Tonight I attended the UW CSE Annual Industrial Affiliates Meeting.

As I walked around, I bumped into familiar faces close to the UW CSE and Startup communities.   I asked people “how are we doing on entrepreneurship coming out of the department?”  Surprisingly, feedback from 3 people very close to the issue was “we’re not doing too well.”  Common themes:

1. Infrequent interaction between entrepreneurs, venture capital and the university
2. UW CSE department seems to measure itself on students who progress into academia (vs. go off and start successful companies)
3. Sense that Seattle’s community shuns failure

Wow, that’s depressing!   But, if true, how can we overcome it?

At dinner in front of everyone, I had the chance to ask a panel of local VCs, “What are things we can do to advance entrepreneurship between the UW CSE and the Seattle community?”

Here’s a summary of responses (note:  I’m paraphrasing very briefly from my limited iPhone notes)

• Cameron Myrvold, Ignition -  the problem is cultural; compared to the silicon valley, historically the best people went to big companies vs. starting companies, and failure is still shunned.
• Bill McAleer, Voyager Capital - we need to do things that increase the risk tolerance.  Things like the UW business plan competition helps
• Ron Howell, WRF Capital – everyone in the community needs to show up at events and actively participate
• Mark Ashida, OVP – agreed that the problem is cultural.  In the silicon valley (where he worked for years) it is considered a positive career step to venture out of big companies and okay to fail vs. here where it is perceived as a negative.  We need to work to change that perception
• Greg Gottesman, Madrona - we need to catalyze entrepreneurship, and he and Madrona are working on that, via a Y Combinator or Tech Stars type program currently under discussion, which will be sponsored by area VCs and involve industry veterans.
• Ed Lazowska, UW CSE – over the last 12 years, there has been positive change and progress and we need to continue that.  The notion of an organization like Y Combinator here in Seattle is an excellent one that people should support

What do you think? Does Seattle have a cultural intolerance of failure that stifles entrepreneurship?  And what are some concrete things the community can do to encourage entrepreneurship coming out of UW CSE?