5 ms·

Mark Suster on Seattle and how a few key people can transform a community

78 points by daryn 15y ago

daveschappell 15y ago
I'm fired up by Mark's idea, to much more deeply engage with our local leaders (Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, etc) -- think every geography has these, and presenting it how Mark does makes it so much more compelling. Everyone benefits from these relationships, and really, the Bay Area has crushed it in this area (think growth of Zynga and others on Facebook... the wave of startup involvement with iPhone/iPad Apps store launches...) -- I look forward to helping make that happen, more quickly
- TheIronYuppie 15y ago
  Dave deserves a ton of credit for all he's doing in the community. I'll offer up my own time as well - if you have ANY questions, i'm happy to help - follow me at @aronchick or email me at aronchick (at) hark.com. I think getting the patrons moving is a huge win - they all have stacks they want startups using and/or hiring problems. Getting a vibrant startup community makes things much better.
stevenj 15y ago
I may be wrong about this, but I sense that Seattle's startup scene is definitely lacking something important. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it's there. In my opinion, people here seem pretty risk-averse (ie few want to jump and do a startup, especially people in their twenties). It kind of seems like people lack the drive to "change the world". Instead, people seem pretty laid back here. It's almost as if they get too comfortable here.
- daveschappell 15y ago
  No, I don't think that's it (having lived here for 13 years). I think it's just more that people are focused on their own thing, by and large, vs. getting out with a small % of their time and building a community for the greater good. This 'problem' is so fixable; we just need another catalyst (like what www.GeneralAssemb.ly and New Work City are doing in NYC... and what TechStars did in Boulder, Seattle, Boston and NYC, and many other examples). We're just a few nudges away, and there's no doubt we'll get there -- we just need to keep focusing on the good stuff, and it's going to happen.
  - stevenj 15y ago
    >I think it's just more that people are focused on their own thing, by and large, vs. getting out with a small % of their time and building a community for the greater good. Ya, they're not enough "crazy" people. I think Seattle needs a big consumer-based (2.0 or 3.0) hit. It needs a Facebook, a Groupon, a Twitter, a Skype, a LinkedIn, an Etsy, a Dropbox.
    - daveschappell 15y ago
      you mean, like an Amazon? or a Starbucks? :-) or, if you want to be cynical that Amazon's a long time ago... how about like an AWS, or a Kindle? The innovation's here -- we just need to get more commingling going on it's going to happen -- if you're in town, reach out, please -- would love to have you help
      - kenjackson 15y ago
        And there's the fastest selling consumer electronics product in history... the Kinect.
      - tesseract 15y ago
        For what it's worth, Lab126 (the Kindle-designing branch of Amazon) is in Cupertino, not Seattle.
        adpowers 15y ago
        But many of the backend services powering Kindle are based in Seattle.
      - potatolicious 15y ago
        Amazon was a long time ago, and AWS/Kindle, while being great products, did not contain really an element of risk the way a scrappy startup does. I think parent poster has a point - there aren't a lot of recent examples of taking the risk and having it pay off, which may lead to some risk aversion in the community.
- mechazoidal 15y ago
  Possibly the Seattle Freeze? http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.h... In the 5 years after college that I lived in the city proper, the only tech group I managed to hang around was Seattle.RB, and only a few meeting at that.
  - rubyrescue 15y ago
    actually... as a perfect example ... seattle.rb is one of the most unfriendly tech groups i've ever visited - and I know a number of others who would say the same thing.
  - gills 15y ago
    In my 31 years of Seattle I guess I've found that friendships here are made and kept by doing active stuff together. Like camping, or boating, or cycling. There's not a lot of interest in "hey, want to loaf around together for a couple hours?" A lot of folks I know seem to tolerate the Seattle weather only because the summers and activities are great; killing time as bumps on a log is kind of silly. Or maybe I'm just a poster-child for Pemco ads. I am wearing sandals and gore-tex and typing this from a Starbucks...
    - mechazoidal 15y ago
      But do you invite other people, or have some way of introducing others to it? That's kind of what I'm getting at: regardless of the activity, there's a social disconnect for getting people involved if they're not already in a circle of friends--and the few circles I was in didn't intersect at all. It's not necessarily an insurmountable gap but it's enough to intimidate most people who aren't already outgoing, or who are accustomed to a friendlier town. I grew up in Redmond, went to college at WSU, and moved into Seattle in 2002. For the longest time after that, when walking into a bar or show, I had to keep persuading myself that people were not going to point and scream at me like Donald Sutherland in the 70's Body Snatchers movie.
      - gills 15y ago
Mongoose 15y ago
One thing that I think would help is if Seattle startups did more recruiting at UW's CSE department. There's a reason why Seattle startups tend to be founded by ex-MS and -Amazon folks instead of fresh college grads. Very few students here know anything about the local startup scene and end up being gobbled up by big companies (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe) or moving to greener pastures in the Bay Area. Suster didn't mention connection with local education institutions as one of his 10 points, but I think taking advantage of the stream of talent coming out of UW would go a long way to providing good hires and fostering a greater sense of entrepreneurship among Seattle's young people.
