Fintech startup SecureSave, a 2020 spinout of Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, has been acquired by Wisconsin-based HSA Bank.

SecureSave helps employers offer a financial wellness benefit to workers beyond their paycheck in the form of an emergency savings account (ESA). HSA Bank is a division of Webster Bank and Webster Financial Corp. and is one of the nation’s leaders in healthcare savings and spending accounts.

Terms of the deal, completed Thursday, were not disclosed.

SecureSave employs 23 people full time, most of whom are in the Seattle area, and will continue to operate its current platform and serve its clients.

The startup was co-founded by CEO Devin Miller, CTO Bassam Saliba, and TV personality and best-selling author Suze Orman.

Miller previously led Balance Financial, a Seattle-area startup acquired by Blucora’s TaxAct subsidiary in 2013. He later joined Guidant Financial as executive vice president and later president. Saliba is another longtime entrepreneur who sold Avado to WebMD in 2013 and was a board member/acting CTO at Balance Financial alongside Miller.

SecureSave raised about $28 million to date, with venture backing from PSL, Seachange and IA Ventures, and three banks — Truist, Stearns and Webster.

Miller, who is based in Spokane, Wash., said SecureSave has supported more than 60,000 active emergency savings account holders who have saved more than $100 million to date.

Miller said the company had a strong year of growth and that interest in the category can be evidenced by legislation proposed this week in Congress. U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced the Emergency Savings Enhancement Act, aimed at helping American workers and families save for unexpected expenses without having to tap into their retirement accounts.

In a post on LinkedIn, Miller wrote about how the HSA deal came together and why it will be “a massive leap forward for ESAs.”

Miller pitched SecureSave during the 2022 season of GeekWire’s “Elevator Pitch” series.

Seattle-based startup Otto announced the wide release Thursday of its AI-powered travel assistant — Otto the Agent — in a bid to bring a concierge-level experience and personalization to business travelers.

The platform has been in closed beta for nine months. GeekWire first reported about its stealthy operations in August 2024.

Founded by longtime travel industry veterans, Otto was incubated and spun out of Seattle-based Madrona Venture Labs, the former startup studio associated with Madrona.

“The goal here is to mimic or create as good or better an experience than the best ever executive assistant, to help you book your business travel,” said founder and CEO Michael Gulmann, who spent nearly a decade at Expedia Group in various leadership roles, and also worked at business travel management giant Egencia.

Steve Singh, managing director at Madrona who co-founded business expense software giant Concur, is executive chairman of Otto.

Otto is built to learn and understand an individual’s travel habits — airline and hotel preferences, seat choices, loyalty programs, and even nuanced needs like finding rooms that avoid train noise or finding hotels with rooftop bars. Gulmann said Otto uses that knowledge to instantly surface the best flights and hotels without the the typical endless-scroll experience.

And unlike general-purpose AI tools that send users to external booking sites, Otto handles the entire transaction end-to-end, from booking to cancellations to rebooking and credit management, all within the same interface.

Otto can also connect to a traveler’s calendar and proactively detect upcoming trips and suggest itineraries before the traveler asks.

Barney Harford, former CEO of Orbitz Worldwide and former COO of Uber, called Otto “a glimpse into the future,” saying that after using it for several months it knows his business travel preferences “and has simplified the shop and book process down to just a couple of minutes.” Harford is an investor in Otto.

Beyond flights and hotels, a clear next step in Otto’s development will be the addition of car rentals and dinner reservations — things an executive assistant “back home would be helping with when you’re on the road,” Gulmann said.

“The reality is, most people don’t have an EA,” he added. “A little bit of the genesis of the company was, I was fortunate enough to have an EA at Expedia for a long time, once I got to a certain level, and it was amazing.”

Otto is available for free to individual business travelers as well as small and mid-sized businesses for the next 12 months. The startup makes money on commissions. Through a partnership with travel management company Direct Travel, Otto is also launching upcoming pilot programs with two companies Gulmann could not yet name.

The company is competing with other startups, as well as incumbents that are developing their own AI-fueled tools.

Direct Travel, which was acquired by Madrona and others in April 2024, invested in Otto’s seed round.

Singh is also executive chairman at Direct Travel. Since departing Concur a few years after its $8.3 billion acquisition to SAP in 2014, Singh became executive chairman at Spotnana, a travel-as-a-service technology platform; at Center, a corporate card and expense management platform; and Troop, a group meetings and events company.

Gulmann said innovating around travel again was the “last thing he thought he’d get back into” but a lot has changed since Expedia and others came along to displace human travel agents in the 1990s. Otto is like going back to the personalization aspect of travel agents but with the tech twist added in.

“It’s insanely faster to develop and to build the product,” he said. “We’re doing it with, including myself, a 10-person team. So, not tiny, but nowhere near the developer and engineer horsepower that Expedia or Booking.com have. But yet, I think we’re going a lot faster than they are now.”

Related:

• The new AI executive assistants: Smarter, faster, still not as good as the real thing

Govstream.ai, a Seattle-area startup building AI-native permitting tools for local governments, raised $3.6 million in funding, the company announced Thursday.

The seed round was led by Menlo Park, Calif.-based 47th Street Partners, with participation from Nellore Capital of Palo Alto, Calif., Seattle-based Ascend, and angel investors including Socrata founder Kevin Merritt and First Due co-founder and CEO Andreas Huber.

Govstream.ai’s platform sits on top of the systems cities already use and acts as a conversational “copilot” for permit techs, planners, and reviewers. The company says the technology answers questions, checks documents, compares plan sets, and helps move applications through review faster.

The first public deployment is with the City of Bellevue, where Govstream.ai’s smart assistant has been helping Development Services staff with internal permitting and zoning questions since this summer.

“Cities are under intense pressure to add housing, support small businesses, and keep development sustainable, all while working inside permitting systems that were never really rethought for this moment,” said Safouen Rabah, founder and CEO of Govstream.ai.

In Washington, for example, state projections show that roughly 1.1 million additional homes will be needed by 2044 to keep up with population growth, and about 650,000 of those will need to be affordable for low-income households.

Rabah said permitting has been digitized in pieces but not truly modernized end to end. AI can reason over hundreds of pages of plans and regulations and surface what matters.

“That’s how cities move more homes and critical infrastructure from ‘submitted’ to ‘approved’ without burning people out on either side of the counter,” Rabah said. “Every month of delay we eliminate reduces costs of a new housing unit by about $5,000 on average and makes more projects economically pencil out.”

In July, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell issued an executive order intended to speed the permitting process for housing and small businesses in the city, using AI software from Boston- and Chicago-based CivCheck to aid permit applicants and city reviewers. Other cities, including Los Angeles, Austin and Honolulu are using AI to improve their processes.

In Bellevue, Govstream.ai is targeting and seeing signs of results including:

• A roughly 30% reduction in the burden of routine inquiries, including fewer “Where do I start?” and “Do I need a permit for this?” calls and emails.
• Up to 50% fewer re-submittals by catching missing or incorrect items before an application is formally filed.
• Up to 2X faster starts to first review on many project types, because reviewers start with context instead of a 200-page PDF.

Beyond Bellevue, the startup is gearing up to deploy in additional U.S. cities. Rabah declined to share financial metrics, but said revenue is growing as Govstream.ai converts design partners into production deployments.

A veteran of government-tech companies including Socrata and Tyler Technologies, Rabah started Govstream.ai in July 2024. The company currently employs five people and the new funding will fuel growth to 10 to 12 people over the next 12 months with the addition of engineering and AI roles in the Seattle area.

Govstream was previously featured in GeekWire’s Startup Radar series.

Amazon’s new “Amazon Now” ultra-fast delivery for household essentials and fresh groceries passed the speed test on Tuesday.

During a trial of the newly launched service, it took 23 minutes from the click of the order button on the Amazon shopping app to the drop of the items at my house. That time easily meets Amazon’s promise of 30-minutes-or-less delivery.

Amazon Now is rolling out to eligible neighborhoods in Seattle and Philadelphia. Customers using the Amazon app or website can browse a curated selection of fresh produce, meat and seafood, pantry staples, frozen foods, beverages, household supplies and more.

