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The new AI House in Seattle held a launch party on Wednesday, celebrating the opening of its 108,000 square-foot startup hub at Pier 70 that serves as space for co-working, events, and more. (GeekWire Photos / Taylor Soper)
In less than a year, two new startup community groups have emerged in Seattle, adding physical hubs to a tech ecosystem that is bursting with talent but is often criticized for being siloed and fragmented.
The launch of the AI House and Foundations also comes as Seattle positions itself as a global hub for artificial intelligence. With nearly 200 AI startups and almost a quarter of America’s AI engineers calling Seattle home, these physical communities are crucial to help spur the creation of more startups and establish Seattle’s dominance in AI.
Entrepreneurial energy was buzzing in both spaces on Wednesday.
At the new AI House, the AI2 Incubator hosted a big launch party at its 108,000 square-foot space along the Seattle waterfront. Key stakeholders from the startup community reunited and made new connections as they sipped drinks on the patio with views of the Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier, and the city skyline.
Earlier in the day, legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla stopped by for a fireside chat, and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell was in the building for a morning event.
Meanwhile, over at the Foundations space in Capitol Hill, Seattle venture firm Graham & Walker hosted its annual Founder Day, where early stage startup founders soaked in advice from longtime VCs.
“Serendipity is worth a huge amount in what you learn and what you do and what you create,” said Ed Lazowska, a longtime computer science professor at the University of Washington and Seattle tech industry veteran. “These spaces with people together create serendipity.”
Vinod Khosla, the longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is interviewed by ChipStack CEO Kartik Hedge on Wednesday at the AI House.
The idea of a creating a startup community space in Seattle is not new. But many groups — such as Techstars Seattle, Create33, The Riveter, Cambia Grove — are no longer operating.
Laura Ruderman, CEO of the Technology Alliance, said she hears plenty about how Seattle lacks spaces for tech founders to gather and bounce ideas off each other.
“I know that there is a hunger for getting together,” she said. “There is a hunger for community.”
In some ways, Foundations and AI House have filled the void left by the surprise closure of Techstars Seattle last year.
Perhaps more importantly, the concentration of artificial intelligence talent in Seattle makes these communities particularly timely and necessary.
“I really do think that we are going to have an outsized impact on the world of AI right here in Seattle,” said Jacob Colker, managing director at the AI2 Incubator, which helps nurture startups and operates a venture fund.
The new spaces are opening just as the AI boom reshapes the broader tech industry and changes the way startups grow. They are a place for founders to share best practices and learn from one another.
“People want to be building next to each other,” said Aviel Ginzburg, the Seattle investor who launched Foundations last year to foster a group of startup founders and experienced mentors.
Harjeev Anand, CEO of Jinn Labs, at his desk at the new AI House in Seattle.
Harjeev Anand, CEO of Jinn Labs, an AI2 Incubator company, is already working out of Pier 70 and said he appreciates working alongside fellow founders.
“I love the fact that I get to interact with entrepreneurs on a daily basis,” he said.
AI House is supported by $400,000 in real estate costs from the state of Washington, as well as $210,000 from the City of Seattle for community programs. It houses AI2 Incubator startups, and has about 100 AI “resident experts” who have access to the building. It’s also an event space.
Dru Agarwal, a Seattle investor and AI2 Incubator venture partner who recently paid $11 million to purchase Pier 70, envisions the AI House hosting hundreds of startups that are leveraging the latest AI technology and collaborating with each other.
“We really want to attract all the tech companies,” he said.
There is about 50,000 square feet of available co-working space at the AI House, which is also the new home of Ada Developers Academy, a nonprofit that trains under-represented people in tech to help them prepare for careers in software development.
“We are truly trying to create a town square here for the AI community,” Colker said.
The Seattle area in recent months has welcomed additional startup hubs. Plug and Play, a Silicon Valley-based group that operates innovation programs, recently announced two new accelerators in the Seattle region. Seattle Climate Innovation Hub opened in January and is a collaboration between 9Zero, UW, the City of Seattle and VertueLab promoting clean energy startups.
CoMotion at the UW just relaunched its fintech incubator. Additional Seattle-area accelerator programs include Creative Destruction Lab, Startup Haven, Maritime Blue, Jones + Foster, and Venture Mechanics.
“We’re figuring out what we can do apart, and what we need to do together,” Ruderman said. “And a lot of things we are finding are better together.”
Related: Inside Seattle’s ‘AI House’: Waterfront space designed as hub for new wave of startups
