The second annual Seattle 2.0 Awards, a celebration of local software startups and tech entrepreneurs, took place in Seattle last night. Jonathan Sposato, the former CEO of Picnik (recently acquired by Google) gave the keynote talk. The award winners were Glenn Kelman of Redfin (best entrepreneur blog), Eric Koester from Cooley (best service provider to startups), Greg Gottesman of Madrona Venture Group (best venture capitalist), Rich Barton of Zillow (best startup CEO), Redfin (best startup), Jenny Lam of Jackson Fish Market (best startup designer), Ignite Seattle (best event for startups), Andy Liu (best angel investor), TisBest (best nonprofit startup), Scott Porad from Cheezburger Network (best startup technologist), and Bonanzle (best bootstrapped startup). Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

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Pardon me if I’m still a little hung over, but last night was a blast. Eight hundred techies packed into the Showbox SoDo in Seattle for the 15th annual Industry Achievement Awards organized by the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA). The awards recognize excellence in local tech companies, and the winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges too long to list here.

Here’s a quick rundown of the awards:

—Talyst won in the “commercial product or service” category, beating out Apptio and Concur (two very worthy business software firms). As I described in a feature story last summer, Bellevue, WA-based Talyst makes software that helps pharmacies manage the flow of medications in hospitals, clinics, assisted living facilities, and correctional facilities. CEO Carla Corkern also spoke at the WTIA’s healthcare IT event last September.

—Seattle-based Cozi won for “consumer product or service of the year,” edging out Cheezburger Network and Picnik (two of the most popular Web startups in town). Cozi, which raised $5 million from a new strategic investor last month, makes Web-based software to help busy families plan activities and chores, manage to-do lists and schedules, and communicate better. Last summer, CEO Robbie Cape talked with me about some of the company’s big partnerships (with Dell and Gannett, for example) and his startup philosophy.

—Seattle-based VholdR won for “breakthrough startup of the year,” beating some stiff competition from DreamBox Learning and Gist. VholdR makes high-def wearable video cameras and software for skiers, explorers, and other sports enthusiasts to share their stories of action and adventures, through an online video community. The idea for the company dates back to 2003, when founders Marc Barros and Jason Green won third place in the University of Washington business plan competition.

—Amazon Web Services (AWS) beat out Azaleos and Hubspan for “service provider of the year.” Earlier in the day, Steve Ballmer spoke about Microsoft’s cloud computing strategy, but Seattle-based AWS has been leading the field since 2006, at least for startup developers looking to rent flexible Web-based data storage and processing power to run their Web services. Amazon vice president Adam Selipsky talked about how Amazon’s cloud computing platform works, at another WTIA event exactly a year ago.

—Pathway Medical Technologies edged out Neah Power Systems and Powerit Solutions for the title of “innovative manufactured product of the year.” Kirkland, WA-based Pathway sells a device that helps doctors drill through and vacuum out blockages in leg arteries. The company has gone through an up-and-down year, as Luke reported in an in-depth feature last fall, but it seems to be adjusting to a challenging healthcare market. Pathway was co-founded by Tom Clement in 1998 and is now led by CEO Paul Buckman.

—Last but not least, Washington State Employees Credit Union won for “information technology department innovation,” OneBusAway won for “best use of technology in the government, nonprofit or education sector,” and Ruby Damper, a 7th grader at Orca school in Seattle, won for “technology leader of tomorrow.”

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The next big startup out of Seattle might have been conceived on the top floor of the Washington Athletic Club this past Tuesday. That’s where 35 carefully selected tech entrepreneurs and business people gathered over drinks and light appetizers for the first-ever FounderDating session in Seattle.

The idea, as we reported on a couple weeks ago, was to have an event dedicated to helping prospective co-founders meet new people who could be complementary in starting companies or at least talking about ideas. FounderDating started in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Brian Schultz—formerly of Seattle startups Ontela and Djinnisys, and now at Microsoft—helped bring it to the Northwest.

