Plenty of people wear their heart on their sleeve. Yerjasn (Jason) Ait wore his resume on his chest.

Smartly taking advantage of an event attended by more than 750 members of Seattle’s tech community, Ait showed up at the GeekWire Gala Thursday night sporting a white T-shirt with his resume printed on the front.

For those who missed the fine print, a larger notice across his back read, “Internship Wanted. CV’s on the front.”

During a time of mass layoffs and a tough labor market, when many tech job seekers are having an unusually difficult time landing their next gig, Ait’s fashion choice was a prime example of reading the room — or having it read him.

“I was wondering how I can stand out in a crowd, because I’m an international student, my English is not perfect, and I’m still learning a lot of things,” Ait told GeekWire.

He grew up in Kazakhstan in the city of Almaty and moved to the U.S. a year and half ago to get his Master’s in Communication at the University of Washington.

“It was a big dream when I was a kid to study abroad, especially in the best university,” he said.

Ait is due to graduate in June, and, like the T-shirt says, he’s looking for an internship or early career role that would utilize his skills in people management, product development, problem solving, and more.

The T-shirt definitely got people’s attention at the Gala, where Ait said 25 or 30 attendees tapped him on the shoulder to compliment his idea or extend a business card. It was only his second time attending an event of that kind, and there was some fear to overcome.

“I was so scared to speak with people who are very successful — they’re professionals, experts — and it was like imposter syndrome at the beginning,” he said. “Somehow I overcame this fear and just started talking with people. And that’s fun.”

Ait was especially frazzled because he was still getting the T-shirt printed two hours before the event, and a QR code linking to his digital resume was supposed to be part of the design but didn’t make it. Then he had to sit in Seattle traffic getting south to the Showbox SoDo.

The struggle to find work is a real one for people who have far fewer obstacles to overcome than some of the ones Ait has faced. Indeed recently reported on how tech-related job postings remain stuck well below pre-pandemic levels in Seattle. Macroeconomic headwinds and a climate of change in the artificial intelligence era add to increased uncertainty.

“I had everything in my home country. I had a nice job, nice house. It was a great comfort zone,” Ait said. “But I challenged myself to be here in a new country with a total new environment, new language, new people. And sometimes I felt kind of insecure, unsure what I’m doing. But right now, I can see I’m on the right direction. Maybe someday I’ll find my dream job.”

The morning after the Gala, Ait wrote a post on LinkedIn about some of the insights he gained from wearing the shirt. He offered it up as a “small playbook for international students” who are also looking for work or an internship.

Among what he learned: “Go to more events like this. It’s a muscle. You train it. Each time, I get better — more confident, more sharp, more clear.”

Kevin Leneway, a veteran engineering leader at the Pioneer Square Labs startup incubator in Seattle, is joining OpenAI as a solutions architect on the company’s startups team.

Leneway, a longtime member of the Seattle tech community, has led engineering efforts at PSL since 2017. Before that, he co-founded presentation software startup Haiku Deck in 2010 and was a developer evangelist at Microsoft for five years.

In a LinkedIn post, Leneway said he’ll remain in Seattle and continue his work with local startups. “I’ll find out more details about the specifics of the role soon, but my personal goal is to make a tighter connection between OpenAI and the Seattle startup ecosystem,” he said.

The hire reflects OpenAI’s growing presence in the Seattle region. The AI giant opened an office in Bellevue, Wash., in 2024, and acquired product development platform Statsig for $1.1 billion earlier this year.

— Madrona hired Eric Wong as director of portfolio growth. Wong joins the Seattle venture firm after marketing leadership stints at Symend, Jirav, Prompt.io, Conga, Tier 3, Docusign, and other companies.

In his new role, Wong will help Madrona’s portfolio companies with their go-to-market strategies. “I have had many opportunities in my career, but I can sincerely say, this is the one I am most excited about,” he said on LinkedIn.

— Seattle healthcare tech startup CueZen added Dr. Ramesh Rajentheran as CFO and head of Asia. Rajentheran has more than two decades of experience at the intersection of healthcare and finance. He co-founded MiyaHealth and Hisential, and is an operating partner at TVM Capital Healthcare.

CueZen, which sells software designed to boost personalized healthcare programs, raised $5 million earlier this year.

The halls have officially been tech’d.

Humans and robots rubbed shoulders and partied Thursday night at the 2025 GeekWire Gala as our annual holiday extravaganza drew more than 750 members of Seattle’s tech community to the Showbox SoDo.

The geeky event — presented by title sponsor First Tech Federal Credit Union — featured games, karaoke, dancing, food, drink, networking and plenty of good times.

• A Selfiebot roamed the floor capturing images of attendees and two Portraitbots drew quick caricatures.
• Robots raced at another station while people also had their pictures snapped in a robot photo booth.
• There was an espresso martini printer, specially printed macaroon cookies, a candy bar, a walking oyster bar and much more.

For the third year, GeekWire and Greater Seattle Partners once again recognized the region’s “Uncommon Thinkers,” the groundbreaking innovators who are changing the way we work, live and play. The honorees included: Anindya Roy, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Lila Biologics; Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can; Brian Pinkard, co-founder and CTO at Aquagga; Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems; Kiana Ehsani, co-founder and CEO of Vercept; and Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky.

Special thanks to our gold sponsors, Greater Seattle Partners, Pilot, and Astound Business Solutions; and silver sponsors, MeeBoss, Tito’s, The Baldwin Group, Wilson Sonsini, ALLtech, IDA Ireland, Microsoft for Startups, gone.com, Prime Team Partners, and Regence.

Thanks again to everyone for making our party your party. Happy holidays!

Keep scrolling for more photos from the 2025 GeekWire Gala:

“All this started with a really hot summer day in ’21,” said Chris Muench, sitting in a small conference room at Hyviva, his startup based in Redmond, Wash.

The Pacific Northwest was being scorched in a heat dome and Muench’s power went out at his home in nearby Duvall. The experience led him to purchase solar panels, but he also wanted to capture the excess power that was generated when the sun was shining its brightest, socking it away for when it wasn’t.

That led Muench and his wife, Sanja, to launch Hyviva in 2023. While many companies use the excess solar power to charge traditional batteries that hold the energy, this startup is harnessing the surplus power to turn water into hydrogen and storing that. The hydrogen is then turned back into energy via fuel cells when the electricity is needed.

This month, the business is shipping its first devices to customers.

Hyviva is initially targeting residential solar installations, a potentially ripe market as long-standing policies allowing homeowners to sell their unneeded solar power back to utilities are being phased out in many places. That excess power can total 20% or more of a household’s daily energy generation, according to a solar trade group.

“That’s the catalyst for storage,” said Paul Owen, chief marketing officer. “You’ve got this opportunity that’s going to waste right now.”

Stored solar power can also reduce a home’s reliance on utility-provided electricity — which is getting more expensive — and keep the lights on and fridge running during power outages.

A hydrogen storage solution

Hyviva’s device is a little narrower than a standard refrigerator, built from stacked units with a shiny black casing. Here’s how it works:

• Water plumbed into the system goes into an electrolyzer that splits it into hydrogen and oxygen. The excess energy from the solar panels essentially powers the electrolyzer.
• The hydrogen flows into slender, stainless steel tanks containing a metal that binds the gas, forming a metal hydride that stores the hydrogen.
• When power is needed, the metal hydride is heated, releasing the hydrogen that flows into fuel cells that convert it to electricity.
• All of the electrical and plumbing hardware are integrated into the structure of the unit, so installation requires little skilled labor.
• Because of their modularity, the systems are easy to expand to increase storage capacity.

“Every module can be plugged into another module without the need of a hydrogen expert,” Chris Muench said. “Just ‘Lego brick’ them together, and then you decide how much power draw do you want, how much storage do you want, how much hydrogen you want to generate.”

