How the Seattle Freeze and ‘celebration of pessimism’ hurts the city’s startup scene

How the Seattle Freeze and ‘celebration of pessimism’ hurts the city’s startup scene Taylor Soper

From left: Dave Cotter of D3 Advisors; Yifan Zhang of Ai2 Incubator; Jenny Rojanasthien of NCW Tech Alliance, Skye Henderson of Cowles Ventures, and Evan Poncelet of Dreamward Ventures. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)

Lack of angel investors. The golden handcuffs at Microsoft and Amazon. Not enough experienced operators.

These are some of the more common knocks on Seattle’s startup ecosystem.

But what about the Seattle Freeze?

The colloquial term describes the social dynamic in Seattle and a perceived difficulty of engaging with others, especially for newcomers.

It also encapsulates a passive-aggressive vibe that you may experience in the city.

And it’s not good for the local startup scene, according to some entrepreneurs.

“It’s hard to punch through,” said Dave Cotter, a longtime Seattle-based entrepreneur and startup mentor. “It’s hard to figure out who is really going to help. Sometimes you can’t get a ‘no’ from investors. That level of passive-aggressiveness makes it very challenging.”

Cotter moderated a panel on Tuesday at FullConTech, an event hosted by the Washington Technology Industry Association at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center.

Yifan Zhang, managing director at the Ai2 Incubator, said the “celebration of pessimism” in Seattle gets in the way of startup creation.

“It’s that passive-aggressiveness — it’s cool to be pessimistic, it’s cool to not try too hard,” she said. “That is not good when you’re trying to create things that never existed before.”

Zhang, who moved to Seattle during the pandemic after founding a startup in the Bay Area, said that the culture in Silicon Valley is much more celebratory of startups and founders.

“There’s nothing cooler in San Francisco than being a founder,” she said.

But in Seattle, working for a large tech corporation may garner more respect or admiration than pursuing entrepreneurship.

“We live in the shadow of the monolithic tech companies,” said Evan Poncelet, co-founder of Seattle-based emerging fund Dreamward Ventures.

There have been efforts in Seattle to try to draw people out of places like Microsoft and Amazon and make the startup leap. But it can be hard to leave a big paycheck and reliable corporate gig for the startup ranks.

Perhaps the city needs to warm up to the idea of being a place where startup founders flourish.

“The more that we can surface and reward the people that are creating and taking those risks, the better,” Zhang said.

Previously: What’s missing from Seattle’s startup ecosystem?

https://ift.tt/x1G9nc5 September 24, 2024 at 11:35PM GeekWire