Startup founders and investors react to capital gains tax ruling | Q&A with Seagen founder Clay Siegall 

• The tax has sparked controversy within the tech industry because it targets stocks, a key part of compensation for many startup founders and their employees.

• "We can’t achieve the community, environment, housing, social support, schools, arts, and more to increasingly make this region a great place to live for founders and employees, and solely rely on a regressive tax structure to fund these services,” said Xiao Wang, CEO and co-founder of Seattle immigration startup Boundless.

• "Founders take years or decades to see a return. Reducing that potential return makes us less competitive than other states,” said Marc Barros, CEO of Seattle camera startup Moment. Read more reactions.

• In its opinion, the court concluded that the capital gains tax “is a valid excise tax under Washington law.” Read more.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says a launch anomaly that forced the suspension of its suborbital spaceflights last September was caused by a structural failure of the rocket engine’s nozzle.

• Corrective actions are being taken, and flights are expected to resume “soon,” Blue Origin said today. No people were aboard New Shepard during last year’s launch from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. 

“I built a great company.”

• Clay Siegall, the co-founder and longtime CEO of Seagan, told GeekWire he’s proud of his legacy at the Seattle-area biotech giant. Last week the company announced plans to sell to Pfizer for $43 billion, and Siegall is back in charge of new biotech startup Morphimmune, a Purdue University spinout with expansion plans in Seattle. GeekWire reporter Charlotte Schubert caught up with Siegall to talk about developing drugs, the pending acquisition, and more. Read the Q&A.

Which Pacific Northwest startups are most likely to have a successful exit? A new machine learning tool from PitchBook helps make that prediction.

• We used the VC Exit Predictor to analyze the top 50 startups in the GeekWire 200. See the results.

In the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, the future of venture debt is unclear.

• Andy Liu, a partner at Unlock Venture Partners, said he expects unprofitable startups will now have a harder time raising venture debt from banks. Jason Stoffer, a partner at Maveron, expects “less cheap bank debt.” Read more.