Paul Brainerd, who coined the term "desktop publishing" and built Aldus Corporation's PageMaker into one of the defining programs of the personal computer era, died Sunday at his home on Bainbridge Island. He was 78. He left two legacies: a piece of software that democratized the printed page, and a three-decade commitment to environmental conservation in the Pacific Northwest. Friends and colleagues this week remembered Brainerd as a quiet, caring and detail-oriented leader with exacting standards and a determination to do good in the world.
Read more. Nearly 15 years after launching a financial services startup out of Seattle, Remitly co-founder Matt Oppenheimer is stepping down as CEO of the company, which went public in 2021 and is now worth more than $3.5 billion. Read more.
Come for the view, stay for the AI startup building. A new hacker house overlooking Meydenbauer Bay in Bellevue, Wash., could be the home of the Seattle area’s next big thing. Bili House is run by young founders looking to replicate the communal living and working experience that is more prevalent in Silicon Valley. Read more.
A pilot who flew a drone into Seattle’s Lumen Field during last week’s Seahawks Super Bowl celebration is facing charges. The incident underscores growing concerns about drone threats as Seattle prepares to host 2026 FIFA World Cup matches. Read more.
Seattle startup Adronite raised $5 million to help large organizations gain visibility into sprawling and complex codebases. Read more.
Ag-tech startup TerraClear launched a new autonomous farm robot called TerraScout, designed to collect high-resolution imagery and generate detailed action plans for existing equipment to rid fields of rocks and weeds. Read more.
Amazon Web Services launched two credit programs worth up to $100 million to help federal agencies leverage AWS cloud services and generative AI technologies for applications ranging from battle management to quantum computing. Read more.
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Bill Gates skipped his planned keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit amid public scrutiny of his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. (CNBC)
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ByteDance is hiring in the U.S., including in Seattle, for roles within its AI division. (Bloomberg)
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Ring founder Jamie Siminoff has been on an “apology tour” after the company’s controversial Super Bowl ad promoting its Search Party feature. Meanwhile, internal docs show potential expansion beyond finding lost dogs. (New York Times; 404 Media)
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Cloverleaf Infrastructure, run by Seattle-based energy industry veterans, is attracting acquisition interest as it helps line up data center deals. (Axios)
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Agility Robotics, the humanoid robot startup based in Oregon, inked a commercial deal with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. (Agility)
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Seattle VC Chris DeVore writes that “founder expectations for customer insight, access, and execution velocity are higher than they’ve ever been” in the AI era. (LinkedIn)
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SageOx, a new Seattle startup building the “hivemind for agentic engineering,” launched its v0.1 product. (SageOx)
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Seattle health tech startup CalmWave unveiled a new application that helps assess patient recovery and discharge readiness. (CalmWave)
Thanks for subscribing to the GeekWire newsletter and have a great day. — GeekWire editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com; co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com; and reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com.
