Blab Tech
Seattle Tech Week 2026 Highlights: From Cricket AI to Urban Mining and VC Automation
When Seattle’s tech community gathered on Monday, the city’s waterfront buzzed with a promise of fresh ideas and bold ambition. The fourth annual Seattle Tech Week kicked off at the Picklewood Paddle Club with a lineup of panels and parties that drew thousands of attendees from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Organizers announced more than 250 events and over 29,000 registrations for the week’s programming, a testament to the region’s growing appetite for innovation.
The opening session set a clear, almost playful tone: each founder was asked a single question—"What are you building?" Jagan Nemani, chief product officer of the Seattle Orcas, answered with a description of an AI‑driven logistics engine that keeps a Major League Cricket franchise running smoothly. Built on Claude Code, the system automates flight bookings, hotel blocks, ground transportation, and daily schedules for players and staff. Nemani noted that the entire workflow is accessed via WhatsApp, a platform the team already uses for daily communication. He added that the AI now handles roughly 80 % of operations that once required spreadsheets and manual coordination.
Kim Vu, founder and CEO of StyleOrigin, unveiled a B2B tool that turns a single photograph of a thrift, vintage, or consignment item into a ready‑to‑post listing. The software identifies the item, suggests a price, and populates all necessary details. Vu, who left a senior ESG role at Remitly in 2023 to launch a vintage clothing business, built the first version of the product herself. While the company’s MVP is live and it has no revenue yet, it already boasts a wait‑list of more than 70 stores. Vu is preparing to hire an engineer to expand the platform.
Kenny Daniel, founder of Hyperparam, spoke about a suite of tools that capture, store, and analyze the data produced by AI agents. Daniel explained that companies spend heavily on AI but rarely understand what the agents actually do. By mining the “token trails” left by AI interactions, Hyperparam aims to expose where models are effective, where they waste resources, and where they may be “stupid.” He emphasized that existing analytics focus on clicks and numbers, not on the text‑centric output that modern AI generates.
In a more earth‑bound venture, Cleo Escarez of Redyoos presented an urban‑mining operation that recovers precious metals from jewelry. Escarez pointed out that the jewelry industry supplies 40 % to 50 % of the world’s precious‑metal supply, and that demand for those metals is rising alongside AI and clean‑energy development. She estimates a 700 % supply shortfall over the next decades. Redyoos collects jewelry, refines the metals, and sells the recovered material to clean‑tech manufacturers. The company has been operating for just over a year, is already generating revenue, and is raising a pre‑seed round.
Andy Liu, partner at Unlock Venture Partners, described an internal engineering team that automates many aspects of venture‑capital work. The team handles deal memos, due diligence, investor relations, and portfolio updates. Liu said the goal is to improve decision‑making by applying the same scaling principles that the firm’s portfolio companies use.
Mary Jesse, co‑founder and CEO of ACME Brains, introduced Nexie, a private‑AI product that keeps a user’s notes, journals, and conversations in a personal context engine. Nexie allows the same context to be shared across different AI services, addressing privacy concerns that arise when a single model is trained on a user’s data. Jesse, an electrical engineer with more than two dozen patents, noted that many people—especially seniors—are unaware of how AI can access and use their personal information.
Emily Rapp, founder and CEO of Köniva, unveiled a voice‑AI tool designed for bars and restaurants that lets staff count inventory aloud instead of writing it down. Using a lapel mic, the app reduces inventory‑counting time from 12 hours with four people to about three and a half hours with two people. Köniva currently serves ten customers, primarily high‑end hotels and restaurants, and has been adopted by staff who initially used the app on personal credit cards.
Henry Arias, founder and managing partner of Altelan Capital, described a growth‑equity firm that invests at the intersection of food brands and food‑tech. Altelan uses AI tools to evaluate businesses and test scaling assumptions, but Arias cautions that AI is not always the right tool. With a background in finance for restaurants and breweries, he says the firm provides strategic support to companies that are moving from traditional “clipboard” operations to technology‑driven models.
