by Curt Milton; theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Looking at GeekWire’s most-read stories for 2021, this series of headlines stands out as a symbol of the past year, not just for Amazon but for the world at large. March 31, 2021: Amazon updates remote work guidance, plans to ‘return to an office-centric culture as our baseline’ June 10, 2021: Amazon adjusts return-to-office guidance, says employees can work two days a week remotely October 11, 2021: Amazon will leave remote work decisions to individual team leaders in new policy twist In short, no one knew what was going on, or what to do. In the sports world, they would call it a rebuilding year, setting the stage for something better. GeekWire's John Cook puts it more succinctly in our year-end podcast: “It sucked.” At least, that’s the cynical view, which is why it was refreshing to have Ed Lazowska join us again for this year-end show. A professor at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, he’s a longtime Seattle tech leader, and an “inveterate optimist,” in his own words. “Yeah, COVID has thrown us all thrown us all kinds of loops,” he acknowledges, but then offers a few examples of a more upbeat way to look at this year’s list. Listen to the episode for more, as Lazowska joins us again on the GeekWire Podcast to discuss the year's top stories. We also look ahead to the upcoming year, and talk about a few key stories we'll be watching in 2022. Related: As reported recently on GeekWire, several prominent tech leaders have been working establish a series of UW professorships in Lazowska's honor. Learn more about the initiative here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: How the pandemic is changing attitudes toward work, jobs, geography. Plus, the market for IPOs and acquisitions, and the future of downtown Seattle from the perspective of a newly public company. Our guest, Zig Serafin, has a unique window into all of these topics as the CEO of Qualtrics, the experience management technology company based in Seattle and Provo, Utah. Qualtrics’ technology helps companies survey employees, customers and other stakeholders, and take action on the resulting insights. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Is the world relying too much on Amazon Web Services? We assess the fallout from the big AWS outage, which was the subject of a detailed explanation from the company Friday night. Plus, what's your AI IQ? We test our own artificial intelligence literacy in a new online quiz from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle. Read more in this story by our colleague Alan Boyle. And finally, we try on Amazon's new Halo View, and explain what's different in this new health tracker. Produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: how the pandemic, politics, labor shortages, and the rise of remote work are impacting U.S. immigration in the tech industry and beyond — and how ongoing challenges in the system could be putting the country's future at risk. Our guest is Xiao Wang, CEO and co-founder of Boundless, a Seattle technology company that streamlines the immigration process.  Related Stories and Links GeekWire: Immigration startup Boundless raises $25M, eyes opportunity with ‘pro-immigrant administration’ Seattle startup Boundless raises $7.5M to acquire rival RapidVisa and grow online immigration tools Axios: Little-noticed spending bill provision could fix green card backlog New York Times: Contending With the Pandemic, Wealthy Nations Wage Global Battle for Migrants Boundless: House Passes Sweeping Social Spending Plan With $100B Earmarked for Immigration Reform Hosted by GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This was a week when many of us in the U.S. paused to reflect and give thanks. We're keeping the tradition on the GeekWire Podcast. On this special holiday episode, we offer our gratitude for some of the technologies, trends and hopeful developments of the past year, as reflected in news coverage on GeekWire. Hosted by GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can you believe Xbox has been around for 20 years? Our guest on this week's GeekWire Podcast, Robbie Bach, was there at the beginning, and led Microsoft’s gaming business for many years as Chief Xbox Officer and President of the company's Entertainment & Devices Division.  These days, Bach is board chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that promotes bipartisanship. He serves on the national board of governors for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and is on the board of the Magic Leap augmented reality company. And to top it all off, he just published his second book, which is his debut novel, a techno-thriller called The Wilkes Insurrection. Referenced in the show:  Listen In with Raquel Ark podcast: Former #Xbox CEO Robbie Bach on #Listening to #Creativity and Writing His first #Novel Alex Kantrowitz: Why LinkedIn Is the One Good Social Network September 2015 GeekWire Podcast discussion with Robbie Bach With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The downfall of Zillow's iBuying business is a reminder of the downsides of relying too much on automation and machine learning algorithms at this stage in the evolution of technology. A conversation about the pitfalls of real estate valuations leads John Cook and Todd Bishop into a larger discussion about the continued importance of human judgment and attention in the modern world. Plus, cat vs. coyote: the crazy scene on Todd's Ring camera this week.  