Customers are able to track their order status and tip their driver within the Amazon Now feature. Prime members pay discounted delivery fees starting at $3.99 per order, compared with $13.99 for non-Prime customers, with a $1.99 “small basket” fee on orders under $15.

GeekWire reported last week that Amazon was building out a new rapid-delivery hub at a former Amazon Fresh Pickup site in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. (That site did not fulfill the order I placed on Tuesday.) Amazon this week revealed more details about Amazon Now.

Permit filings detail how employees pick and bag items in a back-of-house stockroom, stage completed orders on front-of-house shelves, and hand them off to Amazon Flex drivers, who are expected to arrive, scan, confirm, and leave with a package within roughly two minutes. The operation is slated to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, “much like a convenience store,” according to the filings.

Keep reading for details on how the process works.

The shopping

My wife prefers to do all the shopping for our household and she does so at several different stores including Trader Joe’s, Fred Meyer, Town & Country, and Costco. Our neighborhood, Ballard, isn’t exactly a food desert, and prior to conducting my Amazon Now test, I passed a Safeway en route to stops at Walgreens and Metropolitan Market within a few blocks of my house.

But for the sake of speed and convenience and this test, I browsed the Amazon Now selection looking for a few items we could use. I chose a Red Baron frozen pizza ($4.37); 365 by Whole Foods Market multigrain bread ($2.85); a 4-pack of Duracell AA batteries ($5.47); Saltine crackers ($4.05); Sabra classic hummus ($3.95); and a 6-ounce pack of blackberries ($2.17).

The six items totaled $22.86, plus the $3.99 delivery fee, 64 cents in tax, and a $3 tip for the driver — $30.49 total.

There’s either a reason why my wife does all the shopping or groceries really are very expensive these days, because $30 feels like a lot for six items. Although, $7 of that does include delivery fee and tip — the price of on-demand convenience!

The tracking

I placed the order at 12:38 p.m. and the Amazon app and a confirmation email both immediately estimated that delivery time would be 1:05 p.m.

A status bar in the app showed where my items would be in the chain of events: ordered, packed, out for delivery, and delivered.

Within just a few minutes the status changed from ordered to out for delivery, and I watched as a small Amazon vehicle icon made its way west across Seattle toward my house. The delivery estimate time dropped a couple minutes to 1:02 p.m.

When a white van showed up in front of my house in less than 10 minutes I was sure this story was going to go in a different direction about just how speedy Amazon Now is. But my neighbor was getting a bunch of stuff delivered from IKEA — no one shops in stores anymore, I guess.

For what it’s worth, transportation software company INRIX released its annual Global Traffic Scorecard this week, with details on how much time people lose sitting in traffic. INRIX says Seattle congestion is climbing again, especially in last-mile corridors that delivery fleets rely on.

“The [Amazon Now service] may end up distributing demand more evenly across the transportation network, rather than concentrating congestion via larger hubs,” Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at INRIX, told GeekWire.

The delivery

I watched via the app as the Amazon vehicle icon neared my house and I stepped onto my front porch at 1 p.m. to see my driver arrive. Wearing his blue Amazon vest, the driver placed a brown paper Amazon Now bag in my hand for what amounted to a 23-minute process from start to finish.

The driver said he made his pickup from an Amazon Now-specific facility that is located near a Whole Foods location at Roosevelt Way NE and NE 64th Street — roughly 3.5 miles or 15 minutes from my house.

The driver had not heard anything about the planned Amazon Now delivery hub just down the road from my house in Ballard, at 5100 15th Ave. NW.

The groceries

The six items I ordered were packed as neatly as you’d expect, even if the loaf of bread did get a little smooshed.

The frozen pizza was still cold, and so was the hummus. The blackberries looked like any random, small pack of blackberries I might find in the fridge and finish off in one sitting.

The batteries were really the only thing I needed at the moment, and I’d have preferred to be able to buy a more economical pack of 12 or 20, but a four pack was the only option. Maybe four batteries is all anyone needs from their fast-delivery convenience store.

Final thoughts

I’m old school-ish. I like going to the grocery store. I like seeing people, browsing aisles, and talking to the cashier (if they haven’t all been replaced by self-checkout). We’re not in Covid times. No part of me really needs or wants a bag of six random grocery items quickly delivered to my front porch in the name of convenience.

I’m clearly not the target audience for Amazon Now. My 18-year-old watched me as I stood at the window waiting for the driver and asked, “What is it, like DoorDash?”

“I guess so,” I said.

But if I was sick on my couch and wanted soup, Saltines and a ginger ale in 30 minutes or less, and didn’t want to move to go get it, I might use the service again.

Or if I’d already been to the store that day and forgot some items that were needed for dinner, I could see biting the bullet. Especially if the drive back to the grocery store was not so quick.

While at Met Market earlier that morning, I watched a woman in self-checkout pull at her receipt and the whole roll of tape fell out of the machine and rolled across the floor unspooling.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it!” said the human employee monitoring self-checkers. “I need to show I’m essential.”

Amazon has agreed to pay more than $3.7 million to settle claims with the City of Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS) over allegations that it violated ordinances protecting gig and app-based workers during the pandemic.

OLS said in a news release Wednesday that Amazon only provided premium pay and paid sick and safe time (PSST) to workers when they performed deliveries for Amazon Flex’s food or grocery business lines — but not to workers who performed package deliveries from Amazon’s warehouses.

Amazon Flex uses independent contractors that drive their own vehicles to deliver items for Amazon business lines.

Amazon denied the allegations, but will pay $3,777,924.10, consisting of settlement payments and credits to 10,968 affected workers and $20,000 in fines to the City of Seattle.

The alleged violations cover three city ordinances: Gig Worker Premium Pay, Gig Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time, and App-Based Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time.

OLS alleged that in violation of the Gig Worker Premium Pay ordinance, between Aug. 27, 2021, and Oct. 31, 2022, Amazon failed to provide premium pay to Amazon Flex gig workers for deliveries with a pick-up and/or drop-off in Seattle that were not for its food/grocery business lines.

OLS further alleged violations of the Gig Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time and the App-Based Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time ordinances between Jan. 31, 2021, and Jan. 12, 2024. The agency said Amazon Flex failed to establish an accessible system for gig workers to request and use PSST for workers that were not delivering for its food/grocery business lines, and it failed to provide correct monthly PSST notification to workers that were not delivering food/grocery.

“Gig workers served on the frontlines throughout the pandemic, providing critical services like grocery and food delivery to our vulnerable neighbors and elders,” Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement. “These workers remain a valued part of our workforce today and deserve fair pay and protections.”

The Gig Worker Premium Pay and Gig Worker PSST ordinances were temporary ordinances enacted during the pandemic to allow gig workers access to extra pay and sick leave benefits. With the lifting of the mayor’s emergency order on Oct. 31, 2022, the two ordinances are no longer in effect.

The settlement with Amazon Flex is the second largest in OLS history, according to OLS Director Steven Marchese.

In August, Uber Eats agreed to pay $15 million to more than 16,000 delivery workers in Seattle over allegations that the tech giant violated laws regulating how workers are paid. A majority of that settlement was related to the city’s Independent Contractor Protections (ICP) Ordinance, which passed in 2021 and aims to ensure pay transparency. 

Affected Amazon Flex workers can expect settlement payments starting around Jan. 1, according to OLS.

Update: Amazon provided the following statement to GeekWire on Wednesday:

“The Puget Sound region is our home, and we’re proud to serve customers here while supporting the community through good job opportunities, support for local small businesses and organizations, and hundreds of millions in local investments. We’ve always complied with Seattle laws relating to providing paid sick and safe time to delivery partners — including when the City Council enacted emergency measures during the pandemic for food delivery app-based workers, and following the 2024 expansion of the rule to include all app-based workers. While we strongly disagree with OLS on the facts of this matter, we’re pleased to put it behind us and remain focused on continuing to improve the experience for our customers and the drivers who deliver to them.”

Editor’s note: This series profiles six of the Seattle region’s “Uncommon Thinkers”: inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs transforming industries and driving positive change in the world. They will be recognized Dec. 11 at the GeekWire Gala. Uncommon Thinkers is presented in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners.

