Seattle 2.0

+1 on the STS list FWIW - I did this exact thing in 2004 - I am one of the founders of PayScale (www.payscale.com). We (wife+3-month-old) moved from NYC to Seattle after we got funded. The 3 month old is now 6.5 and PayScale is doing pretty well :) There is a pretty active startup community here. http://www.seattle20.com/ is a good place to start. There are a lot of startup events going on in Seattle. You can view http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/ to see some of them.

Watch this great talk by entrepreneur Hadi Partovi on this very subject: http://www.seattle20.com/tv/clip/StartupDay-2010-Exit-Strategies-for-S…

$100-$300 is about what I would pay, $100 being an easy pick and $300 is something I would really think about. I don't care about printers and file servers, I care about WiFi, kitchen, small locker (for my own tea etc) and a whiteboard. Not sure about monitors, these may turn out handy. Check out http://www.seattle20.com/ for other shared work spaces in the area, this will give you an idea where you stand, e.g. here are 4: http://www.seattle20.com/blog/The-Ultimate-Guide-for-the-New-Entrepren… I'm in Seattle, on the east side. There is no way I am coming over to the west side - the bridges are clogged. Also consider that other shared paces are on the west side, so there is a bit of a vacuum here.

Go to various tech meetups/meetings that seem relevant and then try to identify smart people by what they say in meetings. Then approach them. Maybe sponsor a relevant meeting by buying the pizza/beer for it. This buys you the opportunity to give a company introduction and let people know you're hiring. Very cheap advertising. meetup.com is probably the generic place to look for these types of meetings, but every city probably has its own, better site. In Seattle, among others, we have http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/ and http://www.seattle20.com/ among probably others. Sitting in your office waiting for resumes/cover letters is the absolute worst way to try to get people. It also leaves you with only an interview to get to know the potential hire, while at the meeting you may find out all sorts of desirable or undesirable characteristics about them. Additionally you may get input from that person's peers.

I went through the program in 2007 in Boulder (the first year they were offering it) with Brightkite. I'd definitely recommend doing it, it's more than worth it. To answer your specific questions: a) It's primarily about the team. Assemble a founding team that has a history/evidence of being able to execute. You can do that by either having an impressive resume, or (in my case back at the time) demoing software that you've written, even if it's not directly related to what you're applying with. There are also a bunch of online resources that answer this question. A select few: http://nattyzola.com/7-pieces-of-advice-to-techstar-applicants-for-201… http://www.seattle20.com/blog/Some-tips-for-applying-and-getting-into-… http://www.nearlynicole.com/2010/05/tips-for-applying-to-techstars/ b) This really depends on your experience, but in a nutshell, try to focus on learning the things you have little experience in. For example, if you are a great engineer, but know little about raising money, focus most of your time on that. Also, my friend Jon from IntenseDebate (sold to Automattic) has some great advice here: http://jonefox.com/blog/2008/06/08/tips-for-techstars-teams/ Hope this helps, Martin

Bellevue, WA Senior Software Engineer @ ClassifiedAds.com Core skills: Linux, PHP, MySQL Do you want to join one of Seattle’s top startups, an Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Company? http://www.seattle20.com/startup-index.aspx http://www.inc.com/inc5000/profile/classifiedadscom ClassifiedAds.com is one of the largest classified ads websites, with over 3 million monthly unique visitors. We're a small startup – there are less than 20 of us – but we’re a major player in the online classifieds space. Send your resume to [email protected] Or read more at http://www.classifiedads.com/technical_jobs-ad4787967.htm

This article only has a few of the biggest names. The real tech scene is somewhat larger: http://www.seattle20.com/startups.aspx And Fremont is one more unmentioned tech neighborhood: Tableau Software, Ubermind, and Groundspeak wave hi from nextdoor to Impinj, Adobe, Google, and others...

The list view is just where I scraped the data from, http://www.seattle20.com/startups.aspx.

The higher the rating, the more of a douchebag they are. Plus, from what I know about the project it's not something they're trying to make money on -- they're having fun. There's an article about the creators on Seattle 2.0 - http://www.seattle20.com/blog/Startup-Profile-TweetSum.aspx

Seattle 2.0 is pretty involved in the Seattle startup scene. You can check out their job board here at: http://www.seattle20.com/jobs/ Also, I know some TechStars Seattle companies are hiring. These jobs aren't listed on a particular website, but you can check out all the companies that launched in Seattle here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/11/techstars-launches-ten-new-startups-i… If there is a company you're interested in, I can connect you to the founders as I am friends with alot of those TechStars folks. TechFlash(http://techflash.com) is a good source that blogs about Seattle tech startups. You can keep an eye on that blog to see which companies received funding. I know BigTip.com just raised $500,000 and they are looking for a "hardcore web dev person". Founders Co-op is an early stage investment group/incubator. Andy Sack(@andysack), the managing director of Founders Co-op and TechStars Seattle, has a list of his portfolio companies here http://founderscoop.com/portfolio.php. Some of them are hiring as well. You want to follow Andy Sack if you want to get on the ball with the Seattle startup scene. his blog is http://asack.typepad.com. Hope any of this helps. I'll get back to you if I think of some more.

You can visit us at Twilio anytime! Email me [email protected] and I can set it up so that we have time to hang out with some of the team for a meal or something. SAN FRANCISCO One place to meet tons of awesome people: Pier 38 / Dogpatch Labs is home to at least a dozen tech companies including Threadsy, Cotweet, 99 Designs, and a bunch of stealth ones, too. You could also try Citizen Space and Parisoma, they're awesome co-working spots with several startups each. SEATTLE The Seattle 2.0 Startup Index might be a good place to start there: http://www.seattle20.com/startup-index.aspx There is a concentration of startups in 3 neighborhoods: Pioneer Square (by the ballpark and Amazon), Capital Hill (the "hip" part of town), and East Lake Union (up and coming, near new Amazon campus) Shortlist of startups I'd hit up: TeachStreet, Cheezburger Network, SEOmoz, Kashless, Gist, GarageBand.com (shares office with iLike/mySpace), many more since I left there