The Hyviva technology connects to an existing solar system’s inverter, which manages electricity flow. The startup’s software then optimizes the flow of energy into the home, balancing inputs from the grid, solar panels and the storage device.

The five-person company is promoting its technology online and was at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas last January. Hyviva’s initial customers are in Europe and the first units are being built in Germany. The startup can also do manufacturing in Redmond for U.S. customers.

Costs and competition

Hyviva’s biggest U.S. rival is the Tesla Powerwall system that uses conventional lithium-ion batteries to hold power. The company reported $7.4 billion in revenue last year from energy generation, and that number has continued to climb.

Hyviva touts its product’s competitive features across performance, safety and longevity. The startup’s basic system holds more power — 33.6 kilowatt hours to Tesla’s 13.5 kWh. While blazes are uncommon, lithium ion batteries pose a fire risk that’s greater than the hydrogen present in a Hyviva device for short periods. And conventional batteries lose capacity over time, while the metal hydride retains its hydrogen storage capabilities for decades.

The startup, however, faces big hurdles when it comes to costs.

Tesla’s Powerwall 3 costs roughly $15,000, including the system and installation costs, while a Hyviva unit is priced at about $40,000.

But when it comes to scaling the storage capacity, the cost advantage flips as it’s cheaper and easier to add hydrogen storage to the Hyviva system. So a 90-kilowatt hour setup is about $50,000 for the startup, while the company estimates a comparable Tesla system would cost $82,000 installed.

To put the capacity in perspective, a U.S. single-family household consumes around 80 kilowatt hours of power per day on average. The cost benefits of the larger deployments continue amplifying for commercial- and industrial-scale applications, the company said.

The broader picture

As power demand keeps expanding globally, experts estimate that $1.2 trillion worth of battery energy storage will be needed through 2034. That escalating need is reflected in pockets of growth in the sector, including a Texas startup called Base Power that leases batteries to homeowners and recently announced $1 billion in new funding. And energy storage is being paired with data centers to reduce their power grid impacts, including at an Oregon campus that’s installing 31 megawatts of batteries.

At the same time, Hyviva and others face political headwinds at the federal level as the current administration pushes policies and budgets that hobble renewable energy companies and deployments.

But the startup is attracting interest, said Chief Operations Officer John Traynor. It has funding from an angel investor and reports having dozens of potential customers, with commercial sites and utilities reaching out as well.

“That’s given us the confidence that we’re on the right track,” Traynor said.

Editor’s note: Story updated to elaborate on how the energy storage system works.

Ridwell, the Seattle startup that collects plastic and other hard-to-recycle items from consumers, keeps growing its footprint across the U.S.

The company recently expanded beyond the home pickup bins where it got its start with a new mail-in service that has already attracted about 20,000 users in recent months.

It is also reeling in more investment. A new SEC filing reveals the company has raised $15 million in fresh cash. Ridwell CEO Ryan Metzger declined to comment on the filing.

Metzger, a former director at Madrona and Zulily, told GeekWire that the mail-in service has grown “remarkably,” helping Ridwell extend its reach to 130,000 customers in all 50 states.

Customers can recycle multi-layer plastic such as bags for chips or candy wrappers, as well as plastic film, which includes grocery bags and bubble wrap, by packing it all in a bag provided by Ridwell. They schedule a home pickup through Ridwell’s integration with the U.S. Postal Service and then track their garbage’s recycling journey online.

There’s no monthly subscription like there is with Ridwell bin pickups. Customers pay $30 to start and about $9 for each return, spaced out however often they need the service.

Metzger has been promoting the new offering at nearly 200 community meetups throughout the country. “It’s a great way to get the word out and really build adoption amongst people who are most passionate,” he said.

Ridwell’s traditional pickup service still operates across eight metro areas in seven states: Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota and Texas. Customers pay $20 for that monthly service in which plastics and other add-ons such as Styrofoam or batteries are collected by Ridwell drivers.

Metzger said that as adoption grows in a certain region, that region can be turned into a pickup area, with a Ridwell facility, drivers and other workers. The new funding will facilitate that growth. All of the materials from pickup and mail-in are routed to 10 Ridwell-run processing facilities around the country.

Ridwell, which employs about 250 people, sorts, bales, and ships materials such as multi-layer plastic to a variety of partners, who give the material a second life. For instance, Trex makes composite decking materials; Hydroblox makes water drainage material; and ByFusion makes construction-grade building blocks.

Metzger called the mail-in service’s integration with the Postal Service a unique user experience. Through the Ridwell website, customers can schedule a pickup for a carrier who will grab a bag of recycling during a typical mail drop.

Because the practice of recycling and whether it actually works or makes a difference environmentally has been called into question in recent years, Metzger said it’s important to show customers the journey of their materials.

“We try to do some of what e-commerce has built over decades, and bring that to the reverse side of things,” he said of Ridwell’s package tracking. “So when you give us stuff, you see where it goes, the fact that it actually made it there, and what it gets turned into.”

Metzger launched Ridwell in 2018 after he and his then-7-year-old son were trying to get rid of dead batteries and realized it wasn’t that easy.

During his talks with community members — from Port Townsend, Wash., to Concord, Mass. — Metzger likes to demonstrate the physical result of recycling, showing off a piece of Trex or Hydroblox.

“I can say, ‘Here’s all this stuff that you can put in that bag, and then here’s what it turns into,'” Metzger said. “There is a trust barrier that we’re overcoming, so it’s important to meet people and look at them face to face and show them what happens to it.”

Previously:

• Ridwell starts collecting more difficult types of plastic as recycling startup grows to seven states
• Behind the recycling scenes at Ridwell: Seattle startup growing as fast as piles of plastic and more

Tonight’s the night for the GeekWire Gala, our annual holiday extravaganza in Seattle, featuring food, drinks, music, dancing, karaoke, games and the best chance to network with more than 700 fellow tech community members.

There are still a few last-minute tickets available, so grab one now for yourself or wrangle some co-workers for a festive night on the town. Make our holiday party your holiday party!

For those attending, here’s a rundown of what to expect. If you have questions, please email us at events@geekwire.com. Big thanks to First Tech Federal Credit Union, the GeekWire Gala title sponsor.

When: Thursday, Dec. 11., from 6 to 10 p.m.

Where: Showbox SoDo, 1700 1st Ave S., a few blocks from T-Mobile Park.

Parking: There are several pay lots within a 2-minute walk of the venue. There is also additional parking information here.

Do I need to bring a physical ticket? No. If you are registered, we’ll check your ID at registration, and provide your name badge. 

Is there assigned seating at tables? No. The Gala is an open floor plan and a free-flowing party, with a number of activities. It is not a sit-down dinner, and there are no assigned tables.  

Are tickets still available? Yes. If you have friends or colleagues who’d like to attend, please encourage them to pre-register on the event site here. 

Festivities: The festive night includes food, drinks, DJ, karaoke, custom printed macarons, candy bar, giant LED games, giveaways and more.

Attire: You have the rare license to don cocktail attire in Seattle. Or wear whatever you want. Tuxedos? Sure. Geeky T-shirts? Yep. Even better, break out your fiercest festive fashion. See fashion photos from past GeekWire Galas here. 

Food: The tasty appetizers will be heavy, but it’s not dinner. And drinks will include coffee, beer, signature cocktails and more.

Age limit: The GeekWire Gala is a 21+ event. Attendees must have valid ID to enter.

Social media: The official hashtag of the 2024 GeekWire Gala is #GWGala on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

In addition to the party atmosphere, GeekWire and Greater Seattle Partners will once again use the Gala to recognize the region’s “Uncommon Thinkers,” the groundbreaking innovators who are changing the way we work, live and play. Read our profiles of the six honorees.