Plenty of startup founders and product builders envision what they’re making as something that will simplify processes or improve workflow for customers. Kiana Ehsani sees her creation as a means to spending more time outdoors.

Certainly there’s much more to it than that, but when Ehsani — the co-founder and CEO of Seattle AI startup Vercept — is running an ultramarathon, climbing up a mountain or skiing down one, she can’t help but consider how her technology makes it all the more enjoyable.

“I’m just the happiest when I’m in nature, when I’m not behind my computer, letting my mind be present in the moment, listening to the steps of my foot on the trail, or on snow or ice,” Ehsani said.

It’s what motivated her and her colleagues at Vercept to build Vy, an AI product that “sees” and understands computer screens like a human would. It records a user performing tasks across different software or websites — and then autonomously runs the same workflow from a natural language command.

The idea is to use AI to automate repetitive tasks, like entering data, producing video content, organizing invoices, and more. And Ehsani said Vy makes it so not everyone needs to know how to work so many specialized software programs.

“I don’t want to become skilled in every single dimension that exists out there,” she said. “The more time you’re not spending on repetitive work that is not using your brain power, then the more time you have to be creative.”

Ehsani’s goal is to be able to send emails or check code and Slack messages when she’s somewhere in nature without good internet service. Vy handles the tasks on its own and reports back about what it completed.

“I am most creative when I’m on a hike,” she said. “If I could just have that more often, to be able to have that creative mind, flowing and producing more, and I didn’t have to be stuck behind the desk, then the world would be my playground.”

‘Repeatedly transformed herself’

Ehsani’s journey to AI innovator and Seattle startup founder started in Iran, where she lived until she graduated from Sharif University. She ranked 64th in the country’s University Entrance Exam.

“I was a geek,” she said. “I was publishing papers as an undergrad, and I would go and give talks at conferences internationally, and I was so proud of what I was doing.”

She came to the U.S. in 2015 to get her Master’s and PhD in computer science at the University of Washington.

“Within the first year I realized, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of possibility in AI and I want to get more involved,'” Ehsani said.

After internships at Google and Meta, she joined Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) where she spent four years, overseeing the Ai2 robotics and embodied artificial intelligence teams as a senior researcher.

At the end of 2024, Ehsani launched Vercept alongside Oren Etzioni, the longtime AI specialist and UW professor who was founding CEO of Ai2. They were joined by Matt Deitke, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick.

Etzioni said that while some people are “all heart” — good people with high emotional intelligence — or “all brain” — smart, sharp and cerebral — it’s rare to find someone who is both. Ehsani, who he called brilliant, dedicated and intuitive, is that person.

“One uncommon thing about Kiana is how she has repeatedly transformed herself,” Etzioni said via email. “From a brilliant theoretician in Iran to a creative and award-winning vision and robotics researcher at UW and Ai2, to kick-ass founder and CEO now. And the best is yet to come!”

Competing with fewer resources

Ehsani remembers being frustrated and bored by the challenges that AI was being tasked to solve, such as simple image classification, just 10 years ago. She wanted to solve real problems and show that AI could interact with the real world.

That mindset drove her interest in computer vision and robotics research. But again, she grew frustrated by the slow pace of hardware development and decided she wanted to work with AI models and virtual robots that take actions on behalf of a user.

Growing up in Iran she had become accustomed to limited resources. Working in academia and then in research for a nonprofit, she again had to think outside the box and find ways to compete against big AI labs.

She still embraces a scrappy startup mentality as Vercept competes against OpenAI (Operator), Google (Project Mariner), Amazon (Nova Act), and others with tools that automate tasks across browsers and apps, fueled by advances in generative AI.

“That’s the mindset that made me grow more, and that’s why at Vercept we are training models a lot more efficiently and less resource-heavy than anyone out there,” she said. “We love being scrappy and proving that you don’t need billions and trillions of dollars to make AI work.”

Just this week, Vercept launched a newly built version of Vy that works on both Windows and MacOS. Ehsani said the app is more robust and Vercept’s benchmark results have improved drastically.

The startup has grown to a team of 12 and in June raised a $16 million seed round. In July, Ehsani lost Deitke, one of her co-founders, who was lured by Meta to join its newly formed Superintelligence Lab.

Deitke called Ehsani “an incredible leader and visionary” whose strong background in robotics makes her extremely well suited for working at the frontier of computer use, which he said is really just robotics without many of the challenges of the physical world.

“Working with her is infectious and inspiring,” Deitke said. “She has an incredible work ethic and is constantly energized and comes up with amazing ideas while brainstorming that only become obvious to the rest of us after a while.”

But he said more than anything, Ehsani’s a “tremendous person” who leaves a lasting mark with her kindness and ambition.

“She’s truly an exceptional person,” Deitke said.

Several weeks ago, Ehsani was challenging herself in nature yet again, this time with a 50k ultramarathon that featured 8,000 feet of elevation gain.

Freezing, thirsty, and dragging herself up a hill, she likened the race to running a startup, writing on LinkedIn about how despite everything going wrong and plans changing last minute, she still had to stay flexible and believe she’d make it, even when others seemed ahead.

“That’s the story of my life,” she told GeekWire. “I live that every day.”

Embattled electric bike maker Rad Power Bikes is facing another challenge as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a warning to consumers Monday to stop using some of the Seattle-based company’s bikes because of danger posed by their lithium-ion batteries.

The product safety warning urges consumers to immediately remove and dispose of hazardous batteries that “can unexpectedly ignite and explode, posing a fire hazard to consumers, especially when the battery or the harness has been exposed to water and debris.”

The CPSC said Rad “has refused to agree to an acceptable recall” for the batteries, which are manufactured in China.

The batteries were sold as replacements and with a variety of Rad bikes via Rad’s website, Best Buy stores and independent bike shops. The battery model number (HL-RP-S1304 or RP-1304) is printed on a label on the back or rear of the battery and bike models included: RadWagon 4, RadCity HS 4, RadRover High Step 5, RadCity Step Thru 3, RadRover Step Thru 1, RadRunner 2, RadRunner 1, RadRunner Plus, and RadExpand 5.

The report adds another significant obstacle to Rad’s continued operations. Earlier this month, Rad revealed that it was struggling to survive due to financial difficulties, and the e-bike seller said that it was in danger of shutting down by early January.

On Monday, Rad disputed the CPSC’s findings. “Rad Power Bikes firmly stands behind our batteries and our reputation as leaders in the e-bike industry, and strongly disagrees with the CPSC’s characterization of certain Rad batteries as defective or unsafe,” the company said in a lengthy statement provided to GeekWire (in full below).

Rad said the significant cost of CPSC’s all-or-nothing recall demand would force Rad to shut down immediately with no way to support its riders or employees.

CPSC Warns Consumers to Immediately Stop Using Batteries for E-Bikes from Rad Power Bikes Due to Fire Hazard; Risk of Serious Injury or Death www.cpsc.gov/Warnings/202…

— U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (@cpsc.gov) 2025-11-24T19:03:26.293Z

Rad said it offered “multiple good-faith solutions” to address CPSC’s concerns over at least 31 reports of fire, including what the agency said were 12 reports of property damage caused by Rad batteries, totaling approximately $734,500.

Rad said the incident rate associated with the batteries in the CPSC’s notice is a fraction of one percent.

“While that number is low, we know even one incident is one too many, and we are heartbroken by any report involving our products,” the company’s statement read.

The company said its batteries were tested by independent third-party labs as part of its typical product testing and again during the CPSC investigation, “and confirmed compliance with the highest industry standards.”

Rad upgraded its bikes to what it calls the Rad Safe Shield battery in early 2024, and the company said it offered to upgrade consumers to those batteries at a substantial discount as part of one of its solutions during the CPSC investigation.

The company stressed in its statement that all lithium-ion batteries, not just in e-bikes, can pose a fire risk if improperly handled or exposed to significant water, and the company promotes proper care and maintenance in its user manuals and customer safety guides.

Rad Power Bikes, headquartered in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, launched as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2015.

The company saw huge demand amid the pandemic as more people bought e-bikes. Its sales and workforce surged and it raised more than $300 million from investors in 2021. The company was valued at $1.65 billion that year, according to PitchBook, making it one of a handful of “unicorn” startups in the Seattle region at the time.

