Wednesday, January 1, 2020

In the shadow of Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle startups are having a moment | TechCrunch

In the shadow of Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle startups are having a moment | TechCrunch



...Seattle startups raised a total of $3.5 billion in VC funding across roughly 375 deals this year, according to data collected by PitchBook. That’s up from $3 billion in 2018 across 346 deals and a meager $1.7 billion in 2017 across 348 deals. Much of Seattle’s recent growth can be attributed to a few fast-growing businesses.

...A number of other factors have contributed to Seattle’s long-awaited rise in venture activity. Top-performing companies like Stripe,  Airbnb  and Dropbox have established engineering offices in Seattle, as has Uber, Twitter, Facebook, Disney and many others. This, of course, has attracted copious engineers, a key ingredient to building a successful tech hub. Plus, the pipeline of engineers provided by the nearby University of Washington (shout-out to my alma mater) means there’s no shortage of brainiacs.

...There’s long been plenty of smart people in Seattle, mostly working at Microsoft  and Amazon, however. The issue has been a shortage of entrepreneurs, or those willing to exit a well-paying gig in favor of a risky venture. 


...Operating under the startup studio model, PSL’s team of former founders and venture capitalists, including Rover and Mighty  AI founder Greg Gottesman, collaborate to craft and incubate startup ideas, then recruit a founding CEO from their network of entrepreneurs to lead the business.

...Seattle deal activity is finally climbing thanks to top talent, new accelerator models and several refueled venture funds. 

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