And in our final segment, we test a new feature: Tech Crank, in which Todd and John each offer a rant about something irksome in the tech world this week. Why the iBuying algorithms failed Zillow, and what it says about the business world’s love affair with AI Redfin CEO explains how its iBuyer home buying program avoided pitfalls that sunk Zillow Group NYT: Inside Amazon’s Worst Human Resources Problem Bloomberg: Highly Paid Union Workers Give UPS a Surprise Win in Delivery Wars Forget porch pirates, our Ring camera captured video of a cat escaping a coyote in Seattle Amazon-backed electric vehicle maker Rivian races to huge stock market debut after IPO Microsoft serves up a Google Chromebook rival with $250 Surface Laptop SE for students Podcast produced by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. CaldwellSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jane Park, the CEO of newly public Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp., hadn't imagined herself leading a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, before accepting the job. She decided to consider the pitch from venture capitalist Isabelle Freidheim for one reason. “It took some convincing, a little bit. I wasn’t sure if I had the right capabilities. I have always sat on the entrepreneur side. So to be on the acquiring/money side is a new perspective and vantage point for me,” she said. “I don’t think I would have taken the call if it wasn’t the fact that it was an all-female SPAC.” That's how the Seattle entrepreneur ended up with Freidheim and the Athena team at the New York Stock Exchange this week, as they rang the opening bell a week after raising $230 million in an initial public offering. Next on Athena's agenda is the process of identifying and acquiring a consumer-oriented company, leveraging those funds. Park is believed to be the first Korean-American woman to take a company public as CEO on the NYSE. A Yale Law School graduate and former Starbucks executive, she went on to found and lead Julep Beauty, a physical retail chain and e-commerce brand that was acquired by private equity giant Warburg Pincus. She went on to found sustainable gift-wrap company Tokki, leading the company through a pivot during the pandemic. She’s also a board member of the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, which holds its 2021 OpportunityTalks Breakfast at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, Park talks about the ambitions of Athena's team, the future of consumer brands in the Amazon era, her family's experience as immigrants, and her own life story. With GeekWire's Todd Bishop and John Cook; Audio editing by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast ... We dissect Amazon's earnings, offering our take on Andy Jassy's take on the company's latest predicament. We assess a major Microsoft milestone, as the Redmond company surpasses Apple to become the world's most valuable company again. We look forward to the Metaverse, but question whether Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook friends are the right people to take us there. And finally, by popular demand, for one show only, we bring back one of our most beloved segments, the App of the Week. With GeekWire's 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.

Everyone is closely monitoring the implications of remote work as we emerge from the pandemic, so it's no surprise that one of the most widely read stories on GeekWire this week — right behind the Titanic's disappearing bathtub and Facebook's potential name change — was a story on trends in tech salaries.  Two big trends stood out in the report from jobs site Hired: Average tech salaries in Seattle are up 4.6% from last year, to $158,000, second only to the Bay Area, which saw its average dip slightly to $165,000. Nationwide, the average U.S. tech salary fell 1.1% to $152,000. With the shift to remote work, “employers are expanding their addressable candidate pool, filling roles faster and paying lower average salaries,” Hired said. What's going on here? That's our first topic on this week's GeekWire Podcast. Guest commentator: We get a real-world perspective on tech hiring, remote work, and pay trends from Bill Richter, president and CEO of Qumulo. The cloud file storage and management company joined the ranks of Seattle's unicorns with a valuation of $1.2 billion in its latest funding round. Richter was previously a venture partner at Madrona Venture Group, and a leader at Isilon Systems and EMC. "We are far more open to remote locations," he said. "It really doesn't make that much of a difference where they are when they appear on their video conferencing screen. And that opens up a lot of new talent pools." It also opens up new opportunities for people previously based in Seattle to relocate and continue working for the company. For its remote work policy, Qumulo's executive team has delegated decisions to its functional leaders, with a plan to learn and adjust as it goes, adopting an Amazon-like policy before Amazon did. "So we're definitely approaching things differently," he added. "That's not a temporary state for us; that will be the future of the way we go as a company." What