The company has attracted nearly 700,000 riders around the globe, but a series of missteps and macroeconomic challenges in recent years have led to more than seven rounds of layoffs and a remarkable downfall.

A spokesperson told GeekWire on Monday that Rad’s filing of a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Washington state Employment Security Department earlier this month was due to the company’s financial circumstances and its obligation to comply with state law. It was not related to the CPSC investigation.

Three years ago, Rad issued a recall on its RadWagon 4 electric cargo bikes over an issue with tires and rim strips that created a fall and crash hazard.

In 2023, The New York Times reported on a rise in micro-mobility device fires or overheating incidents caused by poorly made batteries that the CPSC said was particularly acute in densely populated areas like New York City.

The CPSC urged consumers on Monday to immediately remove affected batteries and dispose of them following local hazardous waste procedures.

Rad Power Bikes statement regarding CPSC warning:

Rad Power Bikes firmly stands behind our batteries and our reputation as leaders in the ebike industry, and strongly disagrees with the CPSC’s characterization of certain Rad batteries as defective or unsafe.

We have a long and well-documented track record of building safe, reliable ebikes equipped with batteries that meet or exceed rigorous international safety standards, including UL-2271 and UL-2849. The CPSC proposed requiring these UL standards in January 2025, but has yet to adopt them. Rad ebikes have met these standards for years.

Reputable, independent third-party labs tested Rad’s batteries, both as part of our typical product testing and again during the CPSC investigation, and confirmed compliance with the highest industry standards. Our understanding is that the CPSC does not dispute the conclusions of these tests. It is also our understanding that the battery itself was not independently examined per industry-accepted test standards.   

Context Matters

The incident rate associated with the batteries in the CPSC’s notice is a fraction of one percent. While that number is low, we know even one incident is one too many, and we are heartbroken by any report involving our products.

It is also widely understood that all lithium-ion batteries—whether in ebikes, e-scooters, laptops, or power tools—can pose a fire risk if damaged, improperly charged, exposed to excess moisture, subjected to extreme temperatures or improper modifications to the electrical components, all of which Rad repeatedly advises against in user manuals and customer safety guides. Contrary to the CPSC’s statement, mere exposure to water and debris does not create a hazard; rather, significant water exposure, as warned against in our manuals, can pose a hazard.

These risks apply across industries and exist even in products that are fully UL compliant. Ebike batteries are significantly more powerful than household device batteries, which is why proper care and maintenance are so important and why Rad continues to invest in rider education and safety innovation.

Rad’s Cooperation with the CPSC

Rad hoped this process would be an opportunity to work with the agency and others in the industry to improve rider education and offer clearer, more consistent safety guidance on how to use and store ebikes and their batteries safely. 

Rad offered multiple good-faith solutions to address the agency’s concerns, including offering consumers an opportunity to upgrade to Safe Shield batteries (described below) at a substantial discount. CPSC rejected this opportunity.  The significant cost of the all-or-nothing demand would force Rad to shut its doors immediately, leaving no way to support our riders or our employees. 

A Commitment to Safety and Innovation

Rad has been a pioneer in promoting and advancing energy-efficient transportation, and our efforts to innovate and build safer, better batteries led to the development of the Rad Safe Shield battery. However, a product that incorporates new, safer, and better technology does not thereby mean that preceding products are not safe or defective. For example, when anti-lock brakes were developed, that did not render earlier cars unsafe; it simply meant a better, safer technology was available to consumers. 

That kind of thinking discourages innovation and limits the accessibility that ebikes bring to millions of people. Without the adoption of clear, common-sense standards, no electric bike manufacturer can operate with confidence. 

Previously:

• The rise and fall of Rad Power Bikes: From breakout success to the brink of shutdown
• Rad Power Bikes faces possible shutdown as it tries to survive ‘significant financial challenges’

Amazon plans to invest up to $50 billion to expand AI and advanced computing infrastructure for U.S. government agencies, the company announced Monday.

The investment, set to break ground in 2026, will add nearly 1.3 gigawatts of data center capacity to the Amazon Web Services regions Top Secret, AWS Secret, and AWS GovCloud (US) — locations specifically designed for classified and sensitive workloads.

Amazon said federal agencies will gain access to AI tools such as Amazon SageMaker for custom model training and Amazon Bedrock for deploying AI models and building agents. The centers will be equipped with AWS’s own Trainium AI chips and NVIDIA hardware.

The intent is to accelerate discovery and decision-making across government missions, which could mean faster modeling for scientific research, quicker threat analysis for intelligence agencies, or more accurate forecasting for disaster response and climate modeling, according to Amazon.

“Our investment in purpose-built government AI and cloud infrastructure will fundamentally transform how federal agencies leverage supercomputing,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said in a statement. “This investment removes the technology barriers that have held government back and further positions America to lead in the AI era.”

Amazon first launched government-specific cloud infrastructure in 2011. Today the company says it supports more than 11,000 government agencies.

Out of Office is a new GeekWire series spotlighting the passions and hobbies that members of the Seattle-area tech community pursue outside of work.

• Name: Peter Lee.
• Day job: President, Microsoft Research. Lee leads the organization’s global labs and drives the incubation of new research-powered products in artificial intelligence, computing foundations, health, and life sciences.
• Out-of-office passion: Converting classic cars to electric.

When Peter Lee first started his research for a project to convert his replica 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder to electric, he used the AI model Davinci-003 (OpenAI’s early Chat GPT-4) for help with the engineering design.

When he explained to the AI what he wanted to do, the first response Lee got back was, “Why on earth would you want to ruin a beautiful classic car like that?” 

The head of Microsoft Research doesn’t just hear it from artificial intelligence. Now in the midst of converting another classic — a 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback — Lee is used to plenty of human car fanatics expressing their displeasure with his hobby.

“Half the people I’ve told about this project think it’s the coolest thing, and the other half think it’s totally evil,” Lee said. “One guy actually told me I’m never going to heaven.”

Lee, who joined Microsoft in 2010 and previously spent 22 years at Carnegie Mellon University, was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in health and life sciences in 2024. Cars have been a passion since he was a kid. He raced karts and Formula Ford, and was even a licensed auto body technician for a time.

Frustrated by fuel system issues with the Porsche in 2020, Lee connected with Marc Davis, founder of Moment Motor Co. in Austin, Texas, a shop that “transforms vintage head-turners into modern electric cars.” Moment is dedicated to “preserving the art and beauty” of classics like those owned by Lee.

Some classic car lovers are quick to criticize EV conversions for messing with the original gas-powered intent of manufacturers, pointing out that the cost alone makes it irresponsible. Davis said Moment’s work generates “plenty of vomit emojis” from purists on the company’s social media posts.

“I personally believe what we’re doing is preservation,” he said, pointing to projects in which people bring new life to a car that was their all-time favorite or something that their dad drove. (This Bloomberg video shows how the conversion process works.)

The cost of such a conversion can depend on car condition, size, and performance and range requirements from the owner, but Davis puts the ballpark between $50,000 and $150,000. That’s on top of a classic car that might cost $200,000. The Mustang project entails 100-150 hours of engineering work and 400-500 hours of installation work.

Lee is drawn to many of the benefits of going electric — no gas or oil to worry about, modern components, and explosive torque.

In the wet Pacific Northwest, Lee’s Porsche is garaged for the winter at a 50% charge. On the first nice day in the spring, there’s little to fuss with.

“I’ll just check the air in the tires, turn it on, and it’ll just go. And it’ll go fast. It’s really a wonderful, wonderful thing,” Lee said, adding that speeds in the Porsche, which is a replica of the model in which Hollywood icon James Dean died, can be “a little scary.”

With the Mustang, Lee is involved in decisions big and small, from what type of shift knob he might like, to whether to retain the solid rear axle.

“I put thought into this, especially when I was driving the car to get to know it,” Lee said. “I ended up thinking that the car wouldn’t be a Mustang anymore if we got rid of the live rear axle, and it turned out that Marc’s design choice was exactly the same.”

When it’s done, the Mustang will be a unique build, and one that Lee says will demand plenty of attention on the car show circuit.

Asked whether he has a third vehicle in mind to convert next, Lee laughed before considering his growing collection and his desire to possibly change over an old pickup truck.