- Irfaan 15y ago
  Alright - how do we go about this, then? Is there anyone driving anything like this already, or are we just waiting for some one to step in and just do this? This sounds valuable enough that I'd be willing to plunk down some of my company's time to make this happen. That said, I suspect we'd be a rather poor choice to drive this as we're running pretty independent of the rest of the Seattle startup scene. Given our community, though, there's gotta be someone whose a decent fit for this. Anyone?
  - Mongoose 15y ago
    Redfin's a good example. They're at every UW CSE career fair and Glenn Kelman (Redfin's CEO) gives talks on campus every now and then. My original comment was a bit too focused on the companies' side of things. I think the main issue is a lack of awareness on the part of students. In my experience (as a current undergrad at UW), students simply don't know about the local startup scene and thus don't take the steps to capitalize on it. Given the decent number of organizations and meetups in the area that would provide good avenues for students to get involved (Seattle Tech Startups, Startup Weekend, Hops & Chops, TechCafe, etc), it's more a matter of connecting the dots than developing new social structures.
  - dbalatero 15y ago
    I'm a UW CSE graduate (Mar 2009), and technical co-founder at MediaPiston. I can give good insight on recruiting at UW CSE - what works, what doesn't. Email me at (my HN username) at gmail.
michaelhalligan 15y ago
One of positive aspects from the year and a half I did in Seattle was that fewer engineering jobs meant people didn't expect to leave a company every year or two. When hiring systems engineers I found it easier to hire smart, competent employees who got shit done and had a long-term view. Three or four of the best engineers I've ever encountered, and my closest friendships, were built in Seattle. Still, I was somewhat underwhelmed by Seattle's tech scene. All conversations inevitably devolved into pity sessions comparing Seattle to the valley. Diversity seemed lacking; I recall only one engineer I met who didn't come from UW, Real, Amazon, Microsoft, or Boeing. The Microsofties would often introduce themselves by what they used to do at Microsoft before they had decided to cash in their 401k to jump onto the "Social" bandwagon. Oh, and the weather made me want to shoot myself.
haberman 15y ago
I'm not active in the startup scene, but how could an article like this not mention Seattle Tech Startups? http://www.seattletechstartups.com/ http://www.seattletechstartups.com/
- TheIronYuppie 15y ago
  My only problem with STS is the signal to noise ratio suffers - there's a lot of service providers and other folks on there that drown out the opportunity to make connections. It's a good start, but there are a ton more resources. If you really want to make a difference, or connect, my recommendation is attend one or all of the events here: http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/ http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/
rtalwar 15y ago
Hi All- I'd like to first introduce myself to everyone. My name is Rishi Talwar and I'm a senior majoring in Informatics at UW. I can't believe this is my first post on HN ever. I guess this topic really resonates with me because I've been passionate about the Seattle startup tech scene since the beginning of freshman year. I too agree that there needs to be a more emphasis on startups at UW and building software that ultimately help others/create value. From my personal experience I have seen that there are a few people who feel as passionate and inspired about startups. I found this out when I was looking to work with a UW CSE student on a project I had in mind which is now up here: http://www.fratapps.com/ http://www.fratapps.com/. I'm not a CS major but I'm still up on different types of technologies. Mainly, I'm a front-end and product guy who loves building stuff. Therefore I was seeking someone who was majoring in cs. After meeting with multiple students I finally found a friend who was willing to partner up and work with me who was a UW CSE student. But most of these students that I met didn't have any clue about the startup scene in Seattle or didn't care about building anything. This makes me feel that these students majoring in CSE are not passionate about their industry and ultimately get gobbled up by a big-co knowing that they will receive an $80,000+ salary. Maybe its not in their DNA or other factors drive them or its not in their curriculum. But there was definitely an utter lack of fire that is not money driven or by notoriety. However, this past year I've been happy to know that these students are out there like Mongoose and a few others who has been a tremendous advocate for startups and do it purely out of passion. Also, I have had the honor to meet a freshman business student who is probably way more well connected in the Startup scene then me (twitter:@mikeytom) who has worked on FratApps.com. When I read blog posts like this from Mark Suster it makes me want to hustle. Maybe there needs to be a startupWeekend for UW like StartupUW. Something that brings all facets of knowledge ie business, engineering, and Informatics or anyone else together on campus. I appreciate you reading this and would like to hear your thoughts. Thanks, Rishi Talwar twitter: @rishtal
calbear81 15y ago
Oren Etzioni (http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/etzioni/ http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/etzioni/), a UW professor, and co-founder of the previous startup I worked at in Seattle is also involved with several other new startups including Decide.com that just raised a $6M round.

