GeekWire

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to discuss the latest twists in the housing market; delays in returning to the office; the role of climate in real estate; how technology is changing homebuying; and the impact of remote work and migration on Seattle and other big U.S. cities.

In some ways, "it's our employees who are deciding where Redfin's headquarters are going to be," Kelman says. "We now have 1,000 headquarters. There are people who have moved all over the country."

In literal terms, Kelman explains, he's committed to keeping Redfin's headquarters in Seattle. But he says the migration of employees creates a new dynamic for city officials seeking to work with business leaders to address economic inequality.

We talked after the tech-oriented real estate brokerage released its second-quarter earnings report this week. Redfin's revenue jumped 121% to $471 million, and its net loss widened to $27.9 million from $6.6 million a year earlier. Kelman also addressed the dynamics prompting Redfin to focus on growth over profits.

Earlier in the week, Redfin announced a new feature for home listings: a numerical rating that gives a climate score to a given house or property, analyzing the risk of heat, fire, drought, and storms over a 30-year period by county, city, neighborhood and zip code. Redfin is partnering with ClimateCheck on the feature.

On the COVID front, Redfin had planned a broad reopening of its headquarters and field offices for Sept. 6, but told employees this week that the milestone would be pushed back indefinitely for now, promising to give them at least 30 days notice of the new date. Those working in the office must be vaccinated, and the company is asking those who haven’t been fully vaccinated to work from home.

Microsoft said the full reopening of its U.S. workplaces will happen no earlier than Oct. 4. Amazon went even further, delaying its return to January 2022.

Podcast edited and produced by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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When Microsoft announced its acquisition of LinkedIn for more than $26 billion five years ago, there was lots of skepticism, and for good reason.

After all, Microsoft was a company known for taking huge write-downs when its biggest acquisitions (aQuantive, Nokia, etc.) failed to live up to expectations.

But that was then, and after becoming the new leader of the venerable software giant, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was taking a different approach, sticking to Microsoft's strength in business technology by picking up the popular business social network.

It remains the biggest deal in Microsoft's history, and with that in mind, now it also qualifies as Satya Nadella's biggest success as Microsoft CEO.

This week, we learned that LinkedIn has joined the ranks of Microsoft's $10 billion-dollar businesses, crossing that threshold in annual revenue for the first time.

Unfortunately, we still don't know for sure if LinkedIn is a profitable business, as Microsoft stopped disclosing LinkedIn's operating profits a couple of years ago. But based on the underlying economics of the business, and the prior trajectory of LinkedIn's bottom line, it's a relatively safe bet that it's operating in the black. 

We discuss the LinkedIn deal, five years later, in the second segment of this week's GeekWire Podcast.

My colleague John Cook are back in the GeekWire studio at our offices in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood for the first time in 18 months, along with podcast producer Curt Milton. 

We start with a behind-the-scenes discussion of GeekWire's Great Race II, and conclude with a new feature, Number of the Week, plucked from our local coffee giant's latest results.

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This is a special presentation of Day 2, GeekWire's podcast about everything Amazon. For more episodes, see geekwire.com/day2 or subscribe to Day 2 in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Direct retail sales are poised to represent less than half of Amazon's business for the first time in its history — a fundamental shift that reflects the e-commerce giant's expansion beyond its roots as an online store.

Revenue from Amazon Web Services, Amazon Prime, third-party seller services, online advertising and other services added up to 49.3% of Amazon's business in the second quarter. It almost matched the company's revenue from online and physical stores, and appears to be on a trajectory to surpass them in the future.

That's one of several takeaways from Amazon's second-quarter earnings report, released Thursday afternoon. On this episode of Day 2, GeekWire's Podcast about everything Amazon, we nerd out over Amazon's numbers.

Joining GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop for the discussion are two online retail industry veterans who pay close attention to Amazon's business:

• Our podcast collaborator, Jason Boyce, former Top 200 third-party seller, founder of Avenue7Media and co-author of The Amazon Jungle.
• Andrea Leigh, vice president of strategy and insights at Ideoclick, a Seattle-based e-commerce technology and services firm that works with vendors to Amazon’s first-party retail sales, and third-party sellers. Leigh was an Amazon general manager and retail category leader for nearly 10 years.

Coverage of Amazon earnings:

• Amazon sales of $113B disappoint Wall Street but profits of $7.8B exceed expectations
• Amazon’s advertising business is surging amid industry-wide ad sales boom for tech giants
• Amazon boosting wages and hiring incentives to keep up in competitive labor market

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees recently that the company's long-term goal is to "bring the metaverse to life" — helping to create an interconnected world of physical, virtual and augmented reality spaces that will reshape the way we work, interact with each other, create new things, and generally experience life.