“My wife isn’t around is she?” he said.

Most rewarding aspect of this pursuit: Lee loves that there are serious technical and design aspects of what he’s pursuing. In the case of the current project, he grapples with decisions that impact what it means for the car to still be a Mustang, and feel like a Mustang.

“The thing I’ve always loved about cars, and why I love to work on cars, is you actually finish something,” he said. “That never happens in software. Software’s never done. You might ship it, but you’re still working on it forever.”

Lee is also a believer in the growing business potential of converting classic cars to EV and he thinks it would be a thrill to be involved on the side with a company that’s doing such work.

“The whole idea of beautiful, classic-looking cars that have all the modern conveniences of being EV — I think that’s going to be a bigger and bigger thing,” he said.

The lessons he brings back to work: Lee has wanted to combine his passion around cars with his day job forever. Today, car technology and auto racing have become so technical that he now has fellow researchers at Microsoft who are generally interested as well.

He called cars “a great laboratory” for trying to understand action models — the AI systems designed to predict and determine the next best action an agent (like a robot or software) should take to achieve a specific goal.

At Microsoft Research, advancements in car software provide interesting ways to think about the architecture of an action model or training paradigms, with learnings that could impact what’s happening on your own computer.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if five years from now the ’68 Mustang conversion has more intelligence, more self-drive, more action model, more robotic capabilities,” Lee said. “I think you’ll see those things pop up even in your plain old Windows desktop over time.”

Read more Out of Office profiles.

Do you have an out-of-office hobby or interesting side hustle that you’re passionate about that would make for a fun profile on GeekWire? Drop us a line: tips@geekwire.com.

Mount Rainier is not getting ready to erupt, but scientists at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network might blow their stacks over having to respond to a rumor about increased tremor activity at the Washington state volcano.

The Daily Mail reported this week that the mountain was sending up “a flurry of strange signals” and raising concern “that something inside the volcano might be shifting.”

“This towering stratovolcano looms over more than 3.3 million people across the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, threatening to cripple entire communities with ashfall, flooding, and catastrophic mudflows if it erupts,” The Daily Mail reported in dramatic fashion in a story that went viral online.

PNSN was forced to respond on Wednesday with a detailed blog post debunking the story, explaining that a likely buildup of ice on the antenna of a Rainier seismic station was causing radio interference misread as seismic activity.

PNSN said the station at St. Andrews Rock (STAR) is “one of the last remaining old analog sites on the mountain and uses very low-power radio transmission to send data down to a receiver site.” The system, located just west of the summit, is susceptible to weather-related interference and PNSN said recent stormy weather likely caused “rime ice buildup.”

The blog post contains recent seismograms and further explanation about how the station’s typical signals are affected by glacier slips, rock falls and high winds. PNSN said any unusual seismic activity such as significant earthquakes or volcanic tremor would show up on numerous other stations that are on or near the volcano and would be detected and reported by PNSN within a short time.

“We realized that what they were seeing was one, just one, of our many seismic stations that was sending out essentially static, just noise, instead of actual data,” PNSN Director Harold Tobin told KING 5. “And that’s the whole problem, and the thing that people think is tremor at the volcano, it’s just some static.”

Washington's Mount Rainier has suddenly awoken and is buzzing with almost nonstop activity for days, stoking fears that an eruption could come soon. 🔗 https://t.co/ZQeqGiKetq pic.twitter.com/KfZ6cUvWi3

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) November 18, 2025

PNSN is operated cooperatively by the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)’s Seattle Field Office to monitor earthquake and volcanic activity across the Pacific Northwest.

The last minor eruption at Mount Rainier was recorded in 1884.

The last minor eruption at PNSN was Wednesday in response to The Daily Mail.

“Unfortunately, sloppy journalism by non-scientists who don’t understand seismology nor check with those that do can generate confusion in the public and more work for those who need to correct the clearly incorrect information,” PNSN’s blog post read. “It is no wonder that some publications are only considered tabloids and should never be believed.”

Previously:

• Seattle shakes again as Mariners grand slam triggers another big burst of seismic activity

Early bird tickets for the GeekWire Gala are going fast, and today is your last chance to secure discounted pricing for our annual holiday extravaganza.

The Gala is the Seattle tech community’s biggest holiday celebration, and it takes place Dec. 11 at Showbox SoDo.

The festive night includes food, drinks, karaoke, games, and plenty of surprise moments. Bring your whole team and make our holiday party your holiday party alongside the region’s top innovators and entrepreneurs.

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. We’ve profiled three of these individuals so far — Anindya Roy, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Lila Biologics; and Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can; and Brian Pinkard, co-founder and CTO at Aquagga. We’ll publish profiles of other honorees in the coming weeks.

Showbox SoDo is located 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 our your holiday flare, or just keep it geek chic.

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

Sponsorships include brand exposure, VIP access, and a front-row seat to the celebration. For sponsorship and group ticket sales, contact us at events@geekwire.com.

Following the election of a new mayor in Seattle, one of Amazon’s top executives reaffirmed its commitment to the region Tuesday, promising, “We are not going anywhere.”

David Zapolsky, Amazon chief global affairs and legal officer, made the comment during an Amazon Community Impact Reception at The Spheres in Seattle, where he and others discussed the company’s philanthropic and civic initiatives from housing to food security.

“Obviously, this is a time of change, both in this region and around the world,” Zapolsky said. “Amazon remains committed to our home, this Puget Sound region. We are not going anywhere. And so we remain committed to building this community.”

It’s a rare public reaffirmation of the Seattle region as Amazon’s primary base. It follows years of political disputes over taxes and other city policies that contributed to Amazon shifting more of its workforce to Bellevue, Wash., and Northern Virginia.

With the arrival of Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson, Amazon must once again establish a working relationship with a city leader who ran on promises to address issues such as affordability, brought about in part by a tech boom that Amazon helped fuel.

Wilson defeated Mayor Bruce Harrell, a more business friendly leader than Amazon was used to dealing with during the tech giant’s strained relations with City Hall.

“I’ve tried to have a very supportive relationship, but also one on mutual accountability,” Harrell told GeekWire in January about his dealings with Amazon. “I think it’s working out well.”

During her campaign in September, Wilson told GeekWire that she aims to work with the tech sector and Amazon on innovative solutions to civic challenges.

A longtime community organizer and Transit Riders Union co-founder, Wilson helped design and pass Seattle’s controversial JumpStart payroll expense tax in 2020. A majority of the revenue — $360 million in 2024 — is generated from 10 companies, including Amazon. 

“Obviously Amazon and the other big tech companies are very important players in our city and in our economy, and so I think it’s very important that the city has working relationships there,” she said.

In the same election that ushered in Wilson, voters also overwhelmingly approved Proposition 2, a plan hatched by Harrell and City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck that will reshape the city’s business and occupation (B&O) tax that applies to gross revenue. It will impact both small startups and large tech companies such as Amazon.

According to public records, Zapolsky gave $550 to Harrell’s re-election campaign. Amazon HR chief Beth Galetti ($650) and Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington ($550) are among others from Amazon who contributed.

During Tuesday’s event at The Spheres, Amazon spotlighted its philanthropic efforts and the progress being made across the region, including:

• $900 million committed through its Housing Fund to create or preserve more than 10,000 affordable homes.
• 4.5 million meals delivered to families in need since 2020.
• 380,000 bed nights provided through Mary’s Place to families experiencing homelessness.

Zapolsky said Amazon’s community strategy shifted as the company rapidly expanded in Seattle. He said employees and leaders have always cared about their community, but the company’s efforts were informal and relatively small-scale in its earlier days. By 2009 and 2010, Amazon had grown far faster than expected and “we were sort of backing into the scale that we have in the city,” Zapolsky said — prompting company leaders to recognize the need for a more organized approach.

From there, he said, Amazon began applying its core business principles to civic work: taking a long-term view, listening to partners to understand what the community actually needs, and focusing on where Amazon’s unique capabilities — logistics, technology, legal expertise — could make the biggest impact, rather than just financial contributions.

“We’re still in the middle of the journey,” Zapolsky said.

