Earlier this week I judged a session at TechCrunch Disrupt SF, and one of the companies I watched and reviewed, Layer, won the entire Disrupt Startup Battlefield.  Congrats guys.

While this type of format seems a little Shark Tank-esque, it is always interesting to hear from entrepreneurs, especially when they must pitch their business in six minutes or less.  It’s really, really hard.  Tech Crunch puts on a great event, and it was great to catch up with folks I haven’t seen in awhile.  Especially enjoyed chatting with Tech Crunch’s Colleen Taylor on TCTV.

My recent “Kill the Squirrel” comment at the Washington State Technology Alliance lunch has nothing to do with animal cruelty – trust me. But, it does have everything to do with being steadfast in business strategy.  As the phrase was making the Twitter rounds, Geekwire’s John Cook documented it.  To clarify, I merely borrowed a phrase my dad used years ago when teaching me to drive.

The luncheon was a great afternoon, and my conversation with UW Professor Ed Lazowska was terrific, thanks in part to the questions that came in via Twitter.  The video of the event is below.

http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=5211330&file=1

*Photo credit: Ashley Genevieve

Fellow Seattle-based entrepreneur/venture capitalist, Nick Hanauer, has been been poking the hornets nest of 1%ers recently with a Bloomberg Op-Ed he authored which argues that we capitalists are not job creators, our customers are.  If Nick had singled out high-finance types, well, okay, those guys are everyone’s somewhat-deserved favorite target.  But Nick couldn’t be talking about me, a founder a several companies including Expedia and Zillow, that now employ thousands of people, could he? Read More…