Our gold sponsors are Greater Seattle Partners, Pilot, and Astound Business Solutions; and silver sponsors include MeeBoss, Tito’s, The Baldwin Group, Wilson Sonsini, ALLtech, IDA Ireland, Microsoft for Startups, gone.com, and Regence.

Seattle-based mental health startup Joon Care has been acquired by Handspring Health, a New York-based health tech company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The acquisition is a major step toward building the most clinically rigorous and digitally engaging platform for youth and family mental healthcare in the country,” said Sahil Choudhry, co-founder and CEO of New York-based Handspring, in a LinkedIn post.

Joon launched in 2019 to provide online care for teens and young adults, pairing digital tools with virtual therapy sessions. The company serves patients 13- to 26-years-old who need help with anxiety, depression, disordered eating, sexual and gender identity, academic problems and other challenges. The course of therapy typically runs 16 weeks. The company’s program emphasizes its use of evidence-based care strategies and patient assessments to track progress.

Joon spun out of Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs (PSL) and raised an initial $3.5 million round in 2020. Two years ago, it announced an additional $6 million investment, which would provide two to three years of operations, CEO Emily Pesce said at the time.

Handspring said in a press release that it would be integrating the companies’ “expert teams,” but did not say if all of Joon’s employees would be retained. The company has roughly 50 employees, based on information on LinkedIn.

GeekWire reached out to Pesce and will update the story if we hear back.

Handspring launched in 2021 and has raised $18.2 million, according to PitchBook. It also provides virtual therapy and online support, serving a slightly larger demographic with patients from 8- to 29-years-old.

Both companies operate multi-state platforms. Joon is licensed to provide care in Washington, Oregon, California, Texas, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Its treatment is covered by 16 insurance companies, according to its website, and includes national giants Aetna and UnitedHealthcare.

Joon also launched a partnership in 2023 with the City of Seattle to provide free care to clients who are referred to the startup through the city’s human services programs. The collaboration appears to be ongoing, and Handspring said it would continue serving families under Joon’s existing contracts with government agencies, as well as treatment covered by insurance companies.

Pesce was a finalist for Startup CEO of the Year at the 2023 GeekWire Awards.

Only a few months ago, Outbound Aerospace was on its way up — literally — after raising more than $1 million in pre-seed funding and flying a prototype meant to pave the way for a blended-wing passenger jet. But now the Seattle startup’s fortunes have fallen back to earth.

Outbound’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Jake Armenta, announced on LinkedIn last week that the company was shutting down. He joked that the news would be greeted with celebration by “competitors such as Boeing, who have been rightly terrified of us.”

During an interview with GeekWire, Armenta took a more serious tone as he discussed why Outbound fell short: “The simplest answer is that we ran out of money, and hadn’t really secured customer commitments that were strong enough to secure the next stage of investment,” he said.

Armenta said Outbound was caught between its initial strategy to create a different kind of passenger aircraft and an evolving strategy to start out building drones for military customers. That commercial-to-military pivot is an option many aerospace startups are considering as the prospects brighten for programs including the Golden Dome missile defense system, next-generation drones, tactically responsive space systems and hypersonic air vehicles.

“We didn’t really plan on being a military vendor,” he said. “But I have a background in Boeing Phantom Works, and I spent a lot of time working on drones at Boeing … so I know exactly what kind of things the U.S. government’s looking for. In that regard, we were able to put together a pretty compelling kind of platform.”

Outbound’s team came up with a drone concept called the Gateway UAV, which closely resembles the 22-foot-wide, blended-wing prototype that was tested in March. Gateway would fly rapidly deployable “mission containers” that could carry cargo or a suite of sensors for national security missions.

Armenta said the concept attracted significant interest from potential military customers. “But the U.S. military is a slow customer to work with, and the truth is, they prefer to work with companies that are very well funded,” he said.

Unfortunately, Outbound was not that kind of company in the summer of 2025. The company had raised $1.3 million dollars in total investment — including $500,000 from Blue Collective, a matching amount from Antler, and the remainder from smaller private investors. But even $1.3 million goes only so far.

“By pivoting away from the big aircraft, we lost the interest of some of the initial investors who were really wanting to do big moonshot projects,” Armenta said. “And then the investors who wanted to invest in military drones wanted to see a lot more traction than we had.”

Outbound CEO Ian Lee told GeekWire that the company faced a “chicken-and-egg” problem.

“We got stuck with DoD customers who were saying, ‘Hey, this is amazing. We want to see it demoed. And then we can write a contract, and contract equals dollars,'” Lee recalled. “So, then we turned around and went to the investment community and said, ‘They want to see a demo, and we need to raise [money] to do that.’ It’s kind of a ‘we need money to go make money’ situation, and we were too far along to raise that young money, if you want to call it that.”

Armenta said the timing was bad for a shift in strategy. “You know, there’s a version of this where if we had decided early on, ‘Hey, we’re going to build a military drone first and put all of our effort into that’ … I think we would have been able to sell it without a problem in the time frame that we had,” he said. “But we didn’t really decide that until midway through.”

Ironically, at the same time Outbound Aerospace was running on empty, the buzz surrounding the venture was revving up.

A month ago, the BBC featured Outbound alongside JetZero and Volatus Aerospace’s Natilus project in a story about the rising interest in blended-wing aircraft designs. And two months ago, Lee said in a LinkedIn post that he was “excited for y’all to see what’s next.”

“That post was leading into several discussions with investors to go do the DoD work that we needed to do,” Lee said this week. “We had half of our round secured at that point, we were talking to a number of other players, and we had the DoD product ready. … At that point, I was expecting investment to come on pretty quickly and [we could] start talking about that publicly. It never came through.”

So, what’s next? Outbound’s website still touts the Gateway drone as well as the 254-passenger Olympic airliner, which is said to be “coming in 2033.”

Lee promised that those concepts won’t be “disappearing into the ether,” and Armenta plans to make sure they don’t.

“We designed not one or two, but five novel transport-category aircraft at Outbound … and all of them are pretty neat,” he said. “I’m going to spend a little bit of time talking about those more publicly over the next couple of months. Maybe next year.”

Both founders are taking time to consider their next steps.

“I’m doing some consulting,” Lee said. “I am advising a couple of friends and also interviewing at various companies. Actually, part of what I’m trying to do is pick what the next few years of projects look like. I’m taking a pause on running a startup directly. I’ll probably be back at that at some point, but not for the next few years.”

Armenta is also helping out some friends in the aerospace industry while he takes stock of what he’s learned over the past couple of years.

“We were a lot closer than we had any right to be,” he said. “The thing is, there’s so much hunger in the market, and in every market for new aircraft across the board. We saw that in the drone space, but it’s really there in the commercial space and even in the business-jet space.”

Even though Outbound’s fortunes have fallen back to earth, Armenta is still looking up. “This has been something that I’ve been wanting to do — literally — for 30 years,” he said. “I’m 34 years old, and I can remember being a very small child and wanting to build aircraft. This has never stopped.”

The lessons learned at Outbound have only heightened his resolve. “Through this journey over the last couple of years, I saw a small, constrained number of errors that we made,” Armenta said. “I think that in the future, with a slightly different strategy, with all the knowledge and information and preparation that I have now … I’ll be back. Like I said, I’ll be back.”

Now in its third year, GeekWire’s “Uncommon Thinkers” — in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners — recognizes the inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs transforming industries and driving positive change in the world.

We met six innovators this year who are leading startups that address such things as the design of drug candidates; a throwback idea for phones for kids; a new approach to social media; elimination of harmful chemicals; spacecraft propulsion; and AI that performs computer tasks on your behalf.

Their colleagues call them “creative,” “mission-driven,” “laser-focused,” “incredibly low-ego,” and “brilliant.”

The honorees will be celebrated as part of Thursday’s GeekWire Gala in Seattle.

