I'm no stranger to using different keyboard layouts. I'm a big mechanical keyboard fan, and I still use typewriters, even in 2026. The IBM Selectric I grew up with had a QWERTY layout, and the vintage (well, more like dilapidated and in bad need of some oil) Smith Corona I'm using now also uses the layout. In the late 1800s, QWERTY became the standard for typewriter keyboard layouts. But in the 1930s, another layout emerged: Dvorak. It looked like it could beat QWERTY on paper, but it never quite got there. I wanted to find out why (and give it a go myself).
Matt Oppenheimer, second from right, at his Dartmouth College Entrepreneur Hall of Fame induction ceremony in San Francisco on Thursday. The Remitly co-founder is joined by school friends and dignitaries, from left, Jeff Crowe, Andrea Reisman Johnson, Trevor Jensen, Maia Josebachvili, Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock, and Jamie Coughlin. (Photo courtesy of Matt Oppenheimer)
Nearly 25 years after enrolling at Dartmouth College to study psychology and embarking on a path that led him to co-found Seattle fintech giant Remitly, Matt Oppenheimer has been inducted into the Ivy League school’s Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.
The honor, presented Thursday night in San Francisco as part of Dartmouth’s annual Entrepreneurs Forum, comes seven months after Oppenheimer stepped down as Remitly’s long-time CEO to become chairman of the board.
Created by the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, the Hall of Fame honors Dartmouth alumni who have made lasting positive impacts through their ventures. Oppenheimer joins a select group of honorees with Northwest ties — including Smartsheet co-founders Brent Frei and Mark Mader — and used his acceptance remarks to express deep gratitude to the admissions officers who took a chance on a kid from Boise, Idaho, with “OK grades” and “below average SAT scores.”
Speaking with GeekWire ahead of the event, Oppenheimer recalled how his early college years studying social psychology helped shape his understanding of business.
“I think a lot of business and entrepreneurship does come down to interpersonal dynamics,” Oppenheimer said. “I am a people person. But how do you find what I call career-market fit when it comes to really understanding and connecting with people? That’s ultimately my strength, but it was really hard to define earlier in my career.”
After graduating from Dartmouth in 2005, Oppenheimer earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked in Kenya for Barclays Bank, where seeing families hit with steep fees on cross-border money transfers inspired him to start Remitly in 2011.
He served as CEO for nearly 15 years, guiding the company through its 2021 NASDAQ IPO and building it into a fintech powerhouse serving over 9 million customers across more than 170 countries before transitioning to chairman in February.
In his acceptance speech on Thursday, Oppenheimer focused on a central philosophy he calls leading authentically through “towering strengths and shadows.”
“Each of us has a few towering strengths — things we are in the top 10% of the world at doing. Not good at. Towering,” he said. “And almost always, that tower casts a shadow. The same trait that makes you exceptional at one thing quietly makes you a liability at another. They aren’t two traits. They’re one trait, seen from two sides.”
Matt Oppenheimer was introduced in San Francisco on Thursday by his Dartmouth classmates, Maia Josebachvili, left, and Trevor Jensen, right. (Photo courtesy of Matt Oppenheimer)
He pointed to his own extreme tenacity as an example, noting how it helped him build Remitly through years of investor rejections and early product stumbles, but how it also had a darker side.
“That same tenacity can lock onto things that are unhealthy, or unchangeable, or both,” Oppenheimer shared, candidly discussing his personal experiences with OCD-related anxiety and depression. “This isn’t a character flaw sitting next to my strengths. It is the shadow of my greatest strength, from the same place. Which means it’s something to work with … harness the tower, manage the shadow … rather than something to be ashamed of.”
Seven months into his transition from operational CEO to board chairman, Oppenheimer says the shift has felt surprisingly comfortable. Free from managing daily execution, he now channels that same intensity into coaching current leaders and serving on corporate boards.
“I have so much trust in Sebastian [Gunningham], our CEO, and it’s super exciting to support him in a chair capacity,” Oppenheimer told GeekWire. “I get to share reflections on the journey, mentor, and coach. I didn’t know that would be the case, because you hear so many examples of founder-CEOs who transition and have a really hard time with it.”
That mentorship extends to Seattle’s broader startup community, where Oppenheimer is an active member of Foundations, a collective of local tech founders and AI leaders. When advising early stage entrepreneurs, he urges them to remain hyper-focused on solving a single, deep customer problem rather than spreading themselves thin.
And while AI has vastly accelerated product development, Oppenheimer notes that the core fundamentals of building a business haven’t changed.
