GeekWire

Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week. Who would have thought that Microsoft could be the likely white knight to save social video app TikTok from threats by President Trump to ban it in the U.S.? Trump set a hard deadline this week for Microsoft or another entity to buy the company before he'll block all transactions with its Chinese parent company, ByteDan...

Big Tech spent back-to-back days in the national spotlight this week between a long-anticipated Congressional hearing and second-quarter earnings reports. The juxtaposed events paint a revealing picture of the risks and opportunities companies like Amazon face as they field accusations that they’ve grown too powerful while raking in record profits from customers who rely on their services mo...

Slack delivered a surprise this week with the filing of an antitrust complaint against Microsoft , alleging that the tech giant unfairly leverages Microsoft Office to give an edge to its Teams collaboration software. Microsoft responded with a pointed jab of its own , highlighting Slack's subpar video conferencing experience and its own investments in that area. What are Slack's chances, and what...

It should've been a banner year for FlyHomes. As 2019 drew to a close, the real estate startup had $141 million in fresh funding to fuel the expansion of its novel home-buying service beyond Seattle to Portland, Boston, and Los Angeles. Then, three weeks after announcing the expansion, the first-known U.S. coronavirus case was discovered in Flyhomes' backyard. The U.S. real estate market froze as...

Like many businesses entering 2020, Neu was riding a wave of optimism and growth. With its marketplace that connects Airbnb hosts with hotel-grade cleaners, the Seattle-based startup had found its niche. Just as Neu was joining the 11th cohort of Techstars Seattle to further fuel its success, the coronavirus pandemic arrived and changed everything. The economic fallout was swift, and travel was am...

Before the first-known U.S. coronavirus cases emerged in Rebellyous Foods’ hometown, Seattle, the startup was catering to the food services industry, targeting its its line of plant-based chicken products to cafeterias, schools, and other institutions. Rebellyous pivoted, accelerating development of a consumer product it could sell at grocery stores. Today that product is available at 14 mom...

The world of the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything any of us has ever experienced. We covered three stories this week that give us a glimpse into how the virus is changing our lives: We’ll talk about the new realities of work, through the lens of a Seattle area startup that just ditched its physical office space.  Then on to education, with the latest on what classes will look like a...

Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week. Despite the pandemic, funding for Seattle tech startups remains robust in the first half of 2020. In fact, funding is ahead of last year. What gives? We consider whether COVID-19 is accelerating some companies into the new economy of remote working, online shopping and more. Check out our list of startup funding to see...

Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week. Microsoft shocked the tech world Friday morning by announcing it would be closing all of its retail stores. What does this tell us about Microsoft's business strategy and what might it portend for the future of physical retail stores? Amazon made a bold move in a new direction by acquiring robotaxi startup Zoox. Why wou...

Here's what we're talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week. Not everyone loves Apple's App Store, it seems. This week, it become a target of criticism for its arcane rules and business practices. Even Microsoft President Brad Smith got into it when he said in an interview that he wants more scrutiny on app store policies imposed by its competitors, such as Apple and Google. What i...

"Racism is a pandemic. Whether it's tech, or whether it's any other form of business, we have the need for a vaccine that's going to stop it. And I think that can take many forms."  Those are the words of Adriane Brown, an Axon and eBay board member, former Intellectual Ventures president, and venture partner at Flying Fish Partners. She was speaking during a conversation about race and the t...

Twenty-five years ago, more than a decade before the debut of the iPhone, a different piece of technology had people lining up outside stores around the world: Microsoft's Windows 95. "Everything was mayhem," recalls Brad Chase, the former Microsoft executive who was in charge of marketing the operating system. "This was the product that ended up ushering computers and Microsoft and arguably Bill...

Here's what we're talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast: As protests over police violence continue across the country, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft all announce they won’t sell their controversial facial recognition software to law enforcement. But Amazon says it will only stop for a year. That earned the company some good will, but racial justice and civil rights groups called it a t...

A special GeekWire Podcast discussion hosted by Marilyn Strickland, former CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce; with Dave Cotter, Leafly chief product officer; Remitly CEO Matt Oppenheimer; and Adriane Brown, Flying Fish Partners venture partner, Axon and eBay board member and former Intellectual Ventures president. Read more: ‘It’s on us to dismantle racism.’ 10...

As thousands of Americans protest police aggression night after night, technology is giving millions at home their first window into scenes that are all too familiar to people of color. On this week's episode of GeekWire, civic editor Monica Nickelsburg explains how the cameras in our pockets are shaping the revolution in the streets. Although the demonstrations this week are rooted in history, te...

Dr. Cheryl Ingram has seen the statements from tech companies this week, expressing outrage over the death of George Floyd and speaking out against the racial inequities in our society. Now is the time for leaders to go beyond talk and take action, she says. Actually, the time was long ago. But now would work. "Tech has a huge responsibility," Ingram says, not only due to the prevalence of bias in...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Amazon and critics wage a PR war in the company’s first virtual annual meeting. One employee said working at an Amazon warehouse is like getting the "golden ticket," but a former employee and critic talked of "toxicity" in the company's culture. We watched, and cringed, and we’ll tell you all about it. Forme...

NASA and SpaceX are keeping a close eye on the weather in Florida and beyond as they get set for a second attempt to launch two NASA astronauts in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule this weekend. Read more on GeekWire .  What’s the significance of this launch? What does it mean for the commercial space race and the future of space exploration? On this special episode of the GeekWire Pod...

"Virtual-Classes Trend Alarms Professors." That was the headline on a 1998 New York Times story about an open letter to then-Gov. Gary Locke from University of Washington professors “worried about the enthusiasm he and one of his advisers are showing for instruction via CD-ROM's and the Internet.” More than 20 years later, with the pandemic making distance education an unavoidable real...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Word leaked out this week that Uber is considering buying food-delivery service Grubhub , and it turns out there are many Seattle connections behind the possible deal, including links to Expedia and several other companies. Food delivery is a tough market to make a buck in, for companies and their drivers, so what's in...

COVID-19 has upended the tech startup hiring market: There used to be more jobs than talent, but the situation has flipped in the face of business challenges from COVID-19. Tech giants and startups who are hiring now find they can pick from the cream of the crop. We've been looking into who's hiring, and what it's like to hire and onboard new employees remotely. Plus, how Silicon Valley's cutbacks...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast: Amazon's sales rose 26% in the first quarter as the COVID-19 crisis made the online retailer an even bigger part of many lives, but profits were down 30% due to expenses from dealing with the virus. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave a clear message to shareholders, saying they "may want to take a seat," because there are big c...

Here's what we're talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. “Picture restaurants that only seat people at every other table, and airplanes where every middle seat is empty.” That is what the “semi-normal” next phase of the pandemic will look like, Bill Gates says , offering a starkly pragmatic take that contrasts with predictions from President Trump that the economy...

For startup leaders accustomed to building their businesses in boom times, the economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic goes beyond mere setback, into the realm of complete shock. But even in these unprecedented times, there are lessons to be learned from past downturns, and from the steps other startups are taking to navigate the current crisis. "We have a whole generation of people who never w...

Here's what we're talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast: As numbers on COVID-19 improve, the debate begins over when and how Seattle, Washington state and the country will return to normal life. Gov. Jay Inslee and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have some thoughts. Washington’s attorney general sues Facebook for violating the state’s law on political ads. Microsoft says Amazon has onl...