

Mark Suster on Seattle and how a few key people can transform a community - daryn
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/05/a-few-key-people-really-can-make-a-huge-difference/

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

~~~
stevenj
In my experience, few good UW CSE graduates want to give up an $80,000+ job
offer at a reputable company to work at a startup.

If you're a good engineer, who's also a recent graduate, deciding to do a
startup comes at a cost (e.g. reduced salary) -- more so depending on how much
debt you've accumulated.

With that said, I'm all for informing students about all the options that are
available and allowing them to choose.

Though, I would love to see more engineering graduates of Seattle colleges
join startups.

~~~
hazzen
My observations as a (somewhat) recent graduate from UW CSE:

Many of the students that wanted to go into startups after graduation instead
of a job either had started on some product during school and wanted to see
that through to completion, or were of the mind that they could just work for
a few years at {Amazon, Google, Microsoft, ...} and then do the risky thing.

There is also a lack of exposure in the curriculum. They are in the middle of
re-designing it, but before that only one class let you create a small team,
come up with a product, and build it. It was seen as a painful course (it was)
and it was also taken by most everyone (including people who couldn't care
less, so it was hard to find a group of 4-5 motivated people). I don't recall
any hackathons when I was there aside from ACM programming competitions.

~~~
dbalatero
As a startup person, I had to seek out the opportunities to build a product as
part of a small team each quarter at UW CSE. That said, you can do it if you
have the motivation.

All the literature about the program mentions that you can optionally take 1
capstone course (which are the big project courses that let you have free
creative reign over what you produce). My solution was to just do 3 capstones
instead.

I ended up taking the Google/Hadoop project course, distributed systems
capstone, and Dan Weld's web services capstone. Each quarter I had 3-4 people
on a team, and we were able to build something awesome.

To me it always seemed like a problem of advertising the opportunity within
the department, and encouraging big risky projects vs. focused, assigned
classwork.

~~~
hazzen
Fun that I can recognize you based on your user name, but you probably can't
do the same matching for me (its Mikey).

You were actually one of the people I was thinking of when I originally put in
an aside about the really motivated people still doing it. I then removed that
aside, but I probably should not have. The really motivated people are going
to go into startups; they caught the itch at some point and need to scratch it
to remain happy.

The subset of people that could go either way (startup or corporate) don't
quite have the opportunity to see what a startup would be like at UW. The
capstones are good, but for most they are an afterthought to be done in the
final quarter or two, when they have most likely landed a job already.
Software Engineering (CSE 403) is more about satisfying a requirement than
about building something, and that is all most students end up with.

------
rtalwar
Hi All-

I'd like to first introduce myself to everyone. My name is Rishi Talwar and
I'm a senior majoring in Informatics at UW. I can't believe this is my first
post on HN ever. I guess this topic really resonates with me because I've been
passionate about the Seattle startup tech scene since the beginning of
freshman year.

I too agree that there needs to be a more emphasis on startups at UW and
building software that ultimately help others/create value. From my personal
experience I have seen that there are a few people who feel as passionate and
inspired about startups. I found this out when I was looking to work with a UW
CSE student on a project I had in mind which is now up here:
<http://www.fratapps.com/>. I'm not a CS major but I'm still up on different
types of technologies. Mainly, I'm a front-end and product guy who loves
building stuff. Therefore I was seeking someone who was majoring in cs.

After meeting with multiple students I finally found a friend who was willing
to partner up and work with me who was a UW CSE student. But most of these
students that I met didn't have any clue about the startup scene in Seattle or
didn't care about building anything. This makes me feel that these students
majoring in CSE are not passionate about their industry and ultimately get
gobbled up by a big-co knowing that they will receive an $80,000+ salary.
Maybe its not in their DNA or other factors drive them or its not in their
curriculum. But there was definitely an utter lack of fire that is not money
driven or by notoriety.

However, this past year I've been happy to know that these students are out
there like Mongoose and a few others who has been a tremendous advocate for
startups and do it purely out of passion. Also, I have had the honor to meet a
freshman business student who is probably way more well connected in the
Startup scene then me (twitter:@mikeytom) who has worked on FratApps.com.

When I read blog posts like this from Mark Suster it makes me want to hustle.
Maybe there needs to be a startupWeekend for UW like StartupUW. Something that
brings all facets of knowledge ie business, engineering, and Informatics or
anyone else together on campus.

I appreciate you reading this and would like to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,

Rishi Talwar twitter: @rishtal

------
stevenj
I may be wrong about this, but I sense that Seattle's startup scene is
definitely lacking something important. I can't put my finger on it, but I
think it's there.

In my opinion, people here seem pretty risk-averse (ie few want to jump and do
a startup, especially people in their twenties).

It kind of seems like people lack the drive to "change the world". Instead,
people seem pretty laid back here. It's almost as if they get too comfortable
here.

~~~
daveschappell
No, I don't think that's it (having lived here for 13 years). I think it's
just more that people are focused on their own thing, by and large, vs.
getting out with a small % of their time and building a community for the
greater good.

This 'problem' is so fixable; we just need another catalyst (like what
www.GeneralAssemb.ly and New Work City are doing in NYC... and what TechStars
did in Boulder, Seattle, Boston and NYC, and many other examples).

We're just a few nudges away, and there's no doubt we'll get there -- we just
need to keep focusing on the good stuff, and it's going to happen.

~~~
stevenj
>I think it's just more that people are focused on their own thing, by and
large, vs. getting out with a small % of their time and building a community
for the greater good.

Ya, they're not enough "crazy" people.

I think Seattle needs a big consumer-based (2.0 or 3.0) hit. It needs a
Facebook, a Groupon, a Twitter, a Skype, a LinkedIn, an Etsy, a Dropbox.

~~~
daveschappell
you mean, like an Amazon? or a Starbucks? :-)

or, if you want to be cynical that Amazon's a long time ago... how about like
an AWS, or a Kindle? The innovation's here -- we just need to get more
commingling going on

it's going to happen -- if you're in town, reach out, please -- would love to
have you help

~~~
potatolicious
Amazon _was_ a long time ago, and AWS/Kindle, while being great products, did
not contain really an element of risk the way a scrappy startup does.

I think parent poster has a point - there aren't a lot of recent examples of
taking the risk and having it pay off, which may lead to some risk aversion in
the community.

~~~
kenjackson
There are some.

For example Big Fish Games. There's also Tableau Software (although not
consumer). Neither large compared to Skype, but both ~$100M revenue companies
founded about the time of Skype.

UPDATE: After I wrote this I realized what is different about Seattle than the
Bay Area, which is something a previous poster put in parentheticals... (web
2.0/3.0). Look at this list:

Facebook, a Groupon, a Twitter, a Skype, a LinkedIn, an Etsy, a Dropbox

These companies, except maybe Dropbox, are about connecting users together.
Not about product. Seattle tends to be more focused on providing product. Is
it the case that you are less likely to see a Tableau or Mathematica come out
of the Bay Area?

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

~~~
TheIronYuppie
Dave deserves a ton of credit for all he's doing in the community. I'll offer
up my own time as well - if you have ANY questions, i'm happy to help - follow
me at @aronchick or email me at aronchick (at) hark.com.

I think getting the patrons moving is a huge win - they all have stacks they
want startups using and/or hiring problems. Getting a vibrant startup
community makes things much better.

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calbear81
Oren Etzioni (<http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/etzioni/>), a UW professor,
and co-founder of the previous startup I worked at in Seattle is also involved
with several other new startups including Decide.com that just raised a $6M
round.

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

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

<http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/>

