As I wander around Seattle for a few days, including a fun event with JP Morgan in the morning and PSL at the end of the day, I’ve been pondering the evolution of startup communities. I first started coming to Seattle in 1990 and wrote a post seven years ago about it – Hanging Out In Pioneer Square. Last night, while sitting with Greg and Shannon Gottesman, overlooking Lake Washington, I relaxed into a wonderful feeling of topophilia.
I’ve always loved Seattle. At life dinners, Amy and I periodically play a somewhat morbid, but interesting game of “Where would you move to if I died?” as we both think it would be too difficult to stay in one of the places we’ve shared so much time. Seattle is regularly at the top of my list.
Seattle has grown and evolved in the 35 years since I’ve been coming here. It’s incredible to see (and have experienced) the evolution of the startup community here. I received a few questions about it at the public events yesterday, and was reflecting on a common theme that has been discussed on a few podcasts, which, if you’re interested in this topic, are worth listening to.
As a bonus, Ian Hathaway is now hosting a must-listen podcast called Outsider Inc. Ian recently featured me on an episode, and his most recent one is with Dug Song.
I spent some time with Dug and his extended Detroit community members when I was in Indianapolis a few weeks ago with High Alpha and Scott Dorsey’s team. Here’s the bonus bonus video about their Detroit to Indy Roadtrip GEC2025!
The second principle of the Boulder Thesis is that one must take a long-term view, at least 20 years, to build a startup community. I evolved that to “a 20-year view from today” – basically, always look forward 20 years. In the podcast with Lesa Mitchell, I realized that I’ve been working on building startup communities and conceptualizing and understanding the ideas behind them for around 35 years, which I found rhymes nicely with the 35 years I’ve been coming to Seattle.
On day three of a beautiful stretch of weather in Seattle, I’m delighted to be here.