NASA awards $2.9B to SpaceX for Starship lunar lander; Blue Origin team is left out

An artist’s conception shows SpaceX’s Starship rocket ship on the moon. (SpaceX Illustration) In a surprise move that was dictated by budget constraints, NASA is awarding $2.89 billion to SpaceX alone for the development of its Starship super-rocket as a lunar landing system for astronauts — leaving out Alabama-based Dynetics as well as a team led...

5h

Analysis: Video game spending is setting records, but can the industry meet increasing demand?

The first full pandemic year caused a significant spike in video game engagement, which is still happening now. (NPD Group Chart) Last month, American consumers spent $5.6 billion on video game hardware, accessories, and assorted content, which marks an 18% increase over March 2020 and sets a record for March in any year. The latest data from NPD...

7h

Tech Moves: Former Chef Software and Impinj CFO Evan Fein lands at phone service startup TextNow

TextNow CFO Evan Fein. (TextNow Photo) Evan Fein, a finance exec who previously was CFO at Impinj and Chef Software, is now CFO at TextNow. Fein was an early employee at Impinj who eventually led the Seattle-based RFID-maker to its 2016 IPO as CFO. He joined Chef in 2018 and helped oversee the cloud company’s acquisition to publicly-traded Progress...

11h

Kaytlyn Gerbin is blazing trails in cell science and as an ultrarunner who has conquered Mount Rainier

Kaytlyn Gerbin, left, runs the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier. She completed the 93-mile loop in just under 19 hours. Her friend Tara Fraga helped with pacing between miles 30-55. (Ryan Thrower Photo) When Kaytlyn Gerbin moved to Seattle 10 years ago to attend graduate school at the University of Washington, a friend took her to Kerry Park in...

14h

Meet the latest Techstars Seattle cohort: 10 startups on how they’ve adapted to the pandemic

The latest Techstars Seattle cohort kicked off an entirely virtual 3-month startup accelerator journey in January. Unlike the 2020 class, which had to pivot to a remote format in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 participants and Techstars organizers are applying lessons learned from the past year of remote work. Techstars Seattle Managing...

14h

The voters will see you now: The finalists for Health Innovation of the Year at the GeekWire Awards

  Robbie Cape, CEO of virtual primary care startup 98point6, accepts the award for Health Innovation of the Year in 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) The greater Seattle area is a hotbed for health technology and the past year has seen groundbreaking advancements in the sector. So it’s little wonder that there’s stiff competition for the 2021...

15h

Going, going … goniometer! First Mode delivers measuring gizmo for Mars missions

First Mode President Chris Voorhees and engineers Brian Geddes and Sophia Kim check out the newly completed goniometer before shipping it to Western Washington University. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) The 3-foot-wide contraption that was built in First Mode’s Seattle workshop looks like something from a science-fiction movie, complete with spinning...

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Tech Moves: Adaptive Biotech co-founders join life sciences SPAC; new edtech execs; and more

Chad Robins, left, is co-founder and CEO of Adaptive Biotechnologies, which he co-founded with his brother, Harlan Robins, right, a theoretical physicist turned computational biologist who is the company’s chief scientific officer. (Adaptive Biotechnologies Photo) — Adaptive Biotechnologies co-founders and brothers Chad and Harlan Robins are among...

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Here’s why Jeff Bezos quoted a 1986 book about human evolution in his shareholders letter

The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins’ bestselling 1986 book that skewers the notion of intelligent design while celebrating the rational science of evolution, got its star turn today in Jeff Bezos’ final shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon. Specifically, Bezos quoted this passage on what the natural fight to stay alive means from a purely biological...

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Crazy for crypto — or not: Seattle VCs sound off on tech’s hottest topic following Coinbase IPO

Coinbase is the talk of tech world this week as the cryptocurrency startup went public and its valuation soared to $85 billion. (Coinbase Photo) Sometimes, making an exception can pay off. That’s what happened to Version One Ventures, which typically invests in early-stage startups but veered off course to make a bet on a fast-growing cryptocurrency...

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