Washington STEM Gets $75K SAP Concur Grant to Expand ‘Career Connected Learning’

GeekWire | Frank Catalano | September 13
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/washington-stem-gets-75k-sap-concur-grant-expand-career-connected-learning/

“Education nonprofit Washington STEM is receiving a $75,000 grant from SAP Concur to help it expand student opportunities to explore STEM careers. The Seattle-based organization announced Thursday that it’s been chosen as the local nonprofit for SAP Concur’s Community Impact Partner program. As part of the selection, Bellevue, Wash.-based SAP Concur will also provide “purposeful engagement” from its employees, starting with participation in a three-day event in which SAP Concur highlights its nonprofit partnerships. “We plan on using it [the grant] to expand connections between business, education, and community partners to increase opportunities for students — ranging from job shadows to internships to real-world, project-based learning to apprenticeships,” Jesse Gilliam, Washington STEM’s director of communications and policy, told GeekWire. Gilliam said the $75,000 grant represents about 17 percent of its funding for regional investments in career-connected learning.”

Seven Peak Ventures Raises $28M Fund, Will Invest in 25 Early Stage Startups Across Pacific Northwest

GeekWire | Taylor Soper | September 13
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/seven-peaks-ventures-raises-28m-fund-will-invest-25-early-stage-startups-across-pacific-northwest/

“Seven Peaks Ventures has raised $28 million for its second fund and will continue investing in early-stage startups across the Pacific Northwest and surrounding states. The Bend, Ore.-based venture capital firm will invest in 20-to-25 companies as part of Fund II, said Dino Vendetti, general partner at Seven Peaks. Its average investment size is $500,000 for seed stage startups, and $1 million for Series A. The firm will focus on B2B tech startups working in industries such as digital health, artificial intelligence, finance, real estate, human resources, security, and cloud infrastructure.”

Zillow: Seattle’s 28 Percent Above Where It Was Pre-Recession

Seattle PI | Zosha Millman | September 13
https://www.seattlepi.com/realestate/article/Zillow-Seattle-Recession-Real-Estate-Growth-peak-13227998.php#photo-13073784

“Like the rest of real estate, recovery from the Great Recession is all about location, location, location…”A decade after the financial crisis it’s clear that, just as the bust was felt very differently across the country, so has the recovery. Looking back, the housing bust was a rare historical moment when housing markets across the country moved in sync,” Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas, said in a release….hough our numbers are nowhere near that of San Jose, Denver, or even Dallas’ 51.6 percent growth from pre-recession prices, it’s no secret that Seattle’s enjoyed a boom that’s placed us largely in the “strong recovery” category. As Terrazas says, Seattle has a combination of one of the strongest economies in the country, and definitely has been tight on supply this year.”

How A Weekly Seattle Startup Gathering Turned into a Global Entrepreneurial Community

GeekWire | Taylor Soper | September 10
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/weekly-seattle-startup-gathering-turned-global-entrepreneurial-community/

“Nick Hughes hosted the first Feature Friday event back in March 2014 as a way to help early-stage entrepreneurs pitch their ideas in 99 seconds and network with others in the Seattle startup community. Now he’s taking the idea global. Hughes, a veteran of the Seattle startup scene, has grown Feature Friday into Founders Live, a company that organizes local events for entrepreneurs in 24 cities worldwide. Hughes just announced a new corporate partnership with Liquid Telecom, a data, voice, and IP provider based in Africa, to hold monthly Founders Live events in 10 African cities over the next year across Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and other countries.”