Catch up on our profiles of each winner below:

Anindya Roy, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Lila Biologics

• Anindya Roy’s path from a village in rural India to co-founding Seattle’s Lila Biologics is a story of persistence, curiosity, and boundary-pushing science. After training in top U.S. research labs, including the Baker Lab at the University of Washington, Roy now helps turn advanced protein-design concepts into real drug candidates — from cancer therapies to long-acting injectables — using cutting-edge computational tools. His journey highlights how unconventional thinking can drive the next wave of biotech innovation. Read more.

Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can

• Chet Kittleson is on a mission to bring back something rare in 2025: screen-free, voice-to-voice connection for kids. Tin Can‘s bright, WiFi-enabled landline phones are designed to let kids call each other or trusted contacts — no apps, no social media, no distractions. After raising $3.5 million and selling out its first two batches, Tin Can now has customers in all 50 states and across Canada. For Kittleson, every ring is a sign that parents are craving simpler, more meaningful ways for their children to connect — and that this retro-inspired hardware could be the antidote to screen overload. Read more.

Brian Pinkard, co-founder and CTO of Aquagga

• Brian Pinkard went from “flipping rocks” on trail crews in the Colorado Rockies to engineering a solution to one of the most stubborn pollution problems we face: “forever chemicals.” Now, at Tacoma, Wash.-based startup Aquagga, he’s using advanced chemistry to destroy PFAS contamination at its source. From hazardous-waste research to modular PFAS-destruction systems that have already been tested in Alaska, firefighting-foam cleanup, and municipal wastewater projects, Pinkard and his team are proving that impact-focused engineers can tackle environmental problems others call unsolvable. Read more.

Jeff Thornburg, co-founder and CEO of Portal Space Systems

• Jeff Thornburg is pushing the boundaries of what satellites can do by building a spacecraft that literally rides on sunlight. Through its flagship design, Supernova, Portal Space Systems plans to use solar-thermal propulsion to give future spacecraft dramatic, “science fiction”-style maneuverability: rapid orbital shifts, long mission lifetimes, and flexibility for both defense and commercial missions. Backed by a $17.5 million seed round and building out a large manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash., Portal is transforming from startup vision to production-ready aerospace player — and Thornburg’s journey from SpaceX and Project Kuiper alum to leading a next-gen space venture shows just how far ambition and real engineering can take you. Read more.

Kiana Ehsani, co-founder and CEO of Vercept

• Kiana Ehsani is building AI platforms at Seattle-based Vercept not just to optimize workflows, but to give people back their time to live. With Vercept’s flagship tool Vy, her team has created a system that “sees” computer screens like a human, records workflows once, and then lets users automate tasks with a natural-language command. That means no more juggling dozens of apps, remembering shortcuts, or writing code — and more freedom to hike trails, ski mountains, or simply step away from the screen like Ehsani herself does when she’s out in nature. Read more.

Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky

• Jay Graber is steering Bluesky not as a traditional social-network boss, but as a “pragmatic idealist” building a decentralized digital world that puts power back in users’ hands. Instead of locking content and social graphs behind proprietary walls, Bluesky is built on the open AT Protocol — meaning people can carry their posts, followers, and identity across platforms, even if the original app disappears. Graber envisions Bluesky as less a product and more a living “collective organism,” one that could become the foundation for a more open, flexible social internet. Read more.

Tracking down a far-flung team for a 40-year reunion isn’t easy. But the people who worked on Windows 1.0 got some help from their younger selves: a mischievous Easter egg they hid long ago in the software that would become the foundation of the world’s dominant PC platform.

Back in the mid-1980s, before the product launched, they secretly inserted credits in the code, listing their names, to be revealed through a specific combination of keystrokes. 

As the story goes, Bill Gates inadvertently found the list by slamming his fists on the keyboard in frustration over the system’s sluggishness, a discovery that only made things worse. The fix: make the sequence more obscure. It worked. The credits went unnoticed by the public until 2022, when a researcher who was reverse-engineering old Windows binaries found them.

When members of the Windows 1.0 team decided to hold a 40th anniversary reunion this year, that roster became their starting point. It was a time capsule that doubled as a guest list.

A core group from that original Windows team reunited over dinner at Steve Ballmer’s offices in Bellevue on Tuesday evening — trading memories, correcting the historical record, and marveling at what they accomplished back then under nearly impossible circumstances.

“Today, developers have all these tools, drag and drop,” said Rao Remala, an early Windows developer, adding that he would challenge anyone today to build a functioning PC operating environment under the 64K segment limits and other technical constraints of the era.

“Have you tried it in ChatGPT?” Ballmer joked from across the room. 

This year has been filled with commemorative milestones for the tech giant, from Microsoft’s 50th to Excel’s 40th to the 30th anniversary of the company’s internet pivot. But this one is different. It’s a glimpse into one of Microsoft’s scrappiest projects, from a moment in its history when key resources — including budget and computing power — were far more scarce.

Microsoft’s landmark platform

Windows 1.0, which shipped on a set of 5.25-inch floppy disks, was technically considered an operating environment, not an operating system, because it ran on MS-DOS 2.0.

Microsoft announced it was developing Windows in November 1983. The release was delayed as the team worked through leadership turnover, technical challenges, and user-interface debates (i.e., tiled vs. overlapping windows), giving rise to industry accusations of peddling “vaporware.” Windows 1.0 finally debuted on Nov. 20, 1985.

By the time it launched, Apple’s Macintosh had set the standard with its elegant interface (at least by 1980s standards). Other DOS-based alternatives were also on the market. Critics favored the Mac’s polish, but Microsoft bet on broad PC compatibility, and that approach ultimately paid off.

Microsoft would later get sidetracked temporarily by its ill-fated OS/2 partnership with IBM, before Windows 3.1 became a breakout hit and Windows 95 set the global standard.

But none of it would have been possible without Windows 1.0. The intense, multi-year project was the foundation for the platform that ultimately turned Microsoft into one of the world’s most valuable companies, launching careers that would reshape the tech industry.

For Ballmer, who was tapped to get Windows 1.0 across the finish line long before he became Microsoft’s CEO, the 40-year reunion stirred up old memories and emotions. 

“Of all the things I worked on at Microsoft, in a way, I have the most pride about this project,” he told the group, explaining that he truly felt part of the team.

Figuring things out on the fly

As the night went on, the stories came out, some of them for the first time.

Working out of Microsoft’s Bellevue offices, before the company moved to Redmond, the team was largely in their 20s and even their teens in some cases. (Ballmer, in his late 20s at the time, was one of the older people in the office.) That helps to explain the culture at the time. 

“Work and social life — there was no difference. It all sort of blended together,” said Scott Ludwig, who worked on the Windows 1.0 window manager, the core system that handled windows, input, events, menus, and dialog boxes.

They were often figuring things out as they went. For example, when Lin Shaw started in August 1984, months before the original ship date, not a single printer driver existed. She built the banding architecture — a way of imaging one strip of a page at a time to work within memory constraints — that would last through Windows 95.

She routinely stayed up all night and considered it the best job in the world. “It was just like college,” she told the group during the reunion dinner, “except I got paid really well.”

Gates got involved — at times down to the smallest details. Mark Taylor, who wrote the calculator and other early Windows apps, recalled Gates asking him to remove a timer delay in the Reversi game — not to make it faster, but to make Windows look faster. Years later, chips got so fast that the move flashed by too quickly to see, turning the fix into a bug.

Joe King, who worked on the Windows Control Panel, had an office across the hall from Ballmer with remarkably thin walls. He watched a parade of people come for their “SteveB meeting.” The pattern was always the same: quiet conversation at first, then Ballmer would start pacing, getting louder, gesturing emphatically, and reaching a crescendo before it was over.

“The door would open, a guy would sheepishly walk out, and Steve would greet the next person with full energy and enthusiasm,” King recalled. “I would see that all day long.”

