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WTIA CEO: Time for the tech community to speak up

WTIA CEO: Time for the tech community to speak up

megaphone-suit_fit_300x300Originally posted on Crosscut.com

The tech industry is obsessed with creating new products. We live or die based on the ability to develop and attract the best talent. And we operate in a vivid world of crushing competition infused with dreams of ecstatic innovation.

Time to wake up.

We blithely rely on a platform of roads, bridges, bike lanes and public transportion that allows 250,000 Washingtonians to move from work, to school, to the movies, to the mall, or back home. We assume our education system develops the new employees required to fill the 25,000 jobs created in this state each year. And we rarely think about the communication infrastructure that governs if, when, and how our data and services connect to billions of customers and suppliers.

Read the full article on Crosscut.com

Author

  • Michael Schutzler

    Michael Schutzler is an entrepreneur, engineer, science geek, and first generation immigrant. He is the CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA). Before joining the WTIA, Michael led the merger of Livemocha – a community of 17 million language learners – with the popular education software company Rosetta Stone. He also built Classmates.com into the first profitable social media application, transformed online marketing at Monster.com, and grew the online gaming business at RealNetworks to become a global leader. He teaches part time at the University Of Washington Foster School of Business, serves on several boards, and is an investor in Flowplay, YouSolar, Koru, Moment, 9 Mile Labs, Alliance of Angels, Keiretsu Forum, and Social Venture Partners. As a successful Internet entrepreneur, lead angel investor, and veteran executive coach, Michael has personally invested in twenty-four companies, served as coach and advisor to more than 100 executives, and has raised over $50M in private financing.

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