78 points by daryn 15y ago

I'm fired up by Mark's idea, to much more deeply engage with our local leaders (Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, etc) -- think every geography has these, and presenting it how Mark does makes it so much more compelling. Everyone benefits from these relationships, and really, the Bay Area has crushed it in this area (think growth of Zynga and others on Facebook... the wave of startup involvement with iPhone/iPad Apps store launches...) -- I look forward to helping make that happen, more quickly

TheIronYuppie 15y ago
Dave deserves a ton of credit for all he's doing in the community. I'll offer up my own time as well - if you have ANY questions, i'm happy to help - follow me at @aronchick or email me at aronchick (at) hark.com. I think getting the patrons moving is a huge win - they all have stacks they want startups using and/or hiring problems. Getting a vibrant startup community makes things much better.

stevenj 15y ago

I may be wrong about this, but I sense that Seattle's startup scene is definitely lacking something important. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it's there. In my opinion, people here seem pretty risk-averse (ie few want to jump and do a startup, especially people in their twenties). It kind of seems like people lack the drive to "change the world". Instead, people seem pretty laid back here. It's almost as if they get too comfortable here.

daveschappell 15y ago
No, I don't think that's it (having lived here for 13 years). I think it's just more that people are focused on their own thing, by and large, vs. getting out with a small % of their time and building a community for the greater good. This 'problem' is so fixable; we just need another catalyst (like what www.GeneralAssemb.ly and New Work City are doing in NYC... and what TechStars did in Boulder, Seattle, Boston and NYC, and many other examples). We're just a few nudges away, and there's no doubt we'll get there -- we just need to keep focusing on the good stuff, and it's going to happen.
- stevenj 15y ago
  >I think it's just more that people are focused on their own thing, by and large, vs. getting out with a small % of their time and building a community for the greater good. Ya, they're not enough "crazy" people. I think Seattle needs a big consumer-based (2.0 or 3.0) hit. It needs a Facebook, a Groupon, a Twitter, a Skype, a LinkedIn, an Etsy, a Dropbox.
  - daveschappell 15y ago
    you mean, like an Amazon? or a Starbucks? :-) or, if you want to be cynical that Amazon's a long time ago... how about like an AWS, or a Kindle? The innovation's here -- we just need to get more commingling going on it's going to happen -- if you're in town, reach out, please -- would love to have you help
    - kenjackson 15y ago
      And there's the fastest selling consumer electronics product in history... the Kinect.
    - tesseract 15y ago
      For what it's worth, Lab126 (the Kindle-designing branch of Amazon) is in Cupertino, not Seattle.
      - adpowers 15y ago
        But many of the backend services powering Kindle are based in Seattle.
    - potatolicious 15y ago
      Amazon was a long time ago, and AWS/Kindle, while being great products, did not contain really an element of risk the way a scrappy startup does. I think parent poster has a point - there aren't a lot of recent examples of taking the risk and having it pay off, which may lead to some risk aversion in the community.
mechazoidal 15y ago
Possibly the Seattle Freeze? http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.h... In the 5 years after college that I lived in the city proper, the only tech group I managed to hang around was Seattle.RB, and only a few meeting at that.