“With fintech, you still have to build the trust, get the licensing, and build out the compliance infrastructure and banking relationships,” he said. “The actual building and deployment of product got a lot faster, but if you don’t have great judgment, you can go down the wrong path pretty quickly.”
Looking back 25 years later, Oppenheimer noted that the Dartmouth admissions officers who took a chance on him didn’t look past his test scores by accident — they told him years later that they were drawn to his personal qualities and humanity.
“Two strangers in an office in Hanover found my tower before I had any idea what it was, and then they handed me the place to build on it,” Oppenheimer said in his closing remarks. “That isn’t a debt. It’s a privilege. And the only sensible thing to do with a privilege is use it well.”
Hadi Partovi, left and Becca Oystila during their wedding in a recreated/historic Viking village in Sweden. (Tommy Agriodimas Photo)
Maybe Hadi Partovi could use his sword or hammer to slay AI slop.
The co-founder of CodeAI, the computer science education platform that rebranded from Code.org earlier this year, is sharing video and images from his summer wedding, and it’s “100% real, no AI,” he says in a LinkedIn post.
It’s a smart disclaimer to add on social media, because the Viking-themed wedding to Becca Oystila appears unbelievable enough to be considered AI-generated — especially in an age where every other thing we scroll past is presumably touched by the tech.
Partovi told GeekWire it’s a statement about both AI’s advances and the work of Booka, the marketplace of beauty and events professionals started by Oystila.
“AI has gotten so good that people can hardly tell the difference from reality,” Partovi said via email. “And meanwhile, the Booka team delivers cinema-quality looks, which is why they have been chosen by Billboard, Soho House, and the Gold Gala as the beauty partner of choice for events.”
To build out the July nuptials in Oystila’s native Sweden, the couple transformed the historic island of Birka — home to the remains of an authentic Viking settlement — into a fully functioning village, circa 826 A.D., according to The Information.
Partovi said the setup featured 200 “villagers” acting as merchants, armorers, goat herders, and a blacksmith, alongside Swedish Viking experts and actors from Netflix’s “The Last Kingdom.” Guests were given custom hand-aged gold and silver coins — which Partovi personally aged himself — to spend on period attire, weapons, or jewelry throughout the island.
“Becca deserves the credit for suggesting a Viking theme,” Partovi said. “And once she said that, the rest of the story wrote itself. Of course the longships and the battle were my idea.”
To keep the immersive experience intact, the couple enforced a strict no-phones policy once guests stepped onto the island, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“Our goal was to make it the most authentic / immersive Viking experience created in history, and so the reason we had a phone library is because the Vikings didn’t have phones,” Partovi said. “We requested guests leave behind anything modern other than prescription glasses.”
Guests who didn’t dress authentically were provided alternate clothes. Professionals booked through Booka provided appropriate hair-braiding and face-painting. Some behind-the-scenes footage made this Instagram video.
When guests handed their phone in at the phone library, they received a Viking horn for drinking and a pouch of currency for use in the village. Partovi said even the few cameras on site were disguised for the sake of authenticity.
The guest list included prominent tech founders, executives, and venture capitalists, including Partovi’s twin brother and Neo CEO Ali Partovi; Rover co-founder Aaron Easterly; Sequoia Capital’s Alfred Lin; investor and former Snapchat executive Emily White; and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi (Partovi’s cousin).
Hadi Partovi and Becca Oystila during their traditional Persian wedding ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. (Tommy Agriodimas Photo)
Partovi and Oystila started dating in April 2024 and got engaged in August 2025.
Oystila is founder and CEO of Booka, a Los Angeles-based beauty platform that connects clients with vetted, top beauty professionals and provides them with tools to manage and grow their businesses. Oystila said the 2-year-old startup is now launching nationwide and bringing its events concept and corporate events to the public across the country.
The Viking wedding wasn’t the only event that weekend in July. A second, traditional Persian ceremony was held in the Hall of Mirrors at the Stockholm Grand Hotel.
“That ceremony was followed by a reception in the large Winter Garden decorated in the style of the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis, transitioning to the architecture from Isfahan and Shiraz, mixed with peacocks, fountains, and fires to celebrate Hadi’s Persian culture,” Oystila wrote on Instagram.
Partovi, who lives in Bellevue, Wash., founded Code.org in 2013 alongside his brother. Its mission is to expand computer science education to K-12 students, and in June the Seattle-based nonprofit announced its name change and that AI was replacing coding as the primary focus. Partovi is also CEO of Payam Music, a Bothell, Wash.-based piano school that he planned to expand nationally.
Asked whether he was considering keeping the braided mohawk hairstyle from his Viking look, which also included a skull “tattoo,” Partovi laughed and said no.