Amazon counts more than 80,000 full- and part-time employees in the Puget Sound region. About 50,000 corporate and tech workers are in Seattle— a number that shrunk from about 60,000 in 2020 as more jobs shifted to Bellevue. The company cut 14,000 workers in broad layoffs in October, with 2,303 corporate employees in Washington state.

Zapolsky, who has been at Amazon 26 years, called his move from New York to Seattle 32 years ago the best decision he ever made. He cited the city’s amazing assets, from its people and diversity to its infrastructure improvements including the waterfront, convention center, and Climate Pledge Arena.

“Even government when it tries can’t screw this up,” he said, adding, again, “We’re here to stay. We want to continue working with our partners in the community, continue making the Puget Sound region better for our community and for our employees.”

A group of Seattle nonprofits aiming to boost exposure to and participation in the arts among young people will receive nearly $7 million in funding from Allen Family Philanthropies.

The organizations — all leading projects on the Seattle Center campus — include independent radio station KEXP, the Museum of Pop Culture, Pacific Science Center and others.

Allen Family Philanthropies (formerly known as the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation) is a charitable entity started by the late Microsoft co-founder and his sister, Jody Allen, in 1988. The philanthropy invests in a number of areas, including arts and culture, science and technology, and research in all areas of bioscience.

The grants are aimed at projects intended to grow opportunities for diverse creators, increase access to arts programming and engagement, and reimagine spaces, according to a news release Wednesday.

Here are the eight nonprofits and their plans for how grants totaling $6,868,990 over three years will be used:

• KEXP will support emerging artists and cultural workers and enhance audience diversity through extended programs for youth and their families, including the youth DJ programs, all-ages events, expanded youth outreach and programming engagement, and live music events and other activations in the KEXP Gathering Space and courtyard. ($879,700 in funding).
• Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP) will develop a residency program that will expand free youth access to interactive, culturally relevant learning experiences ($696,176 in funding).
• National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) will scale and grow festival programming into year-round, accessible opportunities for film education, mentorship, and professional development for aspiring youth filmmakers at Seattle Center ($480,882 in funding).
• Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) will unify PNB’s emerging artist efforts into a singular choreographic dance program with more technical training and performance opportunities, increasing engagement for young artists aged 10-26, and expanding the Community Stages program ($1,250,000 in funding).

• Pacific Science Center (PacSci) will connect arts and culture with science, reimagining spaces with public artwork and cultural installations commissioned by Pacific Northwest Indigenous artists and culture bearers, through a new artist-in-residence program within the Maker & Innovation Lab ($997,632 in funding).
• Seattle Repertory Theatre & Seattle Children’s Theatre will expand their theatrical partnership model with a multi-year initiative to co-produce one main stage show each season aimed at teens and their families ($1,320,000 in funding).
• TeenTix will support a new Teen Connectors program in partnership with Seattle Center arts venues to increase access and engagement of teen audiences in arts and culture experiences ($250,000 in funding).
• The Vera Project (Vera) will launch All Ages / All Access, a new slate of all-ages music and arts programming centered on concerts, gallery openings, and creative workforce development opportunities by and for young people. ($994,600 in funding).

Seattle Center draws more than 12 million visitors annually, and is the most visited arts and cultural destination in the Pacific Northwest.

“By investing in arts organizations that engage young people, we invest in the creators, audiences, and advocates who will contribute to and sustain a vibrant arts and culture sector in Seattle for years to come,” said Anh Nguyen, director of arts, youth and community for Allen Family Philanthropies. “These organizations excel at engaging young artists and young audiences — and know how to ignite curiosity. The grants will ensure youth arts and culture programming can continue to grow and evolve to meet community needs.”

Allen Family Philanthropies’ funding for Seattle Center organizations follows previous arts investments from the foundation, including $9 million to eight downtown arts organizations to support nearly 1,200 public events, and the Community Accelerator Grant Program administered by ArtsFund, which has awarded $30 million in funding to 930 arts and culture organizations across Washington state over the last three years.

Previously:

• Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s final act: New $3.1B foundation bets big on science and tech
• In an age of billionaire backlash, Paul Allen’s lasting legacy stands out in Seattle

The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) announced a batch of 19 startups that will be taking place in the nonprofit’s 13th WTIA Founder Cohort Accelerator Program on Tuesday.

Part of the WTIA Startup Program, the Founder Cohort is designed to help early stage startups across Washington state grow and scale over the course of four months. Companies gain access to various resources, mentorship, networking opportunities and guidance as they navigate increasing revenue, securing additional investment, and growing their teams.

The 19 selected companies include:

• Aira Security
• Cr3ate.ai
• Devplan
• DrunR
• InnoMat.AI
• Koniva
• LemiLeap
• NailedIT
• Nurano Labs / Color42
• Oikyo
• Optimly
• Pilotlight
• REearthable
• Rising Wines Collective
• Saltwyk
• SkyTax
• Tato
• VRenity
• One stealth startup

The Founder Cohort will run from this month through February.

“This program is about more than just education, it’s about building community,” Koki Sato, program manager of the accelerator, said in a statement. “We’re here to help founders strengthen their companies and connect with peers, mentors, and investors who can accelerate their growth.”

Since its inception, the WTIA Founder Cohort has supported over 300 companies. Alumni from previous cohorts have collectively raised over $400 million, according to WTIA.

Cameras that automatically capture images of vehicle license plates are being turned off by police in jurisdictions across Washington state, in part after a court ruled the public has a right to access data generated by the technology.

Police in Stanwood and Sedro-Woolley turned off their cameras before the Nov. 6 ruling in Skagit County Superior Court, and Redmond, Lynnwood and Skamania County turned off their cameras after the ruling, according to a report in The Seattle Times on Tuesday.

The debate stems from the use of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) made by Flock Safety, and whether the images and data collected by the cameras are subject to release under Washington’s Public Records Act.

According to court records and the Times, Jose Rodriguez, a tattoo artist who works in Walla Walla, filed public records requests for the ALPR photos and data of about 50 public agencies across Washington.

“The government can’t just put a tracker on us without a warrant, but these (cameras) are basically doing the same thing,” Rodriguez told the Times. He sued 10 cities, including Sedro-Woolley and Stanwood, that didn’t provide their images and data after his public records requests.

“The Flock images generated by the Flock cameras … are public records,” Judge Elizabeth Neidzwski wrote in her ruling, adding that the images are “created and used to further a governmental purpose” and were paid for and generated for the benefit of the cities fighting not to release the data.

ALPR cameras are intended as a public safety tool, to automatically alert officers and analysts when a vehicle linked to a crime, missing person, stolen vehicle, or other critical incident is detected.

The cameras do not use facial recognition or random surveillance, and images and data are supposed to be deleted from Flock’s cloud-based storage system within 30 days.

Flock Safety told the Times that privacy concerns about its technology are unjustified, and that the company’s cameras take pictures of vehicles on public roads, where there is no expectation of privacy. The company said it is advocating a “legislative fix” to Washington’s Public Records Act.

Privacy advocates argue that the technology could be used for mass surveillance. Researchers at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights reported last month that 18 Washington police agencies had their Flock Safety databases searched this year by the U.S. Border Patrol. The state’s “Keep Washington Working Act” bars most state agencies from cooperating with immigration enforcement.

The Redmond Police Dept. started deploying ALPR cameras this summer but turned them off earlier this month after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested seven people, and raised concerns that ICE had accessed the city’s Flock data.

In another incident, a Redmond man was detained when police acted on an alert generated by a Flock camera. KING 5 reported that the system wrongly flagged the man’s car as being “associated” with his son, who shares his name and was wanted on a felony warrant.

The holiday party season is about to ramp up and you won’t want to miss the tech community’s biggest celebration — the GeekWire Gala. Early bird ticket prices for the event end this Thursday so make sure you grab yours now!

The annual gala, Dec. 11 in Seattle, is a great chance to make our holiday party your holiday party. Come solo, bring a date, or bring your whole team from work for a festive night of food, drinks, karaoke, games, and surprise moments alongside the region’s top innovators and entrepreneurs.

The party will run from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Showbox SoDo, at 1700 1st Ave S., not far from T-Mobile Park. Dress to impress or keep it geek chic — just don’t miss the fun.