Tandy Trower reminisced about joining the team in 1985 despite being warned that it was a dead end by another product manager, Rob Glaser, later of RealNetworks fame. 

“I came to Microsoft with this vision of bringing software to the people,” Trower said, explaining that Ballmer pitched the Windows project to him as a way of accomplishing that goal. 

He took the job, only to discover the head development manager was already gone. Ballmer offered reassurances that the product was “virtually done.” It wasn’t. 

When Trower suggested changes — overlapping windows, proportional fonts — he got the same response: “You want to ship this year?” The answer was yes. Trower ended up working on Windows through Windows 95, part of a Microsoft career that ultimately spanned 28 years.

Marlin Eller, a programmer and musician, was interested in building a music notation editor. At the end of his first year, Gates asked what he wanted to work on. Eller pitched his idea. Gates engaged enthusiastically, then asked: “How big is the market?” Eller realized it was very small.

Gates had another idea. For music notation, Eller would need to build a graphics package — lines, ovals, curves, etc. An operating system needed that foundational technology to support spreadsheets and charts. And that’s how Eller ended up working on Windows. 

“The thing the world does not know,” Eller joked before the dinner, “is that Windows was written so I could do music notation. All those other people were working for me.”

Pulling pranks and checking facts

And then there were the pranks. A month or two before Windows 1.0 shipped, for example, developer Mark Cliggett decided to have some fun. He wrote a program that gradually turned off bits on a computer screen, and installed it on Ballmer’s machine when he wasn’t there.

“Multiple bad decisions right there,” Cliggett acknowledged: putting malware on a colleague’s computer, giving it to the future CEO, and missing the irony given the security challenges that would consume the industry years later. Marlin Eller wasted an hour debugging the problem before realizing what had happened. Ballmer, to his credit, didn’t hold a grudge.

GeekWire was invited to cover the Windows 1.0 reunion and document all this history. To prepare, I pulled together a 16-page report using Google’s NotebookLM to mine for information about Windows 1.0 in a variety of historical documents, books, and articles.

After I mentioned this to Ballmer, he suggested I open the evening by reading some colorful anecdotes from the research. It turned into an impromptu fact-checking exercise. 

Did Ballmer really call a meeting at 9 a.m. on Easter Sunday 1985 and take down the names of anyone who didn’t show? Yes, he called the meeting. No, he didn’t take names. “I wouldn’t call it exactly a loyalty test,” Ballmer explained, saying it was more about setting a tone. 

Did the team really blow off steam by making bombs and rockets with sugar and saltpeter, drawing police to the building when a security guard smelled explosives? Actually, that happened when making a later Windows version, according to someone who was there. The security guard joined them to blow up traffic cones in the parking garage. The police came later, when they were hiding in the library. (The details are a little fuzzy, but you get the idea.)

And finally, turning to a canonical story about the Windows 1.0 project: was the pivotal 1983 Comdex demo really just a videotape flashing graphics on the screen — classic smoke and mirrors to freeze the market? No. “This was real code,” Remala insisted. 

“It was a little more smoky than not,” Ballmer added, “but it was all real code.”

Some notable former members of the Windows 1.0 team were missing from the reunion, including the famously hard-to-reach Gabe Newell, who went on to co-found Valve and build Steam into the dominant PC gaming platform.

Scott McGregor, the lead development manager recruited from Xerox PARC, left before Windows 1.0 shipped. McGregor later co-authored the X11 windowing system at DEC and served as CEO of Broadcom.

Other members of the Windows 1.0 team went on to remarkably varied careers. 

For example, user interface developer Neil Konzen worked at Ferrari in Italy and pioneered Formula One telemetry. Ed Mills, who worked on fonts, runs a movement therapy practice in Bellevue and is involved in a nonprofit that operates a roller-skating rink in Issaquah.

Cliggett became a long-distance running coach. Eller (who went on to co-author the book Barbarians Led by Bill Gates) teaches computer science. Trower founded a robotics company and continues to work in the field. Taylor is a Seattle public school teacher.

King still introduces himself in the Seattle tech scene by saying he goes back to Windows 1.0 — sometimes prompting the response: “There was a 1.0?” Yes, there sure was.

For Ballmer, the Windows 1.0 experience led to a management technique he still uses today. On his first day as development manager, he repeated to the team what he’d been told was the schedule for different aspects of the project. He heard laughter in response.

He now calls this the “snicker test” — repeat back what you’ve heard from a project’s leaders, and see how the room reacts. If they laugh, you know you’re not getting the true story.

But the real legacy of Windows is much bigger, he told the group this week. If it had shipped two or three years later, Windows wouldn’t have been a relevant product, he said. The key, he explained, was figuring out how to ship “enough of the right stuff at the right time.”

“You did, and it’s nothing short of amazing,” Ballmer said. “It did change the world.”

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson is setting aside $350,000 from an economic development fund to support Portal Space Systems’ expansion into a new 50,000-square-foot satellite manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash.

Ferguson announced today that he’s directing the state Department of Commerce to award funds from the Governor’s Economic Development Strategic Reserve Fund to Economic Alliance Snohomish County. The funding will help Portal transition from testing and development to scalable production, with a goal of building four spacecraft a month by 2027.

The expansion is expected to create more than 100 jobs in the next two years, and more than 700 jobs by 2030.

“Strategic Reserve Funds are targeted investments that create good paying jobs and spur innovation across Washington,” Ferguson said in a news release. “This project not only achieves those goals, it also reaffirms our state’s role as a leader in the space industry. I am proud to support pioneering projects like this in Washington.”

Portal already operates an 8,000-square-foot facility in Bothell, where it’s been developing the hardware for its flagship Supernova in-space mobility platform and a smaller spacecraft dubbed Starburst. Supernova will feature an innovative solar thermal propulsion system, which uses concentrated sunlight as a heat source for its thrusters. Both spacecraft are designed to provide greater mobility for commercial and government payloads in orbit.

“We’ve spent the last year proving what’s possible. Now we’re scaling to deliver it,” Portal co-founder and CEO Jeff Thornburg said. “This support from Washington isn’t just about growth. It’s about building a strategic capability for the nation and doing it right here in Bothell.”

Revenue for the Strategic Reserve Fund comes from unclaimed lottery prize money. The funds are intended to attract and retain jobs and economic investment in Washington, limited to highly strategic projects that deliver significant job creation and capital investment. These projects are considered in partnership with local associate development organizations, such as Economic Alliance Snohomish County. The governor determines awards based on recommendations from the Department of Commerce.

“Portal Space Systems represents the kind of bold, future-facing innovation we’re proud to see growing in Washington,” said Commerce Director Joe Nguyen. “With the governor’s new investment, Portal is better equipped to scale up its cutting-edge operations. This strengthens Washington’s position as a hub for world-class talent and national space infrastructure.”

Grants from the Strategic Reserve Fund must be accompanied by private investment. Since its founding in 2021, Portal has raised more than $22 million in venture capital financing and grants, and received a commitment of $45 million in public-private funding through the U.S. Space Force’s STRATFI program.

— T-Mobile appointed Jon Freier as its new chief operating officer. He succeeds Srini Gopalan, who was named CEO of the Bellevue, Wash., telecom giant in a surprise move that took effect last month.

Freier joins the C-suite from his previous position as president of the T-Mobile Consumer Group, a title he has held since 2021. But he has been with the company for much longer: Freier began his professional career at Western Wireless in 1994 when he was 19 years old. That business became T-Mobile after Germany’s Deutsche Telekom took over as majority shareholder in 2001.

The company disclosed Freier’s promotion in a filing. T-Mobile has undergone additional leadership reshuffling in recent months, expanding the role of its chief technologist and marking the departure of its chief communications and corporate responsibility officer and its business group president.

— Alex Berezhnyy is now chief technology officer for RentSpree, a Seattle company that supports the rental application and screening process, and helps manage lease documents and payments.