“My blue contact lenses and mohawk were for the day only,” he said. “I grew my beard out for six months for this!”
Seattle Transit Live, a circuit board map of Seattle-area trains, ferries and more. (Michael Benedict Photo)
When Sound Transit opened the light rail 2 Line across Lake Washington in March, software engineer Michael Benedict built a custom gift to mark the milestone for his transit-fanatic wife: a circuit board map of Seattle with tiny lights depicting moving trains.
Today, that personal birthday project has evolved into Seattle Transit Live, an interactive LED map that tracks Puget Sound-area light rail, trains, ferries, and the water taxi in real time using public transit data.
The extra time to indulge in such a detailed build came after Benedict was laid off from Amazon — where he worked as an engineer for a little over three years. Rather than rushing into another full-time corporate role, he picked up some freelancing and gave himself room to dive into CAD design, custom hardware and the prototyping process.
“I put way more time than is ever going to be economic into this,” Benedict told GeekWire. “I really kind of luxuriated in it because I didn’t have a job and I could just go deep.”
Designed on a custom fiberglass circuit board with etched copper detailing Seattle-area waterways, the $219 device plugs into Wi-Fi to display live positions of vehicles like Sound Transit trains, Washington State Ferries, the Sounder, and Monorail.
Michael Benedict is a software engineer and creator of Seattle Transit Live. The $219 interactive LED map tracks transit across the Puget Sound region and comes with a custom-built stand. (Michael Benedict Photos)
After Benedict posted an early prototype on Reddit and saw an enthusiastic response from local transit geeks asking to buy one, he refined the design and turned the side project into a full production run.
To power the display, the board uses an ambient light sensor to adjust to room brightness and features three distinct software modes. Alongside the real-time data mode, users can switch to a schedule replay mode or a fast-forward option that cycles through a full 24-hour transit schedule at 400x speed — letting users watch a day’s worth of regional traffic zip across the board in minutes.
The 8.6-by-11.8-inch boards are pretty jammed with assorted routes, but we had to ask if there would ever be room for Sound Transit’s eternally delayed Ballard neighborhood line.
“If I’m still making transit maps by the time they put Ballard in,” Benedict laughed, “I’m going to consider that a huge win all around.”
While circuit board maps and LED transit art have been built for transit networks in major cities like New York and Tokyo, Benedict sees Seattle’s unique geography and growing light rail as a compelling canvas for the concept. The board isn’t intended to replace trip-planning apps like OneBusAway, but rather to serve as a piece of functional art that captures the living movement of the region in a physical medium. And it’s all open-source.
The printed circuit boards are manufactured in Shenzhen, China — a standard approach for small-batch electronics — but Benedict wanted to keep a key part of the production local. He partnered with Oxbow Fabrication in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood to CNC-machine custom wooden stands, ensuring each board ships with a locally made mount.
The initial run of 50 pre-orders sold out quickly, prompting Benedict to order another 150 units to carry him through the end of the year. And going all-in on an independent hardware project has come with its own brand of founder anxiety.
“Putting 75,000 LEDs on your personal credit card is enough to make you think, ‘Maybe I should send some emails,'” he laughed.
Benedict recently showcased the project at the Seattle Design Festival, and he’s considering potential retail establishments in the city where offering such a niche piece might make sense — such as the gift shop at the Seattle Art Museum.
Beyond Amazon, Benedict’s tech career has included data science roles at 98point6 and Modernist Cuisine. Originally from Queens, N.Y., his embrace of the Pacific Northwest has been accentuated by his hardware project. Living next to the new Judkins Park station for the 2 Line, with a front-row seat to the region’s evolving transit landscape, has helped, too.
“Transit is just a really cool subject matter for it,” Benedict said. “It’s on a schedule, the data’s there, and it feels very Seattle — how the boats and trains move around.”
Sunny Gupta and the Seattle Seahawks mascot Blitz during a game at Lumen Field. (Photo courtesy of Sunny Gupta)
Sunny Gupta has been a diehard Seattle Seahawks fan for almost 20 years, hosting tailgates and sitting in the exact same club-level seats with his family and friends since 2007. Now, the longtime Seattle tech entrepreneur is taking his place in the franchise’s new ownership group as a self-described “fan No. 1.”
With the sale of the team to the family of Silicon Valley billionaire investor Vinod Khosla finalized on Thursday, Gupta’s name appeared on a newly revealed list of co-owners. Nader Naini, managing partner at Seattle-based healthcare private equity firm Frazier Healthcare Partners, is also among the group.
For Gupta, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up — and a dream come true.
