Five Seattle Startups I think you should know about

Time, especially in the tech world, travels at warp speed. From getting my start at Microsoft in the 90s to now, decades later, participating in Seattle’s startup scene, I often wonder where the years have gone. 

But I’m not going to get sentimental or nostalgic, especially when there’s such exciting work happening all over this great city. And that gets me to the purpose of this post. I’d actually like to take a quick pause from the startup rat race and highlight a few startups based in Seattle that have caught my attention.  

Let me not waste your time any longer. Let’s take a look at my top Seattle startups.  

Snap! Raise

Snap! Raise logo- Seattle Startups

Ranking #182 in Deloitte’s Fast 500, Snap! Raise has enjoyed exponential growth over the past few years. The company’s founder, Cole Morgan, realized ‘champions’ (coaches, instructors, PTAs, etc.) spend, on average, 13.5 hours a week completing administrative ‘chores.’ That’s 13.5 hours youth leaders could be doing what they do best: fostering students’ growth. 

Snap! Raise developed a digital fundraising platform that automates the busywork, so champions can dedicate more time to teaching essential life skills to the future leaders of society. 

Snap! Raise is one of the leading startups in Seattle. I truly respect their cause and am excited to continue tracking their growth.  

Atomo Coffee

Atomo Coffee logo -Seattle Startups

This is not a trick question: what’s the key ingredient in coffee? 

Coffee beans! Or that’s what I thought until I heard about beanless coffee.   

Atomo has reverse-engineered the coffee-brewing process, eliminating what was once thought essential. Not only can the startup faithfully recreate your coffee of choice, but they’re also providing an environmentally sustainable alternative to the standard cup of Joe.    

Amperity

Amperity logo-Seattle Startups

Knowing who your target audience is and what they want are paramount to developing great marketing strategies. 

Coming off an impressive $50 million series C round in 2019, Amperity offers ‘bleeding edge technology’ for the modern marketer. Compiling sales data (e-mail, point-of-sale, e-commerce, etc.), the startup’s Consumer Data Platform (CDP) constructs and updates complete customer ‘identities’—buying behaviors and preferences of individuals and groups.  

As someone who has spent the past decade building startups from the ground up, I know I’ve spent many hours trying to figure out how to market products to the target consumer or businesses. Amperity, it seems, has a product that can really eliminate much of the guesswork involved in marketing. 

Outreach.io

oureach logo

Sales teams regularly give up too early, often missing out on potential conversions. 

Outreach.io has developed a comprehensive Sales Engagement Platform. With multi-channel communication and automatic scheduling, the company’s software provides all the tools sales teams need to stay on task and in touch with leads.  

Plus, Outreach.io has attained the vaunted status of ‘unicorn.’ Congratulations to the folks over there! Clearly they’re doing great work.  

FURTHER READING

What makes an excellent startup CTO?

How to find a Technical Co-founder for your startup? 

A look at the Techstars seed accelerator program 

98Point6

98point6 logo

Ever been sick and googled your symptoms? WebMD and internet doctors prognosticate death within the hour. That’s the kind of potentially anxiety-inducing self-diagnosis 98point6 wants to prevent. 

While doctors’ offices can often be a treasure trove for comedians, most of us hate sitting around, exposing ourselves to all kinds of germs. 98point6 has developed an app to eliminate appointments, travel, and waiting rooms. With the startup’s convenient text-based primary care, users have 24/7 access to board-certified physicians.

I’d love to hear from you.

Any startup you’d have on your list? I know I’ve left out a bunch of great local startups, but as they say, business calls. 

Since you’re here, I’m looking to partner with serious entrepreneurs who have bold ideas and realistic plans.

First-time founders, I know, find it especially hard to avoid all the pitfalls of building a business from the ground up.  My extensive experience as a startup CTO and technical co-founder has given me a lot of wisdom I’d like to offer to you and your startup. From bootstrapping to scaling, I’ve done it all—multiple times over. 

If you think you’ve got a game-changing idea, please get in touch!

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