- rubyrescue 15y ago
  actually... as a perfect example ... seattle.rb is one of the most unfriendly tech groups i've ever visited - and I know a number of others who would say the same thing.
- gills 15y ago
  In my 31 years of Seattle I guess I've found that friendships here are made and kept by doing active stuff together. Like camping, or boating, or cycling. There's not a lot of interest in "hey, want to loaf around together for a couple hours?" A lot of folks I know seem to tolerate the Seattle weather only because the summers and activities are great; killing time as bumps on a log is kind of silly. Or maybe I'm just a poster-child for Pemco ads. I am wearing sandals and gore-tex and typing this from a Starbucks...
  - mechazoidal 15y ago
    But do you invite other people, or have some way of introducing others to it? That's kind of what I'm getting at: regardless of the activity, there's a social disconnect for getting people involved if they're not already in a circle of friends--and the few circles I was in didn't intersect at all. It's not necessarily an insurmountable gap but it's enough to intimidate most people who aren't already outgoing, or who are accustomed to a friendlier town. I grew up in Redmond, went to college at WSU, and moved into Seattle in 2002. For the longest time after that, when walking into a bar or show, I had to keep persuading myself that people were not going to point and scream at me like Donald Sutherland in the 70's Body Snatchers movie.
    - gills 15y ago

Mongoose 15y ago

One thing that I think would help is if Seattle startups did more recruiting at UW's CSE department. There's a reason why Seattle startups tend to be founded by ex-MS and -Amazon folks instead of fresh college grads. Very few students here know anything about the local startup scene and end up being gobbled up by big companies (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe) or moving to greener pastures in the Bay Area. Suster didn't mention connection with local education institutions as one of his 10 points, but I think taking advantage of the stream of talent coming out of UW would go a long way to providing good hires and fostering a greater sense of entrepreneurship among Seattle's young people.

Irfaan 15y ago
Alright - how do we go about this, then? Is there anyone driving anything like this already, or are we just waiting for some one to step in and just do this? This sounds valuable enough that I'd be willing to plunk down some of my company's time to make this happen. That said, I suspect we'd be a rather poor choice to drive this as we're running pretty independent of the rest of the Seattle startup scene. Given our community, though, there's gotta be someone whose a decent fit for this. Anyone?
- Mongoose 15y ago
  Redfin's a good example. They're at every UW CSE career fair and Glenn Kelman (Redfin's CEO) gives talks on campus every now and then. My original comment was a bit too focused on the companies' side of things. I think the main issue is a lack of awareness on the part of students. In my experience (as a current undergrad at UW), students simply don't know about the local startup scene and thus don't take the steps to capitalize on it. Given the decent number of organizations and meetups in the area that would provide good avenues for students to get involved (Seattle Tech Startups, Startup Weekend, Hops & Chops, TechCafe, etc), it's more a matter of connecting the dots than developing new social structures.
- dbalatero 15y ago
  I'm a UW CSE graduate (Mar 2009), and technical co-founder at MediaPiston. I can give good insight on recruiting at UW CSE - what works, what doesn't. Email me at (my HN username) at gmail.

