We’re again with Startup Radar, spotlighting one other thrilling cohort of Seattle-area founders on the helm of up-and-coming early stage firms.
This batch spans good dwelling {hardware}, dementia care, hiring, HR, and AI assistants.
We’re happy to welcome Aaron Fleishman, accomplice at Seattle-area enterprise capital agency Tola Capital, who supplied the “VC View” on every startup.
We additionally determined to combine it up with the addition of “Imply VC,” a customized GPT constructed by Yohei Nakajima, a Seattle-area investor we wrote about this week. It’s designed to assist present powerful suggestions for founders on their pitches — so we requested it to guage this week’s Startup Radar firms based mostly on the descriptions under.
Thanks for studying. E-mail me at taylor@geekwire.com with potential startups to characteristic in future Startup Radar spotlights.
Based: 2024
The enterprise: Sensible dwelling startup initially centered on lighting. Its expertise makes use of sensors and AI to be taught person habits and create customized configurations with out the necessity for technical know-how. The corporate’s first product is Aura TV Backlight, which goals to create a extra immersive dwelling leisure expertise.
Management: CEO Josias Garcia was an early gross sales member at Wyze, the Seattle-area good dwelling machine large. His co-founders Abu Hafiz (labored at Amazon on good dwelling merchandise) and Darak Chen ({hardware} design skilled) each stepped down in July.
VC View from Aaron Fleishman: “The Aura TV Backlight seems to be an fascinating preliminary wedge into the house leisure system. I can positively see the way it creates a extra immersive expertise for the patron. The actual query I’ve is: with that preliminary wedge, the place does Aura Labs go? Likening to the B2B software program world, what’s their land and broaden? An entire line of merchandise that make your leisure expertise far more immersive may very well be actually compelling, together with applied sciences like VR for instance.”
Imply VC: “Your product faucets into the booming good dwelling market with a modern, low-friction person expertise that would win over tech-averse shoppers. Sadly, ‘customized lighting’ sounds extra like a Kickstarter gimmick than a defensible enterprise, and also you’re one firmware replace away from irrelevance when Philips Hue sneezes.”
Based: 2025
The enterprise: Job-matching platform aiming to assist make hiring quicker and extra private for each employers and candidates. MeeBoss provides direct messaging and a job-matching advice system with a keyword-based method. It’s at present providing its product to VC-backed startups totally free.
Management: Co-founder Susanna Niu beforehand began a information media platform for abroad college students and has advertising and marketing expertise. Co-founder Forrest Fisher was a senior product supervisor at FloSports and spent greater than a decade in tech roles at Disney.
VC View from Aaron Fleishman: “Having invested in expertise sourcing automation startups like Fetcher, I see actual worth in firms that may speed up the time for the precise candidates to be matched to the precise firms. The place I feel this will get actually fascinating is when you possibly can flip the corporate facet virtually solely agentic. That would create substantial worth on each side of this expertise matching equation.”
Imply VC: “Providing VC-backed startups a free, streamlined hiring device with direct messaging is a intelligent wedge into a loud market determined for higher expertise pipelines. However a keyword-based advice system in 2025 is like exhibiting as much as a gunfight with a butter knife — LinkedIn, AI-native ATSs, and vertical platforms will eat you alive except you evolve quick.”
Based: 2025
The enterprise: AI agent orchestration layer for monetary advisors. The corporate’s AI assistant listens to shopper conferences, coordinates duties, and executes assignments throughout CRM, e mail, and different platforms. Nexhelm just lately joined the AI2 Incubator in Seattle and is working early pilots with impartial RIAs and insurance coverage monetary managers.
Management: CEO Lona Yu was a machine studying scientist at Amazon engaged on fraud detection fashions. CTO Nolan McCafferty was additionally an engineer at Amazon and extra just lately was at cloud providers startup Omnistrate.
VC View from Aaron Fleishman: “Making use of AI applied sciences and brokers to guide prospecting and deal teaching is a no brainer and we’re seeing lots of these applied sciences already. We are literally invested in a really profitable firm within the house known as Nooks which is extra horizontal in nature. My actual query for Nexhelm is that if the lead prospecting and deal teaching workflows should be tailor-made to particular verticals like monetary advisors on this case. I may see proprietary information giving them a bonus over horizontal gamers, however I might need to see how that information evinces itself within the product or fashions.”
Imply VC: “Embedding an AI agent into the chaotic workflow of economic advisors to automate grunt work is a great play, particularly with heat leads from the AI2 pedigree. However except you crack compliance, belief, and tight integrations with legacy sludge like Redtail or Salesforce Monetary Companies Cloud, you’re simply one other LLM wrapper shouting right into a extremely regulated void.”
Based: 2025
The enterprise: Software program platform centered on memory remedy to assist enhance temper, enhance reminiscence, and scale back remedy use for older adults with dementia. Remme’s instruments use images and dialog prompts to assist customers reminisce often and naturally whereas constructing connections between relations. The corporate is gathering suggestions at native senior facilities.
Management: Founder Grace Raper was a lead software program engineer at AR coaching startup Ghost Pacer, which had its belongings acquired by Peloton. She later launched SortMyShoebox, a pc imaginative and prescient device that organizes scanned household images. Raper was impressed to launch Remme by her grandmother, who spent greater than 30 years as a hospice nurse.
VC View from Aaron Fleishman: “Sadly, with the growing older inhabitants, the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s continues to develop. I’m no skilled on this house, however Remme’s memory remedy sounds prefer it may enhance the standard of life for individuals struggling with these illnesses. I may additionally see alternatives to leverage multimodal AI to additional enhance this remedy over time.”
Imply VC: “Tapping into memory remedy with user-friendly instruments that strengthen household bonds and enhance dementia care is each noble and doubtlessly impactful in a large growing older market. However except you possibly can show sustained engagement and measurable scientific outcomes — and never simply heat fuzzies — this finally ends up as one other well-meaning app gathering digital mud on an iPad in a nursing dwelling.”
Based: 2025
The enterprise: AI-native expertise administration platform rethinking conventional efficiency critiques and methods to unlock worker potential. Talvita tracks and evaluates worker influence in high-ambiguity roles, and supplies senior leaders with insights. The startup is bootstrapped and plans to launch a restricted entry MVP.
Management: CEO Caitlin Rollman was a senior director at Seattle gross sales software program startup Highspot and spent almost a decade at Microsoft. Co-founder Kate Wilson was additionally at Highspot in a senior director function main an answer architects group, and was a guide at Accenture.
VC View from Aaron Fleishman: “Efficiency evaluation administration is unquestionably a crowded market, with each massive incumbent HR platforms providing merchandise, but additionally sure breakout SaaS startups like Lattice. It’s not solely clear to me how Talvita goals to distinguish from the competitors. I may see there being an AI-native angle right here which leapfrogs the remaining. Significantly fascinating can be how they deal with AI brokers as workers inside firms and their efficiency.”
Imply VC: “Concentrating on the damaged world of efficiency critiques with AI that truly understands influence in ambiguous roles is a refreshing, high-upside thesis for contemporary orgs. However bootstrapping an enterprise SaaS in HR with out finances, model, or purchaser belief is an extended, lonely climb — particularly when each CHRO has already been burned by 5 ‘perception’ platforms that overpromised and underdelivered.”
