Remembering Tom Alberg: How an understated investor had an outsized impact on Seattle tech

Remembering Tom Alberg: The Seattle business and civic leader will be remembered publicly for everything he did to help create and shape the region’s tech industry, and for his early investment in Amazon. However, it was the way Alberg interacted with people behind the scenes that left the biggest impression on many of those he worked with during his long career. That’s the clear message from a series of tributes to Alberg posted online this weekend by his many friends and former colleagues following the news of his death Friday, Aug. 5, at 82 years old.

Avalara going private in $8.4B deal: Vista Equity Partners will acquire the 14-year-old Seattle tax software giant that went public in 2018. Read more. 

Can AI help improve public speaking? Yoodli, a Seattle startup with an AI-enabled software platform that analyzes speech to offer tips for improving communication skills, raised $6 million.

GeekWire Podcast: On our latest episode we take a look at the state of the tech economy, pulling insights from recent earnings calls from giants including Amazon and Microsoft. Listen here, or subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.