Berezhnyy was previously at the real estate platform Redfin for more than a decade, leaving the role of vice president of engineering. Prior to that, he was at Amazon where he served in a variety of software development manager roles in retail systems and Kindle education.

“[Berezhnyy] brings deep technical expertise, a track record of building strong teams, and a bold vision for how AI will shape the future of renting,” RentSpree posted on LinkedIn.

— Paige Johnson has left her role as Microsoft’s vice president of Education. She is relaunching EdCatalyst Group, an Oregon-based consulting business that she previously ran for nearly three years that supports companies, nonprofits and public organizations in using AI to expand their impact.

“My years at Microsoft were an extraordinary chapter. I learned so much about how AI is reshaping industries — from education and media to public sector and financial services,” Johnson said on LinkedIn.

Earlier in her career, Johnson was with Intel for nearly two decades, creating and scaling a professional development program that trained millions of teachers worldwide.

— James Newell is chief financial officer of WayTrade, a commodity trading company focused on renewable fuels including sustainable aviation fuel.

Newell, who will work remotely from Seattle, was previously a general partner with Voyager Capital, an investor in early stage companies in the Pacific Northwest.

“I found the perfect opportunity to make a meaningful impact at a company that itself makes a meaningful impact, and I get to do so alongside incredible people,” Newell said on LinkedIn.

— After 15 years with Amazon Web Services, Julien Ellie has resigned from his job as senior principal engineer. Ellie praised his colleagues who helped shape cloud computing, but said the company he joined and what AWS has become are no longer the same.

“From where I sit, process has taken precedence over customers, and rules have replaced high judgment. The culture has shifted from high trust to low trust, and from impact-driven to ‘who you know.’ That doesn’t align with the builder mindset that brought me here,” Ellie said on LinkedIn.

Prior to Amazon, Ellie was at Microsoft for nearly a decade.

— Jonathan Assayag has left his Sunnyvale, Calif., role with Amazon where he served as general manager and director of the company’s smart eyewear program. During more than nine years at the tech giant, Assayag worked on products including Echo Frames and Smart Delivery Glasses.

“These were true zero-to-one efforts that pushed ambient computing, Voice AI, and AI-assisted workflows into new territory. They challenged me both as a builder and a leader, sharpening how I think, make decisions, and drive impact,” he said on LinkedIn.

Assayag also thanked his team members and company leaders. He did not share his next move.

— Gravyty, a Seattle-based company that facilitates alumni donations and higher ed student engagement, named Lisa Haubenstock as its new chief customer officer. Haubenstock joins Gravyty from shipping logistics company Truckstop, and has held roles at Amazon and the education company Everfi.

“Gravyty presents an opportunity to tie together so much of my previous experience with a truly dedicated global team working to build something great,” Haubenstock said on LinkedIn.

— Bobby Franzo is now CEO of WatchMeGrow, a Lacey, Wash.-based company that provides cameras and live video streaming in the childcare, pet-care and senior-care spaces. He succeeds John Lewison, who led the company for 24 years and is now a board member and advisor.

Franzo is the founder of PB&J TV (Peanut Butter and Jelly TV), a streaming service that merged with WatchMeGrow earlier this year.

“What started as an idea to give families peace of mind has evolved into a company shaping how technology supports safety and quality during the most important years of a child’s development,” Lewison said on LinkedIn. He added that Franzo “is exactly what the company needs at this moment, and I’m thrilled he’s at the helm.”

— CreateMe, a California-based clothing manufacturer using robotic assembly lines, announced two leadership changes:

• Nick Chope, who is located in Portland, Ore., has been promoted to chief engineer and head of manufacturing. Chope has worked in robotics and automation at Microsoft, Apple, his own firm and elsewhere.
• Seattle’s Natasha Chand is now executive advisor, having previously worked as the global CEO of Amazon Softlines Private Label, which includes clothes, footwear and accessories.

— Lauren Weinberg is now a board advisor at Adora, a Seattle-based marketing technology startup that emerged from stealth in October. Her past roles include leadership positions at Peleton Interactive, Square, Yahoo and elsewhere.

Bananas, blackberries, limes and more — Amazon’s same-day delivery of perishable grocery items has expanded across the U.S. to more than 2,300 cities and towns, the company announced Wednesday.

Amazon launched the expanded offering earlier this year, allowing customers to integrate items such as fresh produce, seafood, milk and more into their regular shopping orders of electronics, books, clothes, and household essentials.

And customers have responded.

Fresh groceries now make up nine of the top 10 most-ordered same-day items, according to Amazon, with a 12-pack of toilet paper rounding out the bunch.

Analysts say Amazon’s rapid expansion of same-day delivery for fresh groceries marks a meaningful escalation in its long-term push into perishable food — a category where it has historically lagged.

The company’s scale and logistics reach allow it to serve both small towns and large metro areas without relying on third-party platforms, according to Wedbush, which noted in a report Wednesday that the expansion ramps up competitive pressure on Instacart, whose business relies heavily on grocery delivery subscriptions.

Analysts also say the stronger grocery offering makes Amazon Prime’s $139 annual membership more attractive, while weakening the value of Instacart+, which recently scaled back key subscriber benefits. Amazon is also increasingly competing with the grocery efforts of Uber Eats and DoorDash, according to Wedbush.

In most areas, the same-day deliveries are free for Amazon Prime members for orders that cost more than $25. If the purchase is below that amount, the cost is $2.99. For shoppers without a Prime membership, the delivery tacks on a $12.99 fee.

Since this summer, Amazon has expanded the fresh grocery selection available for same-day delivery by more than 30%, including offerings from Whole Foods Market and Amazon Grocery, the company’s new private brand, which now includes over 1,000 items, with most priced under $5.

Amazon is also seeing a shift in shopping patterns as customers who add fresh groceries to their orders shop about twice as often as those who don’t.

GeekWire tested the same-day service in June, placing a late-night order that arrived in the morning and included apples, cucumbers, and blueberries alongside non-perishable items.

Amazon says it plans to expand same-day perishable grocery delivery to more cities and towns in 2026.

The expansion of same-day perishable delivery comes as Amazon is also testing a new ultra-fast option called Amazon Now, which promises delivery in 30 minutes or less. GeekWire tested this service earlier this month, and received a frozen pizza, hummus, bread and more in 23 minutes, from order click to delivery drop-off in Seattle.

Amazon has for years been expanding and experimenting in the grocery space. In 2007, it started offering grocery deliveries in Seattle through Amazon Fresh, then offered Amazon Fresh grocery pick-up sites and eventually started opening Amazon Fresh grocery stores beginning in 2020. It acquired Whole Foods Market in 2017.

Microsoft has released one of its most detailed looks yet at how people use Copilot — and the results suggest the AI assistant plays different roles depending on time of day and the device.

In a new preprint titled “It’s About Time: The Copilot Usage Report 2025,” Microsoft AI researchers analyzed 37.5 million de-identified Copilot conversations between January and September of this year. Enterprise and school accounts were excluded, and machine classifiers labeled each chat by topic and “intent,” such as searching for information, getting advice, or creating content.

The top-line finding: on desktop computers, Copilot usage centers on work and technical questions during business hours. On mobile, it’s about health — all day, every day.

“Health and Fitness” paired with information-seeking was the single most common topic-intent combination for mobile users, and stayed in the top spot every hour of the day across the nine-month window. The paper suggests this shows how people increasingly treat Copilot on their phones as a private advisor for personal questions, not just a search tool.

On PCs, “Work and Career” overtakes “Technology” as the top topic between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., mirroring a traditional office schedule. Other work-related topics such as science and education also rise during the day and fade overnight.

“The contrast between the desktop’s professional utility and the mobile device’s intimate consultation suggests that users are engaging with a single system in two ways: a colleague at their desk and a confidant in their pocket,” Microsoft wrote in the study.

