Women entrepreneurs find Amazon Marketplace profitable, sometimes perplexing

Angel Gonzalez | Seattle Times | 20 August 2016

“Prudence Millsap, a mother of two, was tired of doing time in corporate America — as she puts it, making other people rich.

So a couple of years ago she figured she could sell her own brand of beauty products on Amazon’s Marketplace, a growing platform for third-party merchants. It was an easy dive into entrepreneurship, because for a fee, Amazon took care of the shipping and inventory handling…

 

Her online store’s performance was good enough to get Millsap a coveted spot among the 300 women gathered Tuesday at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters — the company’s first conference geared to women entrepreneurs who sell on Amazon’s website.”

 

Read more here.

 

The case for comprehensive immigration reform

Mike Gempler & Maud Daudon | Seattle Times | 16 August 2016

“A new report by the Partnership for a New American Economy, “The Contributions of New American in Washington,” details what we already know to be true: Immigrants are essential to our economic growth and are adding to diversity in communities we call home. It’s a refreshing and fact-based analysis that counters much of the misguided national rhetoric about immigrants and immigration.”

 

Read more here.

 

Facebook’s Point System Fails to Close Diversity Gap

Deepa Seetharaman &Georgia Wells | Wall Street Journal | 16 August 2016

“Facebook says it wants its workforce to better reflect the diversity of its 1.7 billion monthly users—85% of which are outside the U.S. and Canada. But last month, it said it couldn’t substantially increase the diversity of its workforce because there weren’t enough qualified women or minority candidates. That drew fire from tech diversity and inclusion leaders on social media.”

 

Read more here.

 

Washington business groups push pro-immigration policies

Venice Buhain | The Seattle Globalist | 10 August 2016

When software development manager Shivaas Gulati moved from Pittsburgh to Seattle to work for Remitly, an international mobile payment company, he figured processing the paperwork for his new work visa would take a couple of weeks.

 

But Gulati’s application got caught up in U.S. immigration bureaucracy and he ended up staying in India for months awaiting the approval to return to work in the United States.

 

“It was a five-month ordeal,” Gulati said. He said all he knew was that he had to wait. “They don’t tell you why it’s stuck.”

 

Read more here.

 

5 things Washington state’s best employers do

Walt Winter | Puget Sound Business Journal | 16 August 2016

“It’s easy to buy pingpong tables and create a hip space to boost your company’s recruiting and employee retention.

 

Cultivating a culture that promotes employee engagement, satisfaction, and a shared sense of purpose is a much more difficult endeavor, but it results in creating some of the most sought-after workplace environments.”

 

Read more here.

 

Startup Spotlight: TalentSonar promotes diversity in tech with ‘blind resume review’ software

Monica Nickelsburg | GeekWire | 28 July 2016

“Women and minorities are historically underrepresented in the tech industry and companies often struggle to fix the diversity issue. Now one Seattle startup wants to help remove any unconscious bias that may influence a hiring decision.

 

TalentSonar‘s software removes names, contact information, and other identifying features from resumes so that hiring managers can focus on skills and experience.”

 

Read more here.