— Rad Power Bikes co-founder Ty Collins has stepped down from the rapidly growing e-bike startup. Collins, who was chief marketing officer, is now in an advisory role and remains close with the company, participating in onboarding and calls with senior leadership.
“I spent six wonderful years building Rad and grinding in the startup lifestyle and was simply just ready to be able to go to the park on a weekday with my wife and kids,” Collins told GeekWire.
Collins launched the company in 2015 with founder and CEO Mike Radenbaugh when they raised $320,365 in an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The duo won Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the GeekWire Awards in 2019. Prior to Rad, Collins was a senior account executive with marketing data platform Velocidi.
The pandemic has spurred huge demand for Rad’s e-bikes. The Seattle-based company is profitable and raised a $150 million round earlier this year.
“As for what’s next, I am dedicating an unknown amount of time to being with my family, I