Compared with January, the September data from Microsoft’s study shows fewer programming conversations and more activity around culture and history — a sign, the researchers say, that usage has broadened beyond early technical adopters into more mainstream, non-developer use cases.

Usage reports from OpenAI and Anthropic found similar consumer patterns, with many people using ChatGPT and Claude for practical guidance, information, and writing help in their personal lives. Microsoft’s new Copilot study adds a sharper twist: on desktops, AI looks like a co-worker; on phones, it looks a lot more like a health and life adviser.

In a companion blog post, Microsoft said the study shows how Copilot “is way more than a tool: it’s a vital companion for life’s big and small moments.”

The study highlights a rise in advice-seeking, particularly around personal topics. This suggests people are turning to AI not just to offload tasks but to help make decisions — which could raise the stakes for model builders around accuracy, trust and accountability.

Microsoft’s research team included Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman as a co-author. Each conversation was automatically stripped of personally identifiable information and no human reviewers saw the underlying chats, according to the paper.

The ticket clock is ticking ahead of Thursday’s GeekWire Gala. Don’t miss out on the Seattle tech community’s biggest holiday party — grab a last-minute ticket now!

The Gala is a great chance to make our annual holiday event a celebration for you, your friends and co-workers.

The festive night includes food, drinks, karaoke, games, and plenty of surprise moments. Party alongside the region’s top innovators and entrepreneurs.

It all takes place at Showbox SoDo at 1700 1st Ave S., not far from T-Mobile Park. The event from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. is 21+ and all attendees must have valid ID to enter. Dress to impress, bust out your holiday flair, or just keep it geek chic.

In addition to the party atmosphere, GeekWire and Greater Seattle Partners will once again use the Gala to recognize the region’s “Uncommon Thinkers,” the groundbreaking innovators who are changing the way we work, live and play. Catch up on our profiles of the six honorees:

• Anindya Roy, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Lila Biologics
• Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can
• Brian Pinkard, co-founder and CTO at Aquagga
• Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems
• Kiana Ehsani, co-founder and CEO of Vercept
• Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky

Big thanks to the GeekWire Gala title sponsor, First Tech Federal Credit Union; gold sponsors Greater Seattle Partners, Pilot, and Astound Business Solutions; and silver sponsors MeeBoss, Tito’s, The Baldwin Group, Wilson Sonsini, ALLtech, IDA Ireland, Microsoft for Startups, gone.com, and Regence.

Strong software engineers who combine their foundational skills with fluency in rapidly emerging AI tools are more valuable than ever. And while AI boosts overall productivity by 34% on average, its widening the gap between top engineers and those considered weaker.

Those are among the findings from Karat, the Seattle-based technical talent evaluation startup, which released its new “AI Workforce Transformation” report on Wednesday, detailing how artificial intelligence tools are changing the way software is developed and what types of workers are most impacted by the technology.

The findings come from Karat’s survey of 400 engineering leaders across the U.S., India, and China. And the report coincides with the release of Karat NextGen, an AI-enabled talent evaluation solution designed to evaluate software engineers in an era of increased human and AI collaboration.

Among the report highlights:

• 73% of leaders now believe a strong engineer is worth at least 3x their total compensation.
• 59% of leaders say weak engineers deliver net zero or negative value in the AI era.
• The top AI use cases for day-to-day work are code generation (83%), and testing, QA, and code review (61%).
• Agentic AI/autonomous engineering agents are highlighted by the majority of leaders as having the highest return on investment.
• Despite cost pressure, 85% of leaders expect engineering headcounts to stay flat or increase over the next three years, signaling that AI isn’t leading to massive job cuts in the near term.
• China is outpacing the U.S. and India in AI adoption and readiness.

Tech companies and workers are still adjusting to the shifting landscape of an AI-fueled industry that has traditionally relied on coders to help build and maintain the backbone of digital platforms.

When Amazon laid off 14,000 corporate employees from its global workforce in October, among the 2,303 impacted Washington state workers, mostly in Seattle and Bellevue, more than 600 were software development engineers.

That trend mirrored layoffs at Microsoft earlier this year, as companies reassess their engineering needs amid the rise of AI-driven coding tools. 

At Amazon’s re:Invent event last week in Las Vegas, AWS executive Colleen Aubrey went beyond discussing how human employees will leverage AI tools, and said instead that it’s time to consider agentic teammates “as essential as the people sitting right next to you.”

According to Karat’s report, beyond foundational skills such as problem-solving, communication, and product sense, engineers need to be assessed for new AI-native abilities, including familiarity with agentic AI; using AI for coding; integrating 3rd-party AI APIs; prompt engineering; and evaluating and mitigating AI-related risks.

Karat’s report found that nearly 70% of engineering leaders plan to strengthen their AI capabilities through strategic hiring. Yet, almost two-thirds of companies still prohibit AI use in interviews, and less than 30% are updating assessments and training interviewers to identify AI-ready talent.

The startup’s NextGen talent evaluation platform features a human + AI interview format where candidates tackle complex, multi-file projects with an integrated AI assistant while collaborating live with Karat’s expert interview engineers, who probe reasoning, trade-offs, and judgment in real time to reveal genuine engineering ability.

Sagnik Nandy, CTO at DocuSign, a Karat customer, said in a news release that while AI is transforming engineering, “the real breakthroughs happen when human judgment and AI capabilities work together” and a way to measure that combination reliably is what’s been missing.

“A human-led, AI-native interview is exactly the kind of solution organizations need to understand who can truly excel in this new model of development,” Nandy said.

Founded in 2014 by Mo Bhende and Jeff Spector, Karat became one of Seattle’s highest-valued startups after it raised $110 million in a Series C round in 2021, which brought its total valuation at the time to $1.1 billion. Total funding to date is $151.6 million.

Karat currently ranks No. 15 on the GeekWire 200, our list of the top startups in the Pacific Northwest.

Two human rights proposals at Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting drew support from more than a quarter of voting shares — far more than any other outside proposals this year.

The results, disclosed Monday in a regulatory filing, come amid broader scrutiny of the company’s business dealings in geopolitical hotspots. The proposals followed a summer of criticism and protests over the use of Microsoft technology by the Israeli military. 

The filing shows the vote totals for six outside shareholder proposals that were considered at the Dec. 5 meeting. Microsoft had announced shortly after the meeting that shareholders rejected all outside proposals, but the numbers had not previously been disclosed.

According to the filing, two proposals received outsized support: 

• Proposal 8, filed by an individual shareholder, called for a report on Microsoft’s data center expansion in Saudi Arabia and nations with similar human rights records. It asked the company to evaluate the risk that its technology could be used for state surveillance or repression, and received more than 27% support.
• Proposal 9, seeking an assessment of Microsoft’s human rights due diligence efforts, won more than 26% of votes. The measure called for Microsoft to assess the effectiveness of its processes in preventing customer misuse of its AI and cloud products in ways that violate human rights or international humanitarian law.

Proposal 9 had received support from proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services — a rare endorsement for a first-time filing. Proxy advisor Glass Lewis recommended against it.

The measure attracted 58 co-filers and sparked opposing campaigns. JLens, an investment advisor affiliated with the Anti-Defamation League, said Proposal 9 was aligned with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which pressures companies to cut ties with Israel. Ekō, an advocacy group that backed the proposal, said the vote demonstrated growing concerns about Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military.

In September, Microsoft cut off an Israeli military intelligence unit’s access to some Azure services after finding evidence supporting a Guardian report in August that the technology was being used for surveillance of Palestinian civilians.