The Seattle Tech Week kickoff showcased a diverse array of innovations, from AI‑driven sports operations to urban mining and VC automation. Over the course of the week, the city’s startup ecosystem continued to demonstrate how emerging technologies can be applied across a wide range of industries, offering fresh solutions and new business models for investors, consumers, and entrepreneurs alike.
The opening session set a clear, almost playful tone: each founder was asked a single question—"What are you building?" Jagan Nemani, chief product officer of the Seattle Orcas, answered with a description of an AI‑driven logistics engine that keeps a Major League Cricket franchise running smoothly. Built on Claude Code, the system automates flight bookings, hotel blocks, ground transportation, and daily schedules for players and staff. Nemani noted that the entire workflow is accessed via WhatsApp, a platform the team already uses for daily communication. He added that the AI now handles roughly 80 % of operations that once required spreadsheets and manual coordination.
Kim Vu, founder and CEO of StyleOrigin, unveiled a B2B tool that turns a single photograph of a thrift, vintage, or consignment item into a ready‑to‑post listing. The software identifies the item, suggests a price, and populates all necessary details. Vu, who left a senior ESG role at Remitly in 2023 to launch a vintage clothing business, built the first version of the product herself. While the company’s MVP is live and it has no revenue yet, it already boasts a wait‑list of more than 70 stores. Vu is preparing to hire an engineer to expand the platform.
Kenny Daniel, founder of Hyperparam, spoke about a suite of tools that capture, store, and analyze the data produced by AI agents. Daniel explained that companies spend heavily on AI but rarely understand what the agents actually do. By mining the “token trails” left by AI interactions, Hyperparam aims to expose where models are effective, where they waste resources, and where they may be “stupid.” He emphasized that existing analytics focus on clicks and numbers, not on the text‑centric output that modern AI generates.
In a more earth‑bound venture, Cleo Escarez of Redyoos presented an urban‑mining operation that recovers precious metals from jewelry. Escarez pointed out that the jewelry industry supplies 40 % to 50 % of the world’s precious‑metal supply, and that demand for those metals is rising alongside AI and clean‑energy development. She estimates a 700 % supply shortfall over the next decades. Redyoos collects jewelry, refines the metals, and sells the recovered material to clean‑tech manufacturers. The company has been operating for just over a year, is already generating revenue, and is raising a pre‑seed round.
Andy Liu, partner at Unlock Venture Partners, described an internal engineering team that automates many aspects of venture‑capital work. The team handles deal memos, due diligence, investor relations, and portfolio updates. Liu said the goal is to improve decision‑making by applying the same scaling principles that the firm’s portfolio companies use.
Mary Jesse, co‑founder and CEO of ACME Brains, introduced Nexie, a private‑AI product that keeps a user’s notes, journals, and conversations in a personal context engine. Nexie allows the same context to be shared across different AI services, addressing privacy concerns that arise when a single model is trained on a user’s data. Jesse, an electrical engineer with more than two dozen patents, noted that many people—especially seniors—are unaware of how AI can access and use their personal information.
Emily Rapp, founder and CEO of Köniva, unveiled a voice‑AI tool designed for bars and restaurants that lets staff count inventory aloud instead of writing it down. Using a lapel mic, the app reduces inventory‑counting time from 12 hours with four people to about three and a half hours with two people. Köniva currently serves ten customers, primarily high‑end hotels and restaurants, and has been adopted by staff who initially used the app on personal credit cards.
Henry Arias, founder and managing partner of Altelan Capital, described a growth‑equity firm that invests at the intersection of food brands and food‑tech. Altelan uses AI tools to evaluate businesses and test scaling assumptions, but Arias cautions that AI is not always the right tool. With a background in finance for restaurants and breweries, he says the firm provides strategic support to companies that are moving from traditional “clipboard” operations to technology‑driven models.
The Seattle Tech Week kickoff showcased a diverse array of innovations, from AI‑driven sports operations to urban mining and VC automation. Over the course of the week, the city’s startup ecosystem continued to demonstrate how emerging technologies can be applied across a wide range of industries, offering fresh solutions and new business models for investors, consumers, and entrepreneurs alike.
