Seattle after Techstars: Former managing director reflects on accelerator’s impact

Glowforge is tangled in a legal dispute with a self-professed tech “activist” who has claimed online for years that the Seattle startup is selling defective and dangerous 3D laser engravers. The company filed suit against the Las Vegas man last fall for making false and defamatory allegations, and then moved to have the claim dismissed last week. Read more.

Tech Moves: Instacart COO Asha Sharma is headed back to Seattle for a new role at Microsoft; ZoomInfo accounting chief Prasadh Cadambi is departing; and more key personnel changes. 

• Former Textio CEO Kieran Snyder, who stepped back from the Seattle startup in January, is diving into research on how AI is impacting workplace communications and more. 

Generative AI for marketing: Gradial, a new Seattle startup using generative AI to help marketing operations teams increase productivity, raised $5.4 million in a seed investment round led by Madrona. Read more.

• See all recent investments with our fundings list.

Hot Links:

• Seattle-based biotech company Avalyn Pharma, which recently raised a $175 million round, is relocating its headquarters to Cambridge, Mass. (Puget Sound Business Journal)

• OpenAI accuses The New York Times of “hacking” ChatGPT to generate misleading evidence in the newspaper’s copyright lawsuit against the company. (Reuters)

• Vancouver, Wash.-based biotech firm Absci expects to generate more than $75 million from a new public offering. (Absci)

• AWS exec Angela Shippy was one of 50 “changemakers” highlighting women business leaders. (CNBC)