Top tech companies in Seattle, Washington

Seattle is an enduring and powerful fixture among technology hubs, despite the recent emergence of tech hubs in some sunnier climates. After all, Amazon was founded in Seattle way back in 1994, and the tech giant maintains a massive presence in software development today through Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

The number of startups in Seattle today totals more than 600. Entrepreneurs are attracted to the area by a highly educated workforce, access to funding from more than 170 VC firms, and Seattle’s leadership in incubation and acceleration services for the mentoring and growth of startups. What’s more, the local government in Seattle runs its own funding and support services for small businesses.

It is against this backdrop that we’ve shortlisted a few top tech companies in Seattle that are ahead of the pack. We will update this list over time so follow us on LinkedIn if you’d like to stay up to date.

Porch

Even before the pandemic, about 13% of Americans moved each year. When Covid-19 hit in 2020, 22% either moved in response or knew somebody who did. Shorter-distance moves have declined since then, but long-distance moves stepped up in 2022.

Many moves today are spurred by inflation, retirement or opportunities to work from home in less costly locations. Regardless of why they’re moving, though, consumers need access to professional service companies.

More than 30,000 home services providers are already on board with Porch, a Seattle-based tech company that describes itself as a concierge service for home buyers. 

Porch’s overarching goal is to help consumers save money and make better decisions about realtors, moving, insurance, home improvement, security and other home services.

Zonar Systems

Consumers driving on the highway have more to watch out for than just other cars. Research by Truckinfo.net shows that trucks are involved in more than 168,000 accidents in the US each year.

The number of accidents might have been higher, though, if it weren’t for ELD (Electronic Logging Device) laws requiring many truck drivers to use electronic devices that sync to vehicle engines. These automatically track their Hours of Service (HOS) and Record of Duty Status (RODS). The intent is to prevent truckers from working if they’re overtired. 

Seattle-based Zonar Systems has built an entire business around keeping fleets of trucks, buse, and other commercial vehicles safer through the use of GPS tracking and ELD solutions. 

Zonar provides tablet hardware and apps to connect fleets of vehicles, comply with the ELD rules and other state and federal mandates,. They also assist with other aspects of a driver’s job responsibilities. 

Avalara

It’s getting easier for companies to expand their businesses internationally due to technological advancements in areas ranging from web services to supply chain operations and mobile communications.

Global expansion presents major opportunities for talent acquisition, cost savings and access to new markets. Yet businesses are also up against challenges when it comes to compliance with taxation and other legal obligations.

Avalara is dedicated to dealing with the intricacies of international tax compliance. Its tax compliance automation solutions are designed to improve speed, accuracy and reliability for business and government customers in more than 90 countries. 

Leveraging more than 1,200 signed partner integrations across leading e-commerce, ERP and other billing systems, the solutions are put to work by over 30,000 customers for purposes that include tax calculations, tax return filings and tax content access.

Outreach SaaS

We tend to hear a lot about company sales successes, although not so much about sales failures (except, of course, for colossal flops). But unsuccessful sales efforts do happen on a routine basis, a reality that  becomes immediately evident if you simply Google “sales” and “failure”.

One approach many businesses use to improve sales execution is the creation of a “sales pipeline,” an organised, visual way of tracking the progress of potential buyers as they step through stages on the journey from sales lead to customer.

In the interests of opening and predictably closing more pipelines, Outreach provides an AI-enabled offering touted as the only SaaS service to combine sales engagement, revenue intelligence and revenue operation on a single sales execution platform.

Satisfied customers include Zoom, DocuSign, Siemens, Okta and McKesson.

Groundspeak

Many tech companies pay lip service that they want you to put your phone down (YouTube’s “you’ve been watching for 15 minutes” springs to mind), but rarely do you find a company that does it so well as Seattle-based Groundspeak. It even invented its own sport: geocaching.

Geocaching essentially works as a community-run scavenger hunt. Each hider is tasked with concealing a container somewhere in the wild; they must then provide clues so other players can find it.

Available on desktop, iOS, Android and more, the premise stays consistent. You get a rough map location, but after that it’s up to the generosity of the hider as to the level of clues provided. This means you’ll never get the same caching experience twice.

While the technology itself is hardly novel, geocaching has made a genuine difference worldwide through support for its environmental initiative ‘Cache In, Trash Out’. Here, geocachers are encouraged to earn virtual souvenirs by hosting and attending cleanups of parks and other outdoor environments. 

With all of this having started from just 75 caches in 2000, and the company growing to just over 100 employees in the process (it primarily makes its money by selling “merch”), the way Groundspeak has used technology to connect and empower its now over 3 million users to not only go outside but also to protect the environment is nothing short of incredible.

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