So how exactly will Facebook approach such an audacious plan? 

A new book called "Move Fast: How Facebook Builds Software" doesn't delve into the metaverse, specifically. But in looking at Facebook's engineering practices — the way the company makes stuff — the book examines the digital DNA of the social network, sheds new light on its most infamous motto, and explains the inner workings of a company that wants to reshape the human experience, again. 

Facebook influences the engineering culture and economy not just in its hometown of Menlo Park, Calif., but also in its development offices in the Seattle area, where it employs 7,000 people. And of course, ultimately, Facebook's internal practices end up influencing people around the world who use its products.

On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we talk with the author of the book, Jeff Meyerson, the longtime host of the Software Engineering Daily podcast, about the ways Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Google make things, and what those different approaches tell us about where they're taking us.

Audio editing by Curt Milton, theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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A new report details extensive gender and racial inequities in Washington state's technology workforce, and makes a series of recommendations to address them.

Among the recommendations: creating state-supported worker-owned co-ops for independent and contract workers; establishing a state startup fund to support women and people of color in the technology industry; and broadening the focus of the state's technology industry point person and training programs to address equity issues.

The report, Creating Quality Jobs for All in Washington’s Tech Sector, was published by OneAmerica, an immigrant and refugee advocacy organization, and authored by our guests on this week's episode of the GeekWire Podcast: researcher and consultant Kimberly Earles; and Marcus Courtney, a public affairs consultant who specializes in labor issues.

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Sir Richard Branson added new fuel to the billionaire space race July 11 when he and his Virgin Galactic crewmates floated in suborbital space. 

"To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream, looking up to the stars," Branson said before unbuckling. "Now, I'm an adult in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults, looking down to a beautiful, beautiful Earth. For the next generation of dreamers, if we can do this, just imagine what you can do."

Can Jeff Bezos top that? We'll soon find out. Amazon's founder is set to go even higher as a passenger July 20 on the first crewed flight for his space venture Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. 

On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast: the dawn of a new era in space tourism, what to watch when the Amazon founder blasts off next week, and what's next for commercial space exploration.

Joining us is longtime space journalist Alan Boyle, GeekWire contributing editor, who has covered Bezos' space ambitions for years. 

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Jeff Wilke did something unusual when he left his role as Amazon's Worldwide Consumer CEO in March, after more than two decades with the company: he learned to code in the Python programming language.

"I had lots of computer scientists that were working for me and the organization, and I was heavily involved in a bunch of architectural decisions, but I hadn't written code in years," he explained. "I didn't understand exactly what it took to turn the ideas that we had into actual code. ... So I just thought it'd be useful to update my skills after a couple of decades."

He was "blown away" by the experience.

"The coolest thing about coding ... is that you get to stand on the shoulders of all the other people who have written code and uploaded it to libraries before you and so you don't have to go back and reinvent everything. And that just means innovation and invention and goodness can accelerate," he said. "So I actually left those two weeks totally optimistic."

Wilke is translating that optimism into a variety of investments and projects, across a range of interests and industries, from biotech to honeybees. But the venture getting most of his time and attention is Re:Build Manufacturing, a Massachusetts-based company on a quest to reinvigorate the U.S. manufacturing industry.

Re:Build has raised more than $400 million and made six acquisitions in engineering services and advanced materials, with six facilities in five states.

Wilke is the company's chairman and co-founder, and it's a return to his roots. He grew up in Pittsburgh and worked early on in pharmaceuticals, chemicals and electronics.

On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we talk about the future of U.S. manufacturing with Wilke and Re:Build Manufacturing CEO Miles Arnone, a longtime industrial business leader, inventor and investor who co-founded the company with Wilke.

Later in the show, during a momentous week for Amazon, we also get Wilke's thoughts about his former employer, as Andy Jassy succeeds founder Jeff Bezos as CEO. Wilke was considered a potential and even likely successor to Bezos prior to the announcement of his departure. He addressed that in a prior interview with our partners at the tech news site dot.la.

Audio editing by Curt Milton; theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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Boone Langston is an accomplished LEGO builder from the Portland, Ore., area who shares his creations with the world at BooneBuilds.com and on his Boone Builds YouTube channel. He also runs a virtual Boone's Build Camp for kids and adults.

After working as an IT support specialist and videographer early in his career, he became a fan favorite in 2020 as one half of the team Mark and Boone, a.k.a. the "Bearded Builders," on the first season of the FOX TV show LEGO Masters, in which teams of two compete by building spectacular LEGO creations.