Microsoft’s board recommended shareholders vote against all six outside proposals at the Dec. 5 annual meeting. Here’s how the other four proposals fared: 

• Proposals 5 and 6, focused on censorship risks from European security partnerships and AI content moderation, drew less than 1% support.
• Proposal 7, which asked for more transparency and oversight on how Microsoft uses customer data to train and operate its AI systems, topped 13% support.
• Proposal 10, calling for a report on climate and transition risks tied to AI and machine‑learning tools used by oil and gas companies, received 8.75%.

See Microsoft’s proxy statement and our earlier coverage for more information.

Tech-related job postings remain stuck well below pre-pandemic levels in Seattle, according to a new hiring trends report from Indeed.

The site uses a measure called the Indeed Job Postings Index, which treats Feb. 1, 2020 as the “normal” baseline of 100. Numbers below 100 mean fewer job postings than before the pandemic.

In Seattle, the index for Software Development was 32 as of Nov. 27, 2025 — meaning postings are about two-thirds lower than the pre-COVID benchmark. Data & Analytics is even lower at 29.

Those numbers haven’t moved much over the past two years. Software Development was 31 in late 2023 and Data & Analytics was 38, for example.

Nationally, tech job postings are almost a third lower compared to early 2020, according to Indeed.

Seattle is seeing a more concentrated pullback in tech-related hiring. It makes for an unfamiliar economic environment in the Emerald City, which has seen its tech industry surge for much of the past decade, including a hiring spree early in the pandemic.

A report from CBRE in 2021 showed that the Seattle region added more than 48,000 tech jobs from 2016 to 2020, an increase of more than 35% — growing at a faster rate than any other large U.S. tech market for that time period. Amazon was growing exponentially, Microsoft had a massive revival, and the startup scene was producing multiple billion-dollar companies.

It’s a different climate now, just as the artificial intelligence era gets going amid broader macroeconomic uncertainty.

Microsoft and Amazon had substantial layoffs this year, though both are still hiring in select areas as they invest heavily in AI infrastructure. Some startups, once so-called “unicorns,” have also shed staff due to financial trouble.

The tech slowdown in Seattle got the national spotlight in September, when The Wall Street Journal detailed the broader fallout from widespread layoffs, including decreased retail spending in tech-heavy districts and record-high office vacancies.

The latest trends may help explain why some job seekers, including longtime leaders, are having trouble landing tech gigs in Seattle.

The tech industry accounts for a whopping 30% of the economy in the Seattle region, according to a report from CompTIA. That ranks second in the U.S. behind San Jose. Tech also accounts for more than 12% of the overall workforce in the Seattle area.

Workers in the “computer and mathematicals” occupation category in the Seattle area had the highest median earnings in 2024 by a wide margin ($163,609), according to the Seattle Times.

Other hiring trends in Seattle and nationally

As of late 2025, only seven of 45 sectors in the Seattle area were above 100, per the Indeed Job Postings Index — and all of them were in healthcare. Two years earlier, 22 sectors were still above 100, showing a much broader economy with stronger hiring demand. Overall, Seattle had a 35% decline in job postings from February 2020 to October 2025, Axios reported.

The weakest Seattle sectors right now include Data & Analytics, Software Development, Project Management, Human Resources, and Media and Communications.

Some of the largest declines over the past two years came in non-tech areas such as Driving, Pharmacy, Cleaning and Sanitation, Civil Engineering, and Childcare — though Indeed notes that Pharmacy and Civil Engineering still remain relatively high compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Indeed said in nearly every state, the highest job posting levels are found in smaller and mid-sized regions, rather than big cities.

“Employment in many of the largest MSAs tends to be skewed towards tech, business, and professional services, which are seeing lower levels of job postings,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Smaller MSAs, however, tend to have heavier employment shares in sectors, including manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and healthcare, which generally have job postings that remain near or higher than pre-COVID norms.”

Indeed said the most probable outcome for next year’s labor market is an extension of the current “low-hire, low-fire” environment. It noted that large coastal metro areas with slower population growth and more exposure to tech and professional services “are likely to face tougher conditions.”

Microsoft is pouring $17.5 billion into India — its largest investment in Asia — to boost the country’s AI infrastructure and diffusion, the company announced Tuesday.

The funding, planned over four years between 2026 and 2029, comes after an earlier $3 billion commitment announced earlier this year.

Microsoft’s aim is to help advance India’s cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling and ongoing operations. The tech giant said the partnership will help India make the leap from “digital public infrastructure to AI public infrastructure in the coming decade,” toward “a future that is more equitable and uniquely Indian in its scale and impact.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is in the country this month as part of a multi-city “India AI” tour. He met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday and will deliver a keynote address on Wednesday: “Leading in the New Age of AI.”

The investment will target three primary areas:

• Scale: A key priority is building hyperscale infrastructure to enable AI adoption in India. Microsoft said significant progress is being made at the India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad, that is set to go live in mid-2026. Microsoft will also continue to expand its three existing operational data center regions in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.     
• Skills: Microsoft is doubling its January commitment to equip 20 million Indians with essential AI skills by 2030. The company said it has already trained 5.6 million people since January, and its programs have helped more than 125,000 people gain work or entrepreneurial opportunities.  
• Sovereignty: Microsoft is introducing Sovereign Public Cloud and Sovereign Private Cloud for Indian customers, designed to give Indian organizations more control over data, compliance, and operational sovereignty. In security terms, these offerings will address data residency, regulatory compliance, governance, and operational isolation.

Microsoft also announced that 310 million informal workers in India will benefit from advanced AI capabilities being integrated into two key digital public platforms of the Ministry of Labour and Employment — e-Shram and the National Career Service.

Microsoft employs 22,000 people across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, Noida and other cities, representing numerous company business lines.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced new commitments to Canada, adding $5.4 billion over the next two years to its continued investment in building out digital and AI infrastructure in the country.

Smith highlighted many of the same goals the company outlined for India, including boosting skills training and digital sovereignty in Canada.

Define the problem. Describe the solution. Note the value proposition. Highlight leadership bios. Call out your customers. Show growth metrics. Set the long-term vision.

This is the pitch from Seattle startup Yoodli — and it seems to be working well.

The company, which sells software that helps users practice important conversations, last week announced a $40 million round, just eight months after raising a separate $13.7 million round in May. Its valuation has about tripled since then to around $300 million.

Yoodli shared its latest pitch deck with GeekWire. The 11-slide presentation has the core elements of a solid deck. It’s straight forward and simple — quick problem-framing and a clear mission statement that sets up the rest of the story.

In a startup era where seemingly every pitch mentions AI, Yoodli’s framing of the technology stands out: “Other AI is replacing jobs; Yoodli uses AI to help humans be their best and take control of their career.”

The deck also reflects Yoodli’s shift from consumer to enterprise. Yoodli got its start in 2021 at the AI2 Incubator in Seattle with a consumer-focused offering targeted at practicing public speaking. It has since turned its focus to the enterprise market, working with companies such as SAP, Google, Snowflake, and Korn Ferry to help employees practice their sales pitches and feedback sessions.

Looking ahead, Yoodli said it will use the new funding to expand into what it calls “experiential learning.”

“Experiential learning is the next step of conversation coaching — helping people learn, practice, and apply skills with roleplays at the center of their experience,” co-founder and CEO Varun Puri wrote on LinkedIn. “We’re making learning more fun and actionable for individuals and much more closely tied to ROI for organizations.”

The raise comes amid competition in the AI-powered workforce training market, as employers look for scalable tools to upskill workers in communication, leadership, and customer engagement.

Yoodli has grown revenue around 900% in the past year. Its headcount has tripled to more than 40 people, including several new C-suite additions.

WestBridge Capital led the latest round, which included previous investors Neotribe and Madrona.

“Yoodli is becoming the natural way organizations help people learn and build the skills that drive revenue, strengthen customer relationships, and influence culture,” Madrona wrote in a blog post.

Check out the full deck below.

Yoodli Pitch Deck — December 2025 by GeekWire