I asked Schultz yesterday how the event went. He says he is in the midst of surveying the attendees, who were culled from more than 100 applicants. “I’m really excited about the feedback,” Schultz says. “People were definitely passionate about it.”

The tech sectors represented that evening included mobile, enterprise software, advertising, commerce, and recommendation systems. Nametags helped distinguish business people from tech people (engineers), as well as their sectors of interest. Schultz says there was a big range in experience—some people were in their first jobs out of school, while others were former CEOs with multiple successful startup exits or executives at big companies.

The identities of the attendees are supposed to be kept secret to the outside world, because some have employers who might not appreciate hearing that they’re looking to start something new. As Schultz jokes, the first rule of FounderDating is you don’t talk about FounderDating. (Which makes me think, a CEO fight club in Seattle would be pretty awesome. I can think of some good matchups already.)

There was freeform mingling, a 60-second speed dating round, small-group activities, and more mingling. Early reviews seem to indicate most attendees weren’t recruiting for a specific startup, but were focused on meeting a variety of new people. Several wanted to see more younger and hungrier engineers. “It’s really about the people,” Schultz says—not necessarily their startup ideas.

In any case, it sounds like the event was successful enough that Schultz will try to organize them quarterly in Seattle, and create stronger linkages between Seattle participants and those in the Bay Area via the FounderDating website. The next Seattle event will probably be in May or June, Schultz says, and he’s looking for more help in organizing and screening applicants.

Schultz also says he wants to survey the same 35 people three to six months from now, and see what new projects have come about from their discussions. Because ultimately that’s what this is about—doing something new to help startups get formed. “Can you attribute anything to the people you met that night?” he says. “There were definitely some new connections made.”

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Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Before they were the co-founders of billion-dollar technology companies—Microsoft, Apple, Google—they were friends, classmates, lab mates.

But most people aren’t lucky enough to meet their ideal co-founder before it’s time to start a company. Is there a more systematic way for today’s most promising entrepreneurs to find the right business partners?

The short answer is no. In Seattle, local events and organizations like Seattle Tech Startups, Seattle 2.0, Open Coffee, Lunch 2.0, nPost, NWEN, and WTIA all play important roles in bringing the entrepreneurial community together. But none focuses solely on matching up potential founders. That’s where FounderDating comes in.

OK, in Seattle we already have Founder’s Co-op (seed-stage tech investment fund) and Founder Institute (entrepreneur training), and Foundry Group’s Brad Feld is a household name in these parts (he’s helping to bring startup bootcamp TechStars to Seattle this year). But FounderDating—this is something entirely different. And it could contribute to the changing face of how early-stage companies get off the ground in this town.

Unlike TechStars and Founder Institute, FounderDating is not looking to provide mentorship or training to entrepreneurs. And unlike most other local tech events, it’s not about content or general-purpose networking. It’s about one thing: hooking up with the right co-founder.

FounderDating was started in the San Francisco Bay Area by Saar Gur of Charles River Ventures and Jessica Alter from Formative Labs. They are bringing the event to Seattle for the first time on February 9, with the help of local organizer Brian Schultz, the co-founder of Seattle’s Ontela and Djinnisys (now Plectix Biosystems), who’s currently on his second tour of duty with Microsoft. The exact format of the event is TBA, but it will involve roughly 25 hand-picked entrepreneurs and potential co-founders meeting in a structured way at a restaurant. It might incorporate some “speed dating” elements or other ways to match up people who have interests in areas like mobile, Internet, commerce, advertising, and aerospace.

Schultz, who worked for Lehman Brothers in a previous life, speaks from experience when he says the big challenge in starting a company is “finding good people to do it with.” That means being able to “diversify the skill set and get momentum around ideas.” He says, “Most likely the sweet spot for FounderDating will be founders who have done it before. They know what they want, and what they need.”

