When Yifan Zhang was building a tech startup in Seattle several years ago, it wasn’t easy to find fellow female founders.
Fast forward to today, and the landscape looks much different.
“I was so impressed by the number and caliber of female founders here in Seattle,” said Zhang, managing director of AI2 Incubator.
Seattle-area startups with at least one female founder collectively raised $540 million in 2023, according to Pitchbook. That rose to $730 million in 2024 — and it’s already surpassed $1.2 billion this year.
With this momentum, could Seattle support its own version of a women’s hacker house?
The New York Times last month spotlighted the Founding House Slavery Co-living Experiment in San Francisco, which gave eight young female entrepreneurs a place to live and a chance to support each other during the city’s AI boom. It’s part of a growing trend of newer AI-focused “hacker houses.”
Led by two University of Southern California students, the founder’s house quickly caught the attention of investors, held events with venture capital firms, and capped its run with a demo day this summer.
The concept resonated because the tech industry’s gender gap persists in the age of AI. A recent study by Russell Reynolds and colleagues found that 90% of CEO and top technology roles at AI companies in the US are held by men.
Startups led by female founders, meanwhile, continue to receive a small sliver of total venture capital invested in the region.
Founder’s House is on hiatus this summer as its leaders head back to school. However, there are plans to expand the initiative to San Francisco and New York.
Miki Safronov-Yamamoto and Anantika Mannby, who started the house, grew up in the Seattle area. They told GeekWire that Seattle is on their radar for a possible expansion.
Similar female-focused spaces are visible in Seattle’s tech community.
“Tune House,” launched in 2015 by mobile marketing company Tune, provided free housing, mentoring, and resources to women studying computer science at the University of Washington. It operated for a number of years as a year-long cohort, but is no longer active.
Riveter was launched in 2017 as a women-centric space for female founders and professionals, but closed its physical space during the pandemic.
Seattle is also home to the Women Founders Alliance , which began in 2017 as a community supporting women and non-binary entrepreneurs and has grown into a national organization run by Seattle-based venture capital firm Graham & Walker.
Leslie Feinzaig, founder of FFA and managing director of Graham & Walker, said she would love to see more physical startup spaces in Seattle — and especially more women-owned spaces.
Feinzaig noted that the main challenge for any space is cost and operational complexity. “No one should be building a business off the backs of early-stage founders charging,” she said.
This could be the right time for a new physical space with the ongoing AI boom.
Seattle’s new AI home , Startup Hub, has been hosting meetups for groups of female founders, and dozens of women attending the meetup would share advice and support each other.
A supper club and community have also emerged from the gatherings. “It’s truly incredible to stand in a room full of brilliant, innovative women tackling some of the toughest problems in their industry — and choosing to lean on each other as they grow,” said Audrey Yun, AI Home Manager.
AI House also partners with ADA Developers Academy, which trains underrepresented individuals in the tech industry.
Geekwire recently reported on the potential for Seattle’s startup ecosystem to blossom in the AI space.
Safronov-Yamamoto praised the “great talent” in Seattle, though she also noted the region’s well-worn reputation as a corporate tech hub.
“It’s definitely big tech in Seattle and startups in San Francisco,” Safronov-Yamamoto said. She said entrepreneurship in Seattle “goes against the grain.”
Mannby noted the energy in San Francisco, especially with younger entrepreneurs. “It’s not that unusual to have a 17-year-old running a $100 million business,” she said. At the same time, she sees the potential for that momentum in her hometown. “I definitely want to see Seattle, on a personal level, flourish as a startup community,” she said.
Maybe a hacker house or two could help.
“Building a startup is incredibly hard,” Feinzaig said. “And I think strong communities make the journey much less lonely and collectively much more successful.”