michaelhalligan 15y ago

One of positive aspects from the year and a half I did in Seattle was that fewer engineering jobs meant people didn't expect to leave a company every year or two. When hiring systems engineers I found it easier to hire smart, competent employees who got shit done and had a long-term view. Three or four of the best engineers I've ever encountered, and my closest friendships, were built in Seattle. Still, I was somewhat underwhelmed by Seattle's tech scene. All conversations inevitably devolved into pity sessions comparing Seattle to the valley. Diversity seemed lacking; I recall only one engineer I met who didn't come from UW, Real, Amazon, Microsoft, or Boeing. The Microsofties would often introduce themselves by what they used to do at Microsoft before they had decided to cash in their 401k to jump onto the "Social" bandwagon. Oh, and the weather made me want to shoot myself.

haberman 15y ago

I'm not active in the startup scene, but how could an article like this not mention Seattle Tech Startups? http://www.seattletechstartups.com/ http://www.seattletechstartups.com/

TheIronYuppie 15y ago
My only problem with STS is the signal to noise ratio suffers - there's a lot of service providers and other folks on there that drown out the opportunity to make connections. It's a good start, but there are a ton more resources. If you really want to make a difference, or connect, my recommendation is attend one or all of the events here: http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/ http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/

rtalwar 15y ago

Hi All- I'd like to first introduce myself to everyone. My name is Rishi Talwar and I'm a senior majoring in Informatics at UW. I can't believe this is my first post on HN ever. I guess this topic really resonates with me because I've been passionate about the Seattle startup tech scene since the beginning of freshman year. I too agree that there needs to be a more emphasis on startups at UW and building software that ultimately help others/create value. From my personal experience I have seen that there are a few people who feel as passionate and inspired about startups. I found this out when I was looking to work with a UW CSE student on a project I had in mind which is now up here: http://www.fratapps.com/ http://www.fratapps.com/. I'm not a CS major but I'm still up on different types of technologies. Mainly, I'm a front-end and product guy who loves building stuff. Therefore I was seeking someone who was majoring in cs. After meeting with multiple students I finally found a friend who was willing to partner up and work with me who was a UW CSE student. But most of these students that I met didn't have any clue about the startup scene in Seattle or didn't care about building anything. This makes me feel that these students majoring in CSE are not passionate about their industry and ultimately get gobbled up by a big-co knowing that they will receive an $80,000+ salary. Maybe its not in their DNA or other factors drive them or its not in their curriculum. But there was definitely an utter lack of fire that is not money driven or by notoriety. However, this past year I've been happy to know that these students are out there like Mongoose and a few others who has been a tremendous advocate for startups and do it purely out of passion. Also, I have had the honor to meet a freshman business student who is probably way more well connected in the Startup scene then me (twitter:@mikeytom) who has worked on FratApps.com. When I read blog posts like this from Mark Suster it makes me want to hustle. Maybe there needs to be a startupWeekend for UW like StartupUW. Something that brings all facets of knowledge ie business, engineering, and Informatics or anyone else together on campus. I appreciate you reading this and would like to hear your thoughts. Thanks, Rishi Talwar twitter: @rishtal

calbear81 15y ago

Oren Etzioni (http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/etzioni/ http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/etzioni/), a UW professor, and co-founder of the previous startup I worked at in Seattle is also involved with several other new startups including Decide.com that just raised a $6M round.