“I would have never considered investing or being in ownership in sports other than the Seahawks,” Gupta told GeekWire in an interview following Thursday’s announcement. “This is a dream come true of something I love so much. The city I love so much, fan base, the team.
“I’m the 12th man,” he added. “I want to represent that as a part of the ownership group.”
Gupta is best known in Pacific Northwest tech circles as the co-founder and former CEO of Bellevue-based enterprise software maker Apptio, which he guided through an IPO, a private equity buyout, and an eventual $4.6 billion sale to IBM in 2023. He recently served as executive chair at Smartsheet during its $8.4 billion acquisition, and earlier this summer launched his fourth venture-backed startup, an enterprise AI company called Thira, with $21 million in seed funding.
But fall Sundays are strictly about football for Gupta, who describes himself and his family as “complete supporters, rabid fans” since 2007. He estimates he’s missed two games in that time.
Together with his wife, son, and daughter, the family holds five season tickets. They’ve sat in the same seats alongside a tight-knit crew of friends for nearly two decades — and don’t plan to change things with the perks of ownership.
“When we were going through this, this was like the biggest debate in our family,” Gupta said. “We’ve never been suite owners. We like being in our club section behind the Seahawks sideline, and that’s where we love watching the game. All our friends are there … that’s our community.”
Sunny Gupta at GeekWire’s Cloud Tech Summit in 2017. (GeekWire File Photo)
While Gupta hasn’t directly partnered on a startup with Vinod Khosla, their paths have frequently crossed in venture capital circles. Over a career raising funds for four separate startups, Gupta noted Khosla Ventures was always on the “short list” of firms entrepreneurs hope to align with. Joining forces on the Seahawks deal presented an ideal way to combine those two worlds.
“Seattle is mostly a tech story and it’s a Seahawks story,” Gupta said. “The ability to have these two worlds combine is like a dream.”
Beyond his personal fandom, Gupta expressed strong confidence in the team’s current leadership. He noted that he caught up this week on the final episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks in anticipation of Thursday’s sale completion, coming away energized by the culture built by general manager John Schneider and second-year head coach Mike Macdonald.
“I was fired up last night on just what a great organization it is and the amazing job Mike and John do,” Gupta said. “The ability to continue the winning culture and just continue to win and support our fan base and community — that’s what it’s all about.”
Sennheiser’s $299.95 Momentum True Wireless 5 adds user-replaceable batteries to both the earbuds and charging case, plus longer battery life and Bluetooth 6.0.
A bobcat inside a home as seen on video captured by a Kirkland Police Department drone. (Kirkland Police Department Image)
Most high-tech police drones are deployed for high-speed chases or search and rescue missions, but officers in Kirkland, Wash., recently launched one indoors for a wilder reason: tracking a live bobcat sitting at the top of a resident’s staircase.
According to a Kirkland Police Department Facebook post, the incident unfolded in the Moss Bay neighborhood last week after a resident heard loud banging inside their home and called 911 to report a break-in.
Responding officers expecting a human burglar were surprised to find the intruder was a bobcat.
In order to maintain a safe distance and manage the response, officers deployed an unmanned aircraft to monitor the cat’s movements inside the home.
The bobcat was corralled into an isolated room until the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife arrived, according to the Facebook post. The bobcat was sedated and later released near Forbes Creek, close to the natural habitat where it was found.
The bobcat is believed to have climbed a tree and jumped through an open window to gain entry possibly drawn inside by the resident’s cat, which was later found unharmed.
The indoor operation highlights how Kirkland has expanded its use of aerial technology since launching a public safety drone program in 2022. Managed centrally across the city’s Police, Fire, and Public Works departments, the program maintains five aircraft and 17 FAA-licensed pilots specifically trained for tactical searches, search-and-rescue missions, and scene documentation.
Police recommend that if a bobcat enters your home, move people and pets away from the area and call 911.
Agnes Kim, founder of ViaJiin, a Korean-sourced beauty supply startup based in the Seattle area, with some of the skincare products that her new company offers. (ViaJiin Photos)
Long before the July email arrived confirming she was one of thousands of Xbox employees laid off in Microsoft’s latest round of job cuts, Agnes Kim could feel the impending doom hanging over big tech.
But instead of waiting around for the next pendulum swing, the eight-year Xbox veteran spent her nights and weekends laying the groundwork for a very different kind of reboot: a boutique Korean skincare startup called ViaJiin.
The pivot from big tech and gaming to startups and beauty is an illustration in how preparation can help a laid off worker upend the usual five stages of grief that come before figuring out what to do next. Kim skipped straight to acceptance — announcing her new venture on LinkedIn just two days after getting her pink slip from Microsoft.