The importance of the team can’t be overstated, it seems. “The number one cause of companies dying is founders not working well together. You don’t hear about those because they’re stillborn,” says Dan Shapiro, a fellow Ontela co-founder and now chief technology officer of Photobucket. “Picking your co-founder is a make-or-break decision for a company.”

I’ve recently talked with a number of Seattle-area entrepreneurs and scientists who are interested in the FounderDating program—either in participating directly, or in its potential to give a boost to the local innovation scene. A common thread is that it’s damn near impossible to … Next Page »

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My head is exploding trying to keep up with all the tech-business events going on around Seattle these days. Here’s a quick guide to the most prominent ones on my brain, in the hopes of saving you some stress (and keeping you up to date):

—Last night’s “Women in Tech” event from TechFlash was a smash hit, with a first-rate panel and networking. You can check out recaps of the event here and here. Yes, the crowd was predominantly women. I’m surprised more tech guys weren’t there to soak up the diverse perspectives and add their own input (or to get a date).

—Tonight’s panel on “the changing face of venture capital” at the University of Washington (computer science and engineering) should provide some spirited discussion of the unique challenges that investors and entrepreneurs are facing in the current climate. It’s an all-star lineup of local VCs: Mark Ashida from OVP, Greg Gottesman from Madrona, Ron Howell from WRF Capital, Bill McAleer from Voyager, and Cam Myhrvold from Ignition.

—Also tonight is the Clean Tech Open’s Pacific Northwest Regional Awards gala at the ACT Theater in downtown Seattle. Gov. Chris Gregoire is giving the keynote address, and will be followed by the announcement of three Northwest finalist winners (cleantech companies) who will then move on to a Western regional competition.

—Next week brings NWEN’s “Entrepreneur University” on Nov. 5 at the Bellevue Hyatt. It’s an all-day extravaganza about starting, growing, and managing your own company. Don’t miss the talks by Jennifer Mintz Clark, Andy Sack, and the Bacon Salt guys, or the “Entrepreneur Idol” pitch competition. (I’ll be there as one of the judges.)

—That same afternoon, on Nov. 5, Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie is speaking at UW, as part of the computer science and engineering department’s Distinguished Lecturer Series. Mundie will talk about how software and information technology can help solve our most pressing global challenges and reshape scientific exploration. (I’ll need to go quantum so I can be in two places at once that day.)

—On Nov. 6, the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association (WBBA) is holding its annual meeting at the Sheraton Hotel downtown. Elias Zerhouni, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, is giving the keynote.

—A bit further out, Nov. 18 is the night of the Washington Technology Industry Association’s annual “predictions” dinner event at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle. John Cook of TechFlash will put some of the usual VC/entrepreneur suspects on the spot about their thoughts on 2010. On a separate note, WTIA recently announced that applications are now open for its 2010 Industry Achievement Awards, which will take place on March 4.

—Last but not least, Xconomy is organizing an evening on “The Future of Search and Information Discovery” (and Seattle’s role in shaping it) on Nov. 30, at the University of Washington (Walker-Ames Room in Kane Hall). We’ll get Google and Microsoft to share the stage, and surround them with some compelling VCs and startups, to talk about the technical problems and business opportunities in Web search, real-time information discovery, social media, and user interfaces.

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With summer on its way in, we’re starting to gear up for Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands, which is happening on July 30 at the WTIA Summer Celebration at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. If you or someone you know plays in a band that has at least one member who hails from a Northwest tech, life sciences, or tech-investment firm, we want to hear from you (application info and event details are here).

The field is already shaping up to be pretty competitive. How will we choose the finalists and the overall winners, you ask? Very carefully. To that end, we are enlisting the help of some of the Seattle area’s finest tech and music minds (and ears) to serve as judges for the event, in addition to the Xconomy staff. Their duties will range from vetting demos and selecting the finalists to helping us decide which bands get the awards on the big night.

