funding
Top Technology Companies Still Hiring During Recession
The other day I turned on the television and got chills down my spine, my heart started beating faster and I was over come with a certain degree of fear. It wasn’t a horror movie I was watching; it was the 10 o’clock news. The newscasters were describing the state of our economy and the job losses our nation suffered over the past few months. Once I came to the realization that it was just the news, I remembered not to trust everything reporters tell you. Yes, our economy is going through extremely rough times and the national unemployment rate is higher than it has been in a long time, but when they said it seems America is suffering from a nationwide hiring freeze – that’s where I tuned out.
Being in the Professional Search industry I tend to think our company has a better grasp as to what it going on in the marketplace than a reporter reading from a teleprompter. This is what I know: Companies are still hiring. Maybe not at the same pace as a year ago, but positions are still open for those aptly skilled and talented candidates.
Look at the technology industry for example, a sector hit pretty hard by the financial woes on Wall Street, certain companies within the tech marketplace have been able to keep their doors open to fresh new talent.
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Seattle is making its way up the list as one of the top VC funded areas.
Cnet had an article yesterday morning about the Web 2.0 Boom and was questioning if it was over. They attributed this to the amount of Venture Capitol funding going into Web 2.0 companies in the Silicon Valley, and that the numbers of funding has slowed.
Web 2.0 deals in the Bay Area actually dropped from 74 deals in 2006 to 69 last year and investments were down 3 percent from the $431 million invested in 2006. It’s clear that the real growth in the Web 2.0 sector is happening outside of the Bay Area,” Jessica Canning, director of global research at Dow Jones VentureSource, said in a statement
So if the funding for Web 2.0 companies in the Bay Area has dropped, where is the money going to? Seattle of course. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle is one of the nation’s largest growing areas for VC funding. According to the chart below the Pacific Northwest is ranked number 5 in amount of deals, but third in the amount of money invested for 2007 (7 deals and 105 MM more in funding than in 2006)
According to Seattle PI: The Pacific Northwest showed the fastest growth rate in investment dollars of the major venture capital regions.
I can definitely attest to the web 2.0 and funding activity taking place in the Seattle area. There are some incredibly bright and motivated people flowing out from Microsoft, Amazon and Experia and it’s only a matter of time before the next Facebook or MySpace or Web 3.0 company sprouts in Seattle. There are a lot of Round A funded startups with worlds of potential. I’d love to see a few of these guys hit it big.
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