Kim joined the tech giant in 2018 after roles at Sony Pictures Entertainment and Deloitte Consulting, eventually rising to director leading Xbox’s market expansion in Asia. For years, she thrived in the role, building teams and expanding the gaming footprint in regions close to her roots. But as post-pandemic gaming demand normalized, the environment shifted from ambitious growth to what felt like a cycle of corporate survival.
Starting in early 2023, layoffs began rolling through the company every six months. Seeing the predictable pattern take its toll on team morale, Kim realized she couldn’t rely on long-term corporate stability to fulfill her goal of becoming an entrepreneur.
“You have a sense of impending doom,” Kim recalled. “There’s a shadow lurking. I felt like every six months we were waiting for the next round. I just didn’t feel like I was in an upswing anymore.”
Determined to take control of her timeline, she began tinkering with her business concept in late 2025, officially forming an LLC for ViaJiin in March 2026 and running focus groups by May — all while balancing her full-time executive role. When the July cuts finally hit Xbox, eliminating 1,600 jobs, Kim had already built six months of momentum.
Kim’s connection to skincare is deeply personal, rooted in her childhood spent living in South Korea from ages eight to 15. She grew up watching her mother religiously follow a multi-step routine and stress the daily necessity of sunscreen — a reflection of a culture where maintaining a youthful appearance carries immense social expectation.
That intense domestic demand has birthed a fiercely competitive market of over 30,000 brands, driving rapid scientific innovation. It has also turned South Korea into a global beauty powerhouse, with cosmetics exports surging past $10 billion as the U.S. recently surpassed China as the top destination for Korean beauty products.
Agnes Kim, second from left, with guests checking out ViaJiin’s skincare products at an event in Bellevue. (ViaJiin Photo)
ViaJiin aims to solve the overwhelming paralysis that American consumers face when trying to navigate the K-beauty market. Instead of building a massive retail catalog or pushing complicated 12-step routines, Kim simplifies the process into a streamlined four-product kit — cleanser, toner, serum, and cream — curated through a digital skin quiz. And she bypasses mainstream brands sold at big-box retailers to source exclusively from boutique Korean makers.
“The products I carry, you can only get through me,” Kim said. “I find boutique products that are filled with good ingredients, come to the U.S. compliantly, and turn it into a kit.”
ViaJiin’s full kits sell for $179, while smaller duo sets are priced at $99. Since shipping her first orders in August, Kim has been hand-packing boxes herself with personalized touches, building early traction online while hosting small, local events like “ViaJiin Nights” to let clients test products in person. The kits have also secured retail shelf space at K-Beauty & Skin in Renton, Wash., where Kim lives.
Kim’s transition from managing corporate teams to operating as a solo founder has meant trading human delegation for AI assistance.
Toward the end of her tenure at Microsoft, every conversation and initiative was dominated by a relentless push toward AI. Kim is now embracing those tools to execute work that would typically require a suite of employees or contractors.
She’s relied on Anthropic’s Claude as a virtual strategist and used platforms like Lovable to try her hand at “vibe coding” — the trend of using conversational natural-language prompts to generate functional software code — building out ViaJiin’s website and skin quiz without hiring a developer.
“I don’t have a co-founder… I’m delegating to Claude and GPT,” Kim said. “People are very surprised by my website or the skin quiz. I’m not an engineer, but it looks like I hired a web designer.”
While AI can handle code and logistics prompts, Kim quickly found that software can only go so far when running a physical inventory business. Between navigating complex U.S. FDA labeling regulations, managing customs paperwork, and verifying ingredient compliance, the operational heavy lifting remains resolutely analog.
And the shift from corporate structure to total solitary accountability is daunting at times.
Without a team to delegate to or a clear roadmap of objectives and key results, Kim admits there are moments where the freedom of entrepreneurship gives way to self-doubt.
“I think I understand why some people just work for the man,” Kim joked. “When you work for Microsoft, certainty and structure are more there. There are definitely moments where I’m like, ‘What the f*ck am I doing? What is today’s goal?'”
Still, Kim has no interest in turning back. Energized by the daily hustle and the creative control of building something from scratch, she insists she wouldn’t trade the experience for her old corporate desk. She hopes to grow ViaJiin into a household national brand while staying out of big tech for as long as she can.
“I’m 1,000% energized. I absolutely would not trade it,” Kim said. “This is allowing me to be truly the version of Agnes that I thought I would be when I was 12, and I want to keep going at it.”
Cory Black is a former tech worker who left his career to focus on juggling, mostly of soccer balls. (Vitz Photography Photo)
Most tech workers are used to keeping multiple projects up in the air at once. Cory Black took the concept to a literal level.