We thought you might like to know a little bit about the judges we’ve recruited so far. Their professional expertise spans the worlds of software, venture capital, and music history. Their musical tastes span everything from heavy metal and Eddie Van Halen to post-punk and alternative rock. Without further ado, here are the luminaries who will help us decide the outcome (not sure who will be the Simon Cowell yet):

—Peter Blecha, music historian, author, and former senior curator of the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Peter is the author of the recently released Sonic Boom! The History of Northwest Rock: From “Louie Louie” to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Backbeat Books, 2009). He calls himself a “rock and roll archaeologist,” and has been a drummer with a number of bands in the Seattle area, including The Debbies.

—Steve Hall, managing director at Seattle-based Vulcan Capital, the group that manages Paul Allen’s investment holdings. Steve leads the firm’s early-stage venture capital investments across the technology, life sciences, and alternative energy sectors. He also plays a mean lead guitar, and notes that he has been brushing up on his Eddie Van Halen guitar solos in the past year.

—Jeff J. Lin, Microsoft program manager of Virtual Earth 3D. Jeff is the co-founder, guitarist, and pianist of the Seattle-based band Harvey Danger. You probably know them from their infectious hit single of the late 1990s, “Flagpole Sitta” ( “I’m not sick but I’m not well, and I’m so hot ’cause I’m in hell…”). Harvey Danger has released three full-length albums, played shows with bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Green Day, and once appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.

We’ll have more details on the judges and prizes soon. But don’t delay, the deadline for submissions is June 12 (event details and info here). If you want to enter, please e-mail your band’s info to techbands@xconomy.com.

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The first round of voting is done. This morning, the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) announced the finalists for its 14th annual Industry Achievement Awards. Among the finalists are several Seattle-area companies we’ve reported on extensively at Xconomy, and a few others you’ll be hearing more about soon.

Here are this year’s finalists, sorted by award category:

—Breakthrough startup of the year: Apptio, LiquidPlanner, and Ontela.

—Consumer product or service of the year: Pet Holdings (which runs I Can Has Cheezburger and other websites), Picnik, and Wetpaint.

—Commercial product or service of the year: Concur, Inrix, and Visible Technologies.

—Technology innovator of the year: Don Ledford of Vantos, Darrin Massena of Picnik, and Matthew Parks of Visto.

—Service provider of the year: AdReady, Azaleos, and Cobalt.

—Best use of technology in the government, nonprofit, or educational sector: eCityGov Alliance, Snohomish County Planning & Development Services, and South Sound Health Communication Network.

—Technology leader of tomorrow: Aaron Love, St. Therese School, eighth grade; Matthew McMillan, St. Therese School, seventh grade; Israel Zemeadim, Washington Middle School, eighth grade.

According to the WTIA, the goal of the awards is to recognize “innovation and excellence in creating new technologies, applications, and services.” At Xconomy, we’ll be watching the startup, product, and innovator races particularly closely. All of the winners will be decided by the local tech community through an online voting system that will open on February 23. The WTIA will provide more details as the date approaches.

And then the good stuff: the winners will be announced at a gala at the Paramount Theater in downtown Seattle on March 25. The event is doubling as a celebration of the WTIA’s 25th anniversary.

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Xconomy is sad to report that Keith Grinstein, a major figure in the Seattle-area innovation community, passed away suddenly last night from an apparent heart attack. He was 48. Grinstein was a founding partner in Seattle-based Second Avenue Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology deals. He was also a strategic advisor for Madrona Venture Group. We will be posting further details and reactions as we hear them.

Grinstein served as chairman of Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR), director of F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV), and director of Labor Ready (NYSE: LRW). According to the Second Avenue Partners website, he had played a role in structuring and/or investing in numerous private companies including Amazon, aQuantive, Tegic, HouseValues, Nordstrom.com, Insitu, Neah Power, and Seattle Biodiesel. Prior to Second Avenue Partners, he had also held senior management and operating positions at Wireless Services, Nextel International, Nextel Communications, McCaw Cellular, and AT&T Wireless.

Grinstein graduated from Yale University in 1982 and received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. magna cum laude, in 1986. He was a member of the State of Washington and New York Bar Associations.

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