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. We’ve profiled two of these individuals so far — Anindya Roy, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Lila Biologics; and Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can — and we’ll publish profiles of other honorees in the coming weeks.

Showbox SoDo is located at 1700 1st Ave S., not far from T-Mobile Park. The event is 21+ and all attendees must have valid ID to enter.

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

Sponsorships include brand exposure, VIP access, and a front-row seat to the celebration. For sponsorship and group ticket sales, contact us at events@geekwire.com.

The former chief financial officer of onetime Seattle e-commerce startup Fabric has been convicted of four counts of wire fraud for taking and misusing around $35 million from his former employer.

Nevin Shetty, 41, of Mercer Island, Wash., was found guilty on Nov. 7, after a nine-day jury trial, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s office for the Western District of Washington.

“This defendant exploited his position of power and trust in an attempt to profit from his crime and then lied to cover it up,” U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a statement.

Shetty joined Fabric as CFO in March 2021. The company, which moved its headquarters out of Seattle to San Francisco last year, was raising capital at the time and Shetty helped draft a policy governing how the money raised should be invested conservatively while the company worked to grow its business.

Prosecutors said Shetty diverted funds in early 2022 to his own cryptocurrency business, HighTower Treasury, without authorization. Although he helped create the company’s policy limiting investments to low-risk accounts, he secretly moved the money into high-yield decentralized finance platforms that promised 20% returns.

According to records, Shetty’s plan was to pay his employer 6% interest and keep the rest of the profits through HighTower. In the first month, he and a partner made about $133,000, but by May 2022, the crypto investments had collapsed, wiping out nearly all $35 million.

After confessing to colleagues, Shetty was fired and the company reported the theft to the FBI.

Shetty was indicted in May 2023.

Jurors deliberated about 10 hours before reaching the guilty verdict last week. Judge Tana Lin scheduled sentencing for Feb. 11, 2026. Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Amazon is rebranding its ambitious effort to expand global access to high-speed internet: Project Kuiper will now be known as Amazon Leo.

The Seattle-based tech giant announced Thursday that it was renaming its satellite broadband project in the midst of deploying the equipment that will help power it all.

Leo is a nod to “low Earth orbit,” where Amazon has so far launched more than 150 satellites as part of a constellation that will eventually include more than 3,200.

In a blog post, Amazon said the 7-year-old Project Kuiper began “with a handful of engineers and a few designs on paper” and like most early Amazon projects “the program needed a code name.” The team was inspired by the Kuiper Belt, a ring of asteroids in the outer solar system.

A new website for Amazon Leo proclaims “a new era of internet is coming,” as Amazon says its satellites can help serve “billions of people on the planet who lack high-speed internet access, and millions of businesses, governments, and other organizations operating in places without reliable connectivity.”

Amazon said it will begin rolling out service once it’s added more coverage and capacity to the network. Details about pricing and availability haven’t been announced.

Early customers and partners include JetBlue, which in September became the first airline to sign on with Leo, promising faster and more reliable inflight Wi-Fi. L3Harris, DIRECTV Latin America, Sky Brasil, and NBN Co., Australia’s National Broadband Network operator, are also signed up to deploy the service. And agricultural connectivity company Connected Farms inked a deal this week.

During a test in September, executives touted data transmission speeds from the constellation in excess of a gigabit per second.

Amazon’s primary satellite manufacturing facility is in Kirkland, Wash., with some of the components produced at Leo’s headquarters in nearby Redmond. Amazon also has a $140 million, 100,000-square-foot payload processing facility at Kennedy Space Center that prepares satellites for upcoming launches.

Amazon’s multibillion-dollar bid to catch up with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation began in earnest in April with the launch of the first 27 satellites.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy posted on X about the name change and said projects such as Echo and Kindle also had code names early on. And Amazon Devices & Services leader Panos Panay said that he was “psyched for what’s ahead” in his own post on X.

Pretty much every Amazon project starts with a code name. Echo was “Doppler,” our first Kindle was “Fiona,” and our EC2 network device project was “Blackfoot,” after the penguins our AWS team saw while doing the work in Cape Town.

For our satellite network, it was “Project… pic.twitter.com/hJO6kJ9C8y

— Andy Jassy (@ajassy) November 13, 2025

Pumped to share that Project Kuiper is now known as @AmazonLeo, a nod to the low Earth orbit satellites that power our network. The name is new but the mission stays the same: to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world beyond the reach of… pic.twitter.com/6vioBBMrJc

— Panos Panay (@panos_panay) November 13, 2025

Editor’s note: This series profiles six of the Seattle region’s “Uncommon Thinkers”: inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs transforming industries and driving positive change in the world. They will be recognized Dec. 11 at the GeekWire Gala. Uncommon Thinkers is presented in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners.

When a Tin Can rings at Chet Kittleson‘s house, the co-founder and CEO of the startup that makes the WiFi-enabled landline phone goes through a range of emotions.

As a parent, he’s excited that his kids are connected and that his device gives them agency, with the ring representing the idea that some friend, or their grandma, has decided to call them. And he’s satisfied that he doesn’t have to do anything to enable the connection — the phone rings, two kids discuss a playdate. It’s super convenient.

“And as a founder every ring is a reminder that I think we have product-market fit,” Kittleson added.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Kittleson and co-founders Graeme Davies and Max Blumen. All veterans of onetime Seattle real estate startup Far Homes, they released the colorful Tin Can phones in an analog bid to help kids connect with one another and avoid getting addicted to a world of screens, texting and apps.

The startup raised $3.5 million in September and blew through its first two batches of products. There are Tin Cans in all 50 states and across Canada.

“I think, effectively, we’ve gone viral,” Kittleson said. “I’m so grateful that this is the hit, that it worked. They always say, ‘You’ve got to be willing to run into a burning building for the thing that you’re working on.’ And, man, would I run into a burning building for this.”

Ben Gilbert, co-founder of Tin Can-backer Pioneer Square Labs, worked with Kittleson back in 2013 on a ride-sharing startup idea called Red Ride. He called Kittleson one of a kind.

“Honestly, when he pitched me on the idea of a landline in 2025, I had to hold my tongue at first,” Gilbert said via email. “But clearly, he figured out something that a LOT of parents were extremely ready for and excited about.”

Gilbert said Tin Can is a passion project that Kittleson would be doing whether there was a business there or not.

“We’re all better off in a world where Chet and the team are building Tin Can for our kids!” he said.

‘There’s a reason I built this company’

Kittleson grew up on the tail end of the landline generation. He got his first Nokia “brick” cellphone when he was 17 or 18. Before that, his house was fully landline.

“It was everything,” he said. “My dad left when I was four. It’s the only way that I talked to my dad.”

In the small town of La Conner, Wash., north of Seattle, he would call around to friends until someone answered. If he left the house, he’d call his mom from a friend’s to say he made it there. By middle school he can remember calling a specific girl, asking her dad if she was home, and then getting lost in a 30-minute conversation.

“We ended up chatting almost like pen pals. I feel like we never acknowledged it in school,” Kittleson said. “That was exciting. I experienced the entire range of landline kid life.”

A father of three now, Kittleson didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to pull the plug and go full Luddite on a household that was already accustomed to devices and distraction.

He and his wife have long been rooted in the belief that there are better ways to grow up and more meaningful ways to spend time together as a family than heads-down on a screen.

“There’s a reason I built this company,” Kittleson said. “I embrace it. It’s so aligned with who I want to be. This has given me a real opportunity to think about every element of my life and how I use technology, and I think a lot about how I connect with people.”

His kids, the oldest of which is 10, have never owned their own device of any kind. The family does not do screens at restaurants. A plane ride is a chance to play cribbage. A movie during a long car ride is a luxury.

“It’s very important for my kids to learn how to be bored, and that shows up in lots of different places,” Kittleson said.

A mission to believe in

Tin Can was born during a time of increasing cultural backlash toward the behavioral and health effects of screen time and social media on children. Much has been said on the topic of being modern-day parents and kids, and Kittleson references Jonathan Haidt’s best-selling book “The Anxious Generation” and free-range kids advocate Lenore Skenazy.

It can seem like a heavy responsibility to try to build a piece of hardware that will suddenly right that societal ship, but Kittleson doesn’t see it that way.