A graduate of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, and a former software engineer at Facebook, Black left his career behind to run away and join the circus.
Today, the work he’s juggling mostly involves soccer balls. Black, a 30-year-old from Bellevue, Wash., is one of the premier soccer freestylists in the world, doing things with his feet and hands that will leave you shaking your head.
Black is fresh off earning a bronze medal at the 2026 International Jugglers’ Association Championships in Fort Wayne, Ind., where he competed against top talent from Japan, Taiwan, and across the U.S.
His 5-minute routine (below) stood out by blending traditional hand-toss juggling with elite soccer freestyle — a rare combination he built over 16 years of kicking a soccer ball around and 11 years of hands-on juggling training.
It all started when he was 14 years old and playing youth soccer.
“My dad challenged me to juggle 100 times with my feet for $100,” Black told GeekWire. “Of course, that’s a ton of money when you’re a kid, so that’s all I did for a few weeks, and I got the money. Then I just started learning some tricks on YouTube and fell in love with learning the next one and next one, and figured out that it was a sport all to itself.”
Black quit traditional soccer in high school to focus entirely on freestyle, traveling to L.A. for his first U.S. Championships at age 16 and later heading to the World Championships in the Czech Republic. Unlike standard field play, soccer freestyle operates more like a breakdance battle, with competitors going head-to-head on stage to impress a panel of judges.
When it came time for college, Black followed his older brother to UW to study computer science at the Allen School. He spent his free time practicing tricks, but at the time, he didn’t view freestyle as a viable full-time career — most of his role models were just booking occasional corporate gigs for brands like Nike or Adidas.
After an internship in Silicon Valley, Black landed a full-time job as a software engineer at Facebook’s (now Meta’s) South Lake Union office in Seattle, where he spent three and a half years working on such things as content monetization tools for creators.
Juggling remained a constant backdrop to his engineering work; he kept juggling balls on his desk, tried teaching his teammates how to juggle, and practiced high tricks after hours in the office lounge. While training at a Seattle circus school, Black struck up a friendship with a former Cirque du Soleil choreographer who saw stage potential in his moves.
“After showing some of my tricks, he told me, ‘Hey, you can make this into a circus act,’ which I had never even imagined,” Black said. “I saw the opportunity … you can actually work with a circus and live with a circus and have a recurring way to support yourself.”
Cory Black is one of the world’s elite soccer freestylists, performing tricks with the ball that go far beyond what professional players pull off in games. (Philip Pavliger Photo)
Black took the leap, leaving Facebook to spend six to eight months building a full, stage-ready routine with his choreographer. To stretch his savings during the training period, he slept on his brother’s floor in Seattle for a year and a half before landing his first circus contract. That led to two years on the road with Flynn Creek Circus, living in a caravan and performing as a featured act.
After two seasons living on the road, Black transitioned into performing as a solo artist, booking corporate events, private shows, and local festivals. That solo pivot paid off big this past summer when Seattle hosted FIFA World Cup matches. Black stayed busy performing 28 separate shows across the city in six weeks, including fan events at Pacific Place Mall and outside the stadium for all six games. He made most of his money for the year during the stretch.
While moving from software engineering to stage performance brought a steep learning curve, Black sees surprising parallels between coding and juggling. He says engineers and jugglers are both drawn to complex patterns that have specific numbers associated with them. Managing five balls in the air fits that bill.
“If you go to local juggling clubs anywhere, there’s an unusually high amount of software people and engineers,” Black said. “Part of it is just being able to tackle hard, frustrating problems. If you haven’t gotten used to banging your head against a wall until you get something, you’re going to give up fairly easily.”
Black does occasionally lean on his engineering skills for side work. He broke his foot in December and took on what he calls “software adjacent” work. He’s also helped build websites for circus friends. But he has no interest in trading his soccer balls for a return to a tech desk job.
“Right now, I don’t plan on going back at all,” Black said. “Also, I don’t know what the landscape looks like after AI has kind of gone through everything.”
For now, he’s perfectly content sticking to debugging physical tricks on stage — where the only glitches in the code are the occasional dropped ball.
Dolly Parton in Los Angeles in 2012. (BigStock Photo)
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos joined the chorus of people who said they were touched by the life and work of Dolly Parton as he shared his condolences after the passing of the entertainment legend.
Parton, the rags-to-riches country music star whose hits included “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5” and “Coat of Many Colors,” died in Nashville on Tuesday at age 80.