He was also known for his impromptu singing, belting out his signature refrain, "Here We Go, We're Building With Bricks Now!" in true rock-star style, to the delight of LEGO Masters host Will Arnett.

Much to the dismay of their shocked fans, Mark and Boone did not win their season of the show, as judges Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard gave the nod to newlyweds Tyler and Amy, who had announced earlier in the season that they were expecting a child.

My colleague Kurt Schlosser captured the ensuing controversy perfectly in his headline at the time: Oh, baby, ‘LEGO Masters’ finale lands like a brick on outraged fans who dispute choice of winner.

My family was among those surprised and disappointed by the outcome. As fellow Pacific Northwesterners, we cheered for Mark and Boone throughout the season, and everyone in our living room considered their “Artopia” project in the finale objectively superior.

That sentiment was not shared by Tim Ellis, an electrical engineer by training, Redfin employee by day, and host of the podcast Dispatches from the Multiverse, who writes occasionally for GeekWire about games and other topics. After Kurt and I talked about the outcome on the GeekWire Podcast at the time, Tim started a lively debate with the two of us over text.

“Tyler & Amy totally deserved the win, and if anything Mark & Boone should have been in third place behind Sam & Jessica’s peacock!” Tim texted us at the time, referring to the third-place finishers. “You should only do a recap podcast of Season 2 if you let me join for some much-needed balance. 🤣🤣”

This spring, before Season 2 of LEGO Masters began, Tim resurfaced his proposal of recording an entire podcast episode about the show. I took him up on the idea — with my own surprise twist.

Without telling Tim, I contacted Boone via his website. He graciously agreed join us as a guest on the podcast, and I scheduled him to join us as a surprise midway through the session — after Tim and I rehashed our debate over the outcome of Season 1. For some added fun, we had two LEGO fans join us for the recording: Tim’s daughter, Maezie, 9 years old; and my daughter, Maggie, 10 years old.

Listen to the episode to hear what happened. 

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Another day, another deal.

Keeping up with the flurry of acquisitions, IPOs, SPACs and venture capital these days is no easy task. In fact, IPO dollar volume for 2021 has already reached $171 billion, surpassing the record totals of last year. Same goes for mergers and acquisitions, with record levels of deal activity tracked for 2021.

The money is certainly flowing.

Washington state now boasts 11 "unicorns" — privately held companies boasting valuations of $1 billion or more. Many of them — such as Highspot, Zenoti and Outreach  —  have raised venture capital rounds of $150 million or more in the past six months. And each day here at GeekWire we're updating our funding list — not blinking an eye when a company announces $30 million, $40 million or $50 million in new funding.

Even more, we've tracked 32 IPOs, SPACs and acquisitions involving Pacific Northwest companies so far this year, including blockbusters like Okta's $6.5 billion purchase of authentication ID startup Auth0 and Twilio's $850 million acquisition of business texting startup Zipwhip. (See full list of deals here).

To help put the wild market in perspective, we're joined this week on the GeekWire podcast by Ben Gilbert, a co-founder at Seattle venture capital firm Pioneer Square Labs and the co-host of the Acquired podcast, an in-depth show that discusses the ins and outs of acquisitions and recently ranked as the number one tech show on Apple Podcasts.

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This week we're presenting a special episode of our Day 2 podcast about everything Amazon, going behind-the-scenes of the New York Times investigation into the company's warehouse HR practices. Subscribe to Day 2 in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Amazon’s direct workforce rose by 500,000 people in 2020 — that’s half a million people — to nearly 1.3 million employees. The extraordinary hiring, supporting the rapid expansion of Amazon’s warehouse and delivery operations, raised the natural question: what would be the consequences of all that growth?

An eight-month New York Times investigation, published this week, provides much of the answer, telling the stories of warehouse workers caught up in an unforgiving, error-prone system that struggled to keep pace with Amazon’s growth, the unique challenges of the pandemic, and unprecedented customer demand.

The piece reveals the limitations of Amazon’s automated HR technology, but it also demonstrates the impact of policy decisions by Amazon executives, including founder Jeff Bezos and operations-leader-turned-consumer chief Dave Clark.

Among them, according to the story: a conscious decision to encourage turnover and limit upward mobility among hourly warehouse workers.

Karen Weise, the Seattle-based New York Times tech reporter who reported the story with her colleagues, Jodi Kantor and Grace Ashford, shares the backstory and talks about their key findings in this podcast discussion.s

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