“All these people — researchers, writers, etc., have done an amazing job paving the way for a Tin Can to exist,” Kittleson said. “Our point of view is life is still really good. You just have to make choices, and we’re trying to provide a new choice that might remind you of an old choice.”

And Kittleson and Tin Can are by no means anti-tech. He said he still geeks out on a lot of different types of technology. His excitement comes from trying to figure out how to use tech to reinforce human connection, rather than tech being such an insular thing.

Kittleson expects Tin Can to expand beyond its flagship landline product in the future and broaden its scope outside of “retro-nostalgia vibes.”

“I think there will probably be a combination of us building new things that we think can help, and maybe there are other things that we’ve lost that we can sort of revitalize,” he said.

Kittleson said he’s never experienced a more mission-driven team and company than what he’s helped assemble, and PSL Managing Director Vivek Ladsariya, who sits on Tin Can’s board, said that mindset starts at the top.

Investors might ask during fundraising how artificial intelligence is going to be baked into Tin Can, and Ladsariya said Kittleson would tell them there’s going to be no AI, that that’s not the point of the company.

“He’s doing Tin Can because he cares about the mission more than anything else,” Ladsariya said. “The level of conviction he brings — it’s contagious. People he hires, customers, investors are just drawn to him, because he’s so mission-driven. To me, that is really, truly special.”

Seattle-based electric-bike maker Rad Power Bikes, which grew into the leading e-bike seller in North America during the pandemic, is fighting for survival as it faces “significant financial challenges,” the company confirmed on Monday.

Rad filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) with the Washington state Employment Security Department on Friday. A company spokesperson told GeekWire the filing was part of “advance written notice of a potential cessation of operations that could occur as early as January 2026.”

The closure would spell the end of the company and mark a stunning collapse for Rad Power Bikes, which was once Seattle’s highest-profile consumer hardware startup, riding pandemic-era e-bike demand to unicorn status.

According to the WARN filing, a shutdown would impact 64 jobs at Rad’s headquarters location in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Affected positions include the company’s CEO, CFO, multiple director-level roles, customer service reps, and bike mechanics. Rad also operates retail locations in nine cities in the U.S. and Canada.

“No final decisions have been made, and these notices are precautionary,” the Rad spokesperson said. “Rad’s leadership is actively pursuing all viable options to keep the company operating.”

Those options include funding to keep the company moving forward or an acquisition of Rad, which has raised more than $329 million to date. One “very promising deal” was close to completion and appeared likely to close, but did not “come to fruition.”

In a letter to employees (below), the company said that it “did not anticipate the sudden drop in consumer demand from Covid-era peaks” and that in addition it was dealing with challenges “in the form of tariffs and the macroeconomic landscape.”

According to the letter, a collective mantra has emerged at the company: “Save Rad.” For years, the slogan of choice has been “Ride Rad.”

The company is still selling bikes on its website and promoting deals for Black Friday.

The filing with the state is in compliance with Washington’s Mini-WARN Act, which went into effect July 27, and “requires employers with 50 or more full-time employees in the state to provide 60 days’ advance written notice for mass layoffs or business closures impacting 50 or more employees.”

Rad was conceived in 2007 by co-founders Mike Radenbaugh and Ty Collins, who met as students at Humboldt State University in Northern California and built their first e-bike together. After years of doing custom conversions of traditional bikes to electric, they launched their company as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2015.

Rad saw big demand amid the pandemic as more people bought e-bikes. Its sales and workforce surged and it raised more than $300 million from investors in 2021. The company was valued at $1.65 billion that year, according to PitchBook, making it one of a handful of “unicorn” startups in the Seattle region at the time.

Rad operates out of a headquarters and flagship retail location on NW 52nd Street in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

The company is currently led by CEO Kathi Lentzsch, who previously ran Bartell Drugs as CEO before the company sold to Rite-Aid in 2020. She also led companies including Gump’s and Elephant Pharmacy, and held exec roles at Enesco, Pottery Barn and World Market.

Lentzsch replaced Phil Molyneux, the former Sony president who stepped down earlier this year after leading Rad for more than two years.

Seattle entrepreneurs Darrell Cavens and Mark Vadon, who helped grow online retail giants Blue Nile and Zulily, invested in Rad in 2019.

The company raised $25 million in 2020, led by Vulcan Capital and Durable Capital Partners LP, and by May of that year as the pandemic took hold, Rad was fielding a 297% increase in demand due to rapid changes in consumer transportation and exercise habits.

As the global electric bike market exploded, Rad took on another $150 million in 2021 from big-name investors such as Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Fidelity Management & Research Company, The Rise Fund, the global impact investing platform managed by TPG, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates.

Later that year, as ridership surged, Rad raised another $154 million.

In April 2022, the company began a series a layoffs, slashing 100 jobs from its 725-person workforce as part of what it described as a restructuring. Another 63 employees were cut in July, and more followed in December.

Radenbaugh stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Molyneux, who was hired as president and COO earlier in 2022. Collins had resigned in 2021.

Layoffs continued into 2023 and 2024, and the company stopped selling its bikes to customers in the United Kingdom and European Union.

Rad’s struggles come amid a broader cooling of the e-bike market. Europe’s VanMoof filed for bankruptcy in 2023, while Belgium-based Cowboy and other rivals have struggled to find sustainable footing after pandemic-era highs. Rising costs, tariffs and other factors have forced several electric-bike makers to downsize or seek buyers.

Copy of the letter the company sent to Rad Power Bikes employees: 

As you are aware, Rad Power Bikes Inc. (“Rad”) has faced economic challenges following the pandemic impacts. Like other companies in the traditional and e-bike industry, Rad did not anticipate the sudden drop in consumer demand from Covid-era peaks. Rad has made significant progress in selling down the substantial excess inventory of finished goods built up during Covid and has been working to minimize its liabilities for raw materials purchased during or shortly after Covid. However, Rad continues to face significant financial challenges, including in the form of tariffs and the macroeconomic landscape.  

For the past several months, executive leadership has explored different ways to continue Rad’s business, including strategic partnerships with other companies that could acquire the company or provide funding so the company could keep moving forward. Until recently, one such option seemed very promising and appeared to be likely to close. Unfortunately, that did not come to fruition. Leadership is still working to find other viable options to keep the Rad brand alive. The collective mantra has been and will continue to be, “Save Rad.” 

Rad is nothing without its people and wants to ensure that all employees are taken care of and provided for to the fullest extent feasible. Executive leaders are hopeful that a viable solution will be found to ensure that Rad team members remain gainfully employed for the foreseeable future. However, to be fully transparent, despite our collective efforts, it is possible that this may not happen, and Rad may be forced to cease operations. In the event that occurs, Rad is providing this notice to you to satisfy any obligation that may exist under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and the State of Washington’s “mini-WARN” Act (collectively “the WARN Acts”). While Rad hopes this notice is ultimately unnecessary and does not concede that the WARN Acts apply or that notice is required, the company nonetheless wishes to provide as much notice of the potential closure as possible.

To be clear, Rad’s leaders are still fighting to find ways to continue and emphasize that the cessation of Rad’s operations is not a foregone conclusion. What we do now as a team can impact the mission to Save Rad. Rad needs every team member to keep providing excellent service to keep fighting. 

In the event the company is forced to close, Rad would be required to cease operations on January 9, 2026 or within 14 days thereafter.  In that case, Rad expects that any cessation of operations will affect all locations and departments, will be permanent in nature, and that all employees will be terminated effective January 9, 2026.  The cessation of Rad’s operations would not be the result of relocation or contracting out the company’s operations or the affected employees’ positions.  The affected Washington state employees (listed below) are not represented by any union and there are no bumping rights applicable to the affected employees.

Pursuant to the WARN Acts, this notice is applicable only to those employees assigned to the Seattle office located at 1121 NW 52^nd Street, Seattle, WA 98107, or remote employees reporting to the Seattle office. However, Rad has elected to notify all employees, regardless of location, and provide the same information regarding Rad’s financial situation and potential next steps. All other locations employ less than 50 individuals and are not subject to the WARN Acts’ formal notice requirements.

Rad’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification:

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