“Dolly spent her whole life showing us what it means to lead with love,” Bezos wrote in an Instagram post. “Lauren and I are so grateful to have known her. She lifted everyone with her music, her generosity, and her joy. Sending our sincere condolences to her family and everyone she touched.”
Parton was a prolific giver. Her philanthropic endeavors included Imagination Library, which distributed more than 200 million books to young children. She gave back to her home county in Tennessee, through awards and scholarships for high school graduates. She helped raise millions after wildfires in the state, and gave millions more to hospitals.
The award was established in 2021, with the prize to be distributed within 10 years. Past winners have included include Jose Andres, chef and founder of the World Central Kitchen nonprofit organization, Van Jones, host of “The Van Jones Show” and founder of Dream.org; Eva Longoria, actress, producer, and founder of the Eva Longoria Foundation; Richard Rusczyk, founder of Art of Problem Solving; and others.
“She gives with her heart,” Bezos said when presenting Parton with the award, as seen in a video he posted on Twitter at the time. “What she’s done for kids, and literacy, and so many other things, is just incredible.”
“Did you say $100 million?!” Parton exclaimed as she took the stage. “When people are in a position to help, you should help. I’ve always said, ‘I try to put my money where my heart is,’ and I think you do the same thing,” she added, tapping Bezos on the chest.
The players are the controller in the play spaces at Immersive Gamebox. (Immersive Gamebox Photo)
Immersive Gamebox, a global interactive group gaming company, is coming to the Seattle region with its first Pacific Northwest location opening this week at Westfield Southcenter mall.
Designed for groups of two to six players, the venue uses projection mapping, touch-sensitive walls, 3D motion tracking, and spatial audio to create controller-free, immersive gaming environments.
Players use their bodies and movements to interact directly with the room to play titles based on major media franchises, including Netflix’s “Squid Game,” “Batman,” “Angry Birds,” and “Floor Is Lava.”
A grand opening celebration on Friday starts at 10 a.m. and includes a 2 p.m. ribbon cutting and giveaways. Bookings are currently open online, with limited availability for opening weekend.
The Tukwila location marks a strategic shift for the UK-founded company, which operates roughly 20 company-owned venues across the U.S. and more than 35 worldwide. The Southcenter space is its first step into U.S. franchising, partnering with local operators to scale the experiential tech concept across North America.
Founded in 2018 by Tough Mudder co-founder Will Dean, London-based Immersive Gamebox (formerly Electric Gamebox) was acquired and recapitalized by Harlan Capital Partners in early 2025. The company uses proprietary, patented LiDAR tracking tech in its “smart rooms” and counts Index Ventures among its early venture backers.
Pricing varies by game and time. An hour of “Squid Game” for one adult costs $31.99. Thirty minutes of “Floor Is Lava” for a child ages 3 to 11 is $23.99.
Immersive Gamebox will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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Reid Miller in a selfie taken along the Seattle waterfront. (Photo courtesy of Reid Miller)
Looking for love in Seattle took an unexpected turn when Reid Miller, a 26-year-old Amazon software engineer, decided to bypass dating apps.
Instead of swiping on Tinder or Hinge, Miller’s friends swooped in instead.
They created flyers that read “DATE OUR FRIEND” with a picture of Miller and a list of some his datable qualities: “He’s above average looking! He’s employed! He’s fun, adventurous, and supportive! He follows through! He’ll show up, and text you back!”
The flyers have been handed out and posted around the Ballard neighborhood where Miller lives. A QR code takes people to a website: DateReid.com.
The flyer seeking potential dates for Reid Miller of Seattle. (Photo via Reddit)
In a city where the so-called “Seattle freeze,” anti-tech sensibilities, and dating culture can often collide clumsily, the entire effort is an exercise in just putting oneself out there.
“I had no idea it was gonna be a flyer, a website, all that,” Miller told GeekWire, adding that he was in a bar when someone showed him a picture. “I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s me!’ But I’m taking it pretty seriously.”
The mastermind behind the operation is Bryn Lloyd-Davies, who also works in tech and is dating Miller’s best friend, Eric. They’ve watched Miller navigate post-breakup dating in the city.
“We made the website because he and Eric have got an adorable bromance going on, and we joke that I’m trying to find a girlfriend for my boyfriend’s boyfriend,” Lloyd-Davies said.
Behind the lighthearted joke was a real frustration with modern dating. Miller moved to Seattle from Milwaukee four years ago while in a committed relationship. When it ended he entered another relationship, which also ended, and he’s dated a little since.
“I think dating anywhere is especially hard these days and it just seems to get harder and harder the more terminally online we become as a society,” Lloyd-Davies said. “Someone like him who very quickly stands out as so genuine and a green flag in real life is hard to discern from 100 low effort flaky people on a dating app.”