does that mean for pay? The Hired survey shows that new employees in far-flung locations might not command as much as those in tech hubs. But unlike some other tech leaders, Richter, whose background is in accounting and finance, doesn't see much merit in attempting to adjust salaries when existing employees relocate. "It's a global market for talent. And in exchange for the talent and the impact that the individual provides the organization, they shall be compensated," Richter said. "All the micro-tuning of things like location and that sort of thing, that might work in the short run. In the long run, what we'll see is a market clearing for compensation in return for talent." Other topics this week The boom in unstructured cloud data, which is fueling Qumulo's business. My colleague John Cook makes his best effort to get Richter to disclose Qumulo's financial data and IPO plans. Richter does share some insights into which sectors are seeing the biggest increase in data, and thoughts on how companies are viewing Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform in this environment. The home debut of the new Seattle Kraken NHL franchise Saturday. Our colleagues Kurt Schlosser and Kevin Lisota got to tour Climate Pledge Arena this week. Check out their story and video. We reminisce about John's run-in with the Pittsburgh Penguins mascot, Iceburgh, during GeekWire's 2018 stint in the Steel City, and wonder if he'll have a similar altercation with the Kraken mascot. We'll soon find out. The future of self-driving cars, and the news that Amazon's Zoox will test its technology in Seattle's "different driving culture." John is a skeptic of autonomous vehicles, based on part his terrifying ride in one of Uber's self-driving cars. Richter is an optimist. We can only imagine what will happen when four-self driving cars arrive simultaneously at a four-way stop in Seattle. Produced and edited by Curt Milton; Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: a new Microsoft leader finally gets to work, Amazon makes a surprising change in its remote work policy, and the promise of space for the tech industry. Our guest commentator is Charlie Kindel, who worked for many years as a Microsoft general manager in areas including its server and mobile businesses, before jumping into the world of startups and then ending up at Amazon, where he led mobile payments and built the Alexa Smart Home organization.  After working as chief product and technology officer at home automation company SnapOne, previously known as Control4, he’s now an independent advisor and consultant to companies including space and satellite startups. Stories covered on this week's show: ‘The most profound experience’: Blue Origin sends Star Trek’s William Shatner to the final frontier Microsoft and Amazon reach truce allowing former AWS executive Charlie Bell to start in new role Amazon will leave remote work decisions to individual team leaders in new policy twist With GeekWire's Todd Bishop and John Cook. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See geekwire.com/podcast for more episodes and links to subscribe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we’re sharing a few highlights from the GeekWire Summit, our annual business and technology conference, which we held this week for an audience in Seattle and online. For online access to the full video of every GeekWire Summit 2021 session, purchase a ticket at geekwire.com/summit to watch at your convenience.  On this week's show: Computer scientist and entrepreneur Yoky Matsuoka talks about her journey from academia to Silicon Valley, and compares and contrasts her experiences at Apple and Google. Matsuoka is leading an independent Panasonic subsidiary called Yohana that recently launched a personal assistant subscription service. Related: Robotics pioneer Yoky Matsuoka on the human touch in her new personal assistant venture Yohana Amazon CEO Andy Jassy addresses questions about the company’s impact on the world and responsibilities beyond serving customers. The GeekWire Summit appearance was Jassy's first live on-stage interview since succeeding founder Jeff Bezos as Amazon CEO — leading one of the world's most influential companies at a pivotal moment in its history.  Related: Amazon CEO: Relationship with Seattle City Council has become ‘rougher,’ but hope remains Grammy-award winning entertainer and entrepreneur Ciara discusses creativity and independence in music and business. She talks about the moment of insight that accompanied her hit song "Level Up," which became an ethos that translates into her work in music, business, fashion, and more. Related: GeekWire Summit 2021 recap: Leaders and luminaries share insights at our annual conference Audio editing and production by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella this week called the company's unsuccessful efforts to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations last year "the strangest thing" he's ever worked on. Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and newly named vice chair, laughed when he read that — agreeing with the sentiment, even if he has seen stranger things in his two decades representing the tech giant in its dealings with companies and governments around the world. In the new paperback edition of his book, Tools & Weapons, Smith writes that the situation showed it's "possible to run a foreign technology service in a domestic data center with strict security, privacy, and digital safety controls in a manner that provides appropriate transparency to local government officials." "In effect, this creates the opportunity to consider a new technology regulatory model for those instances where the US government wants technology trade to continue across the Pacific, but in a more controlled manner," he writes. Smith elaborates on the issue in this GeekWire Podcast conversation about the paperback update to Tools & Weapons, written with co-author Carol Ann Browne. They made extensive updates in the new paperback version of Tools & Weapons, including new chapters on the challenges created by unprecedented cyberattacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith also talks about Microsoft's new cybersecurity initiatives, his concerns about a lack of transparency and communication about cyberattacks among U.S. agencies and companies, and the future of work after the pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Come on, how much has really changed in Windows 11 vs. Windows 10? To paraphrase a certain Spinal Tap guitarist, is it really worthy of taking it up to eleven? Kevin Stratvert hears that question all the time, and based on his experience so far, his answer is yes. Stratvert is a former Microsoft program manager who left the company to focus full-time on his work as a YouTube creator, producing how-to videos about software and services from Microsoft and others. Stratvert joins us this week on the GeekWire Podcast to look ahead to the launch of Windows 11 on Oct. 5, providing a sense for what to expect.  We talk about the new Windows 11 user interface, overall performance improvements, the centered Start menu, Windows 11 Widgets, upgrades to the multiple virtual desktops feature in Windows, the integration of Microsoft Teams Chat, the updated Your Phone app, Windows 11 hardware requirements, and Microsoft's plan for a gradual rollout of the operating system. Stratvert has been focusing on Windows 11 in many of his recent videos: Windows 11 Requirements: Can your PC run it? 5 Awesome Windows 11 Features you should use First Look at Windows 11 - impressions from an ex-Microsoft PM Windows 11 Event: Biggest announcements & my thoughts In-depth Look at Windows 11 Insider Preview In the second segment, we discuss some highlights from this week's Microsoft Surface event, including the Surface Laptop Studio and the new Surface Duo 2. And in the final segment, we talk about Stratvert's own journey from Microsoft program manager to full-time YouTube creator, which was documented in this CNBC story. Subscribe to Kevin Stratvert's YouTube channel, or see his site, kevinstratvert.com. Audio editing and production by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fred Moody is a retired journalist in the Seattle area, the former managing editor of Seattle Weekly, and the author of a series on Kindle Vella, Amazon’s new episodic storytelling platform for mobile devices. It's called Barfly on the Wall: A meteoric misadventure into Seattle bartending.   GeekWire's Todd Bishop has been looking into Kindle Vella and other story platforms as a reflection of broader changes in how people publish and read stories. Moody is one of the authors featured in a GeekWire story on the subject. Moody has followed Amazon since its early days as an online bookseller, interviewing Jeff Bezos for an article when the company was based in a modest office south of downtown Seattle. The company was so small at the time that Bezos personally followed up with Moody to explain how the journalist's out-of-print book about the Seattle Seahawks ended up in Amazon's online catalog. "He was talking about why he was located in Seattle, and what his plans were, to be the world's biggest bookstore and all that, but there was no sense that they were headed where they were headed, at least not to my benighted eyes," Moody recalled this week. "You could tell he was really onto something, but nobody could have imagined what that something was." In 2004, as the tech economy was taking off in the city, Moody wrote about Seattle's "struggle for its soul" in his book, Seattle and the Demons of Ambition. That book was inspired in part by his experience encountering protesters during the World Trade Organization riots, which opened his eyes to Seattle's evolution into a "massive establishment symbol with all this corporate power," as he puts it. More than a decade later, in 2015, his eyes were opened to yet another side of the city when he came out of retirement to work as a day-shift bartender at the Shanghai Room in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood, which his daughter Caitlin and son-in-law Tony took over when they opened the adjacent North Star Diner. (They stepped down as owner/operators earlier this year.) Moody started taking notes about the characters at the bar, the people he worked with, and his experiences with the late Anthony Bourdain and his crew when the famed chef and television host visited Seattle for his final show here. When the pandemic hit, Moody found himself with the time to write. "I wanted to experiment with a different kind of narrative, where I'm telling these short little pieces, sometimes anecdotes, sometimes conversations, or little pieces from people's lives, then just kind of jumping from one to the other," he explained, describing it as "a mosaic" that builds into a larger narrative. Then he heard about Vella. "It was almost like a perfect format for what I'd been doing," he said. "I could just take these bite-sized, little things, and make these episodes." Vella also matched the trends he had witnessed from behind the bar. "I was really taken with the idea that it would be so phone-friendly, because the audience I was thinking about for this book were people that read exclusively on their phones, which I noticed in my bartending was the case with almost everybody under 40 years old," he said. Read the full story on GeekWire.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jason Stoffer was still early in his career at venture capital firm Maveron in 2012 when he declined an opportunity to invest in Remitly, then a fledgling Seattle startup with ambitions to challenge Western Union by bringing a tech mindset to the business of international money transfers. He was impressed by Remitly co-founders Matt Oppenheimer and Josh Hug but knew they faced a huge challenge in getting the state-by-state regulatory approval required to make monetary remittances to what was then their initial international market, the Philippines. "It felt like the end vision was powerful — if they can get there," Stoffer recalled. "But two guys in a room in Seattle saying they were going to navigate an incredibly complex regulatory environment and figure out how to market in a country a continent away, it felt like too big a hill to climb. And they proved me wrong." Ten years later, Remitly is poised to go public in an initial public offering that values the company at $6.5 billion, as we reported this week. Stoffer, whose successful exits as an investor include Flywire, Course Hero, General Assembly and Zulily, analyzed Remitly's financials recently on his new blog, Ringing the Bell, displaying an admirable humility in his assessment of a company that could have been part of the Maveron portfolio. He joins my colleague John Cook and me on the GeekWire Podcast to talk more about Remitly, lessons learned, the current market for tech investing, and his approach to reading S-1 regulatory filings. In the final segment, we discuss Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's first television appearance since assuming the top role from founder Jeff Bezos. Stoffer is an investor in Cap Hill Brands, an aggregator of third-party Amazon sellers. Audio editing and production by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Remote work is putting productivity and innovation at risk. That was one of the conclusions of a peer-reviewed study of more than 61,000 Microsoft employees, published this week, and it’s our first topic this week. We talk about the workplace dynamics that are creating the situation, and explain why the implications go far beyond Microsoft’s workforce as the COVID-19 Delta variant pushes back the return to the office. Plus, how predictive analytics and machine learning could change the NFL and other sports, and a preview of the GeekWire Summit, featuring Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, pop superstar Ciara, and a lineup of top leaders in tech, business and science.  For the audiophiles in the audience, our listener feedback section offers another important clarification in our seemingly never-ending discussion of the Blue Yeti microphone.  A special request for loyal listeners: Help us get to 100 reviews on Apple Podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GeekWire's Mike Lewis talks with U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who represents the 7th Congressional District in Washington state, including Amazon’s hometown of Seattle. Rep. Jayapal is also the Vice Chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, and the author of a bill that aims to prevent what it calls monopolistic practices by big tech companies including Amazon. In addition to antitrust issues, they discuss online privacy, vaccine mandates and infrastructure spending.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A global pandemic might seem like the wrong time to pursue a new startup idea, given all the uncertainties, but in many ways, the timing couldn't be better. That's one of the insights from our GeekWire Podcast conversation this week with Seattle-area entrepreneur and investor Shirish Nadkarni, author of the book From Startup to Exit: An Insider’s Guide to Launching and Scaling your Tech Business.  The changes in user behavior and tech platform shifts caused by the pandemic dovetail with one of the lessons Nadkarni is hoping to get across to entrepreneurs. "Look for opportunities where there is either some major technology shift or some macro trend that either surfaces an old problem, or enables you to build a solution in a unique fashion that could not be done before," Nadkarni says. "I think those are the best opportunities for an idea to succeed." We also talk about startup opportunities in artificial intelligence and machine learning; the impact of the IPO and SPAC craze on startup psychology; and the effect of remote work on investing and recruiting. Nadkarni founded mobile wireless email pioneer TeamOn Systems, acquired by Blackberry in 2002, and co-founded language learning site Livemocha, acquired by RosettaStone in 2013. He began his career at Microsoft, working on Windows development tools, overseeing MSN's transition into a web portal, and leading Microsoft’s Hotmail acquisition.  In the news this week ... Microsoft announced an Oct. 5 release date for Windows 11, but said it won't be making Android apps available on the new OS until a later date, under a partnership with Amazon. Seattle-based money remittance company Remitly disclosed key financial results on its path to its upcoming IPO. It posted $257 million in revenue and a $32.5 million net loss in 2020. And in our final segment, we hear from a loyal listener, Steve Case (no, not the AOL founder), with feedback on our recent behind-the-scenes episode about the audio technology we use for the show. I had critical things to say about the Blue Yeti mic on the show, to which Steve gave this response: I like and use the Blue Yeti (with an external pop filter). It was the logical choice when I was doing a bit of voiceover, and pondering podcasting. The Yeti is perfect for podcasting because of its three condenser capsules and four modes, so it’s good for one person (cardioid mode) or interviewing someone in person (bi-directional mode). Of course that was back in the pre-quarantine days when we might actually sit on the other side of a microphone from someone outside of our household. Many people who use these for podcasts, YouTube videos and the like, don't seem to understand the modes – or even which side to talk into. This is a side-address microphone, but I see people talking into the end of it, or even into the back side when using cardioid mode. Then there are the folks way too close to the mic, without a pop guard, and the gain set to full. The built-in gain control is a great feature, but with the power to change gain at the microphone comes the responsibility to set it appropriately. Noted! Thanks to Steve for his insights. You can reach us at [email protected] with your thoughts on mic technology or anything else we discuss on the show. Audio editing by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Joe Biden brought together top executives from the nation's biggest technology, financial services and energy companies this week to address the growing challenge of cybersecurity, speaking to tech leaders including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Apple CEO Tim Cook. "The federal government can't meet this challenge alone," Biden said in his public remarks to open the meeting. "I've invited you all here today because you have the power and the capacity and the responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar on cybersecurity. And so, ultimately, we've got a lot of work to do." So what happened next? And did any real solutions emerge? Our guest on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast was in the closed-door meeting. Seattle-area investor and entrepreneur Hadi Partovi, CEO of computer science education nonprofit Code.org, shares details and key takeaways on this week's show. In the third segment, Partovi reflects on his own childhood in Iran, as a 6-year-old during the 1979 revolution, later immigrating to the U.S. with his family, and finding success as a computer scientist and entrepreneur along with his twin brother, Ali, who joined him in founding Code.org.  Read his full thread on that topic and see our earlier coverage. See GeekWire.com for more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The last 18 months have been an audio-visual adventure, requiring many of us to improve and refine our at-home tech setups for virtual meetings and remote work.  And just when we thought we'd figured it out, we were hit with a new scenario entirely: hybrid work, with some people together in the office, and others dialing in from home. Getting things to work seamlessly in these situations is no easy task. This can be especially challenging when you're trying to get good sound. We’ve struggled with this latest twist on GeekWire's podcasts, with multiple people in the studio, for example, and others joining us remotely. We’ve figured it out, mostly, through lots of trial and error — emphasis on the error. We're sharing our hard-won lessons on this behind-the-scenes episode of the GeekWire Podcast, including details on hardware and software we’ve been using.  Even if you're not recording audio or video, or producing your own show, we hope these insights might help with your own hybrid meetings and events.  We use a few of our favorite mics to record the show, letting you hear the difference in quality. In addition, we discuss mics to avoid, based on our experience. Also making an appearance are some new Microsoft headsets and microphones that we’ve been trying out on loan from the company.  Stepping out from behind the virtual booth to participate in this episode is Curt Milton, who edits and produces the GeekWire Podcast every week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An online marketplace that helps to facilitate trade between marijuana sellers and buyers will soon see its own stock traded on the Nasdaq. Another that connects pet owners with walkers, boarders and other caregivers just posted its first earnings as a publicly traded company. And a 3-year-old Redmond-based biotech company with a mere 25 employees just raised $80 million its stock market debut. SPACs are shaking up Seattle's startup scene. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we examine how special purpose acquisition companies are turning startups into publicly traded stocks at a rapid clip. The SPAC phenomenon is giving many of these companies access to additional sources of capital while creating new risks for investors and raising questions about the long-term direction of the stock market. Our guest (and guest audio editor) is Laurel Deppen, a journalist who has been working as an intern at GeekWire in Seattle this summer through the Dow Jones News Fund, reporting a wide range of stories about the region's tech and business community, including an earlier story about soon-to-be public online cannabis marketplace Leafly. She studied broadcast journalism at Western Kentucky University, where she was editor-in-chief of the College Heights Herald, and in addition to joining us for the podcast conversation, she edited this episode as one of the final assignments of her summer internship. In the second segment of the show, we talk with Laurel about her overall impressions of Seattle as a newcomer to the city, as documented in part in her story, How Bumble BFF helped this Kentucky transplant find friends and break The Seattle Freeze. And in our final segment, it's the return of the Random Channel, our segment exploring the random things that caught our attention this week. Laurel talks about the HBO drama The White Lotus, GeekWire co-founder John Cook suggests the new podcast The Edge, and I share my enthusiasm about recent episodes of Kara Swisher's New York Times podcast, Pivot.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to discuss the latest twists in the housing market; delays in returning to the office; the role of climate in real estate; how technology is changing homebuying; and the impact of remote work and migration on Seattle and other big U.S. cities. In some ways, "it's our employees who are deciding where Redfin's headquarters are going to be," Kelman says. "We now have 1,000 headquarters. There are people who have moved all over the country." In literal terms, Kelman explains, he's committed to keeping Redfin's headquarters in Seattle. But he says the migration of employees creates a new dynamic for city officials seeking to work with business leaders to address economic inequality. We talked after the tech-oriented real estate brokerage released its second-quarter earnings report this week. Redfin's revenue jumped 121% to $471 million, and its net loss widened to $27.9 million from $6.6 million a year earlier. Kelman also addressed the dynamics prompting Redfin to focus on growth over profits. Earlier in the week, Redfin announced a new feature for home listings: a numerical rating that gives a climate score to a given house or property, analyzing the risk of heat, fire, drought, and storms over a 30-year period by county, city, neighborhood and zip code. Redfin is partnering with ClimateCheck on the feature. On the COVID front, Redfin had planned a broad reopening of its headquarters and field offices for Sept. 6, but told employees this week that the milestone would be pushed back indefinitely for now, promising to give them at least 30 days notice of the new date. Those working in the office must be vaccinated, and the company is asking those who haven’t been fully vaccinated to work from home. Microsoft said the full reopening of its U.S. workplaces will happen no earlier than Oct. 4. Amazon went even further, delaying its return to January 2022. Podcast edited and produced by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Microsoft announced its acquisition of LinkedIn for more than $26 billion five years ago, there was lots of skepticism, and for good reason. After all, Microsoft was a company known for taking huge write-downs when its biggest acquisitions (aQuantive, Nokia, etc.) failed to live up to expectations. But that was then, and after becoming the new leader of the venerable software giant, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was taking a different approach, sticking to Microsoft's strength in business technology by picking up the popular business social network. It remains the biggest deal in Microsoft's history, and with that in mind, now it also qualifies as Satya Nadella's biggest success as Microsoft CEO. This week, we learned that LinkedIn has joined the ranks of Microsoft's $10 billion-dollar businesses, crossing that threshold in annual revenue for the first time. Unfortunately, we still don't know for sure if LinkedIn is a profitable business, as Microsoft stopped disclosing LinkedIn's operating profits a couple of years ago. But based on the underlying economics of the business, and the prior trajectory of LinkedIn's bottom line, it's a relatively safe bet that it's operating in the black.  We discuss the LinkedIn deal, five years later, in the second segment of this week's GeekWire Podcast. My colleague John Cook are back in the GeekWire studio at our offices in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood for the first time in 18 months, along with podcast producer Curt Milton.  We start with a behind-the-scenes discussion of GeekWire's Great Race II, and conclude with a new feature, Number of the Week, plucked from our local coffee giant's latest results.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.