She added that Miller has genuine “golden retriever energy.”
Jimothy approved? Seattle’s viral raccoon might appreciate that Reid Miller bottle fed his family’s pet raccoons back in Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy of Reid Miller)
The Date Reid website home page asks ladies if they’re “looking for the real deal,” and describes Reid as an outgoing 6-footer with a dash of Midwest charm. The about page gets more into his Wisconsin roots and education at the other UW while also listing some of his sporty pursuits, including competitive water skiing, snow skiing, rock climbing, and restaurant and brewery hopping.
There’s a page of photos that women can scroll through rather than swipe past, and another with videos of Reid doing some of that sporty stuff that’s mentioned.
Interested women (ages 21-31) can fill out an “application form” via the website where they’re asked if they’re gainfully employed, how adventurous they are on a scale of 1 to 5, and whether they have any dealbreakers when it comes to a significant other.
Women are also encouraged to upload a few photos because, as the site says, “Looks aren’t everything but let’s be real, attraction is important!”
The site attracted at least 13 applications on Thursday after a picture of one of the flyers was posted on Reddit. That exceeds the total number of applications that have trickled in over the past month. Lloyd-Davies said the website went from a previous high of about 75 views in a single day to more than 3,000 by Thursday afternoon.
Miller, who works on AWS networking at Amazon, acknowledges that leading with a tech background doesn’t always yield instant bonus points on a date.
“On the outside, I think people put a little ‘minus one’ in their mind next to when you say software engineer,” Miller said. “You’ve just got to own it. It’s my living, it’s my life.”
As for what comes next, Miller is keeping an open mind and preparing to sort through the incoming responses. He emphasizes that he intends to honor the effort of anyone who takes the time to put themselves out there, read every application, and treat everybody with respect.
“Dating’s a numbers game, so I appreciate it,” Miller said. “My whole goal is to look for what I’m looking for, but also make sure we both have a good time and just both leave it happy.”
Jeff Dean, co-founder and CEO of Discovery Loop. (Photo via KDD.org)
Jeff Dean has spent decades flexing his brain to solve some of computing’s hardest problems. Turns out the Google legend and UW computer science alum has been pushing his physical limits just as hard.
In an exchange on X this week, the former Google chief scientist — who recently left the tech giant after 27 years to launch the scientific AI startup Discovery Loop — laid out a weekly training routine that looks less like a tech executive’s calendar and more like a triathlete’s.
In addition to running or biking to work three or four directions a week, Dean, 58, says he’s mixing in a couple trips to the gym, a couple yoga sessions, and a couple games of soccer in a 25-and-over league. He also does a longer run or bike ride on the weekend.
We got winded just scrolling through the comments.
Soccer (2 games/wk in my 25-and-over league), gym 2x/wk, yoga 2x/wk, run to work 3-4 directions/wk (8k each way), bike to work 3-4 directions/wk (8k each way), longer run or bike on weekend.
People wanted to know how Dean took care of his knees (squishy shoes), whether he came up with great ideas while exercising (definitely), when he showers (at work), and if he sleeps (usually seven hours).
In GeekWire’s Slack channel this morning, co-founder John Cook, a longtime soccer player, expressed his own surprise.
“He’s playing soccer twice per week in an over-25 league — that is total bad ass,” Cook wrote. “I can barely run in my over-50 league!”
Dean earned his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in 1996 before joining Google as employee No. 30. He achieved tech-legend status by helping to build the company’s core computing architecture over nearly three decades.
His new venture, Discovery Loop, is an ambitious public benefit corporation aimed at using AI to automate the scientific method — running thousands of parallel experiments to accelerate breakthroughs in fields like drug discovery, materials science, and machine learning.
Dean’s dive into his exercise routine came up because of a slide he shared at KDD 2026, a conference in Jeju, South Korea. The slide was a play-by-play of his final 48 hours at Google (Aug. 5–7), detailing the whirlwind around his departure and startup launch.
Along with breaking the news to Google colleagues and announcing the launch of Discovery Loop, Dean spent last Wednesday responding to hundreds of well wishes — while squeezing in a yoga session and a soccer game. He went to bed at 2:30 a.m. and was up at 6:30 a.m. Thursday to respond to hundreds more messages.
He was technically unemployed for exactly one second at midnight on Thursday.
He probably spent it stretching.
Indeed, it has been quite a week, so I thought I'd share it with the KDD 2026 audience! For my Google colleagues who might have sent me internal chat messages after I closed my laptop for a final time on Thursday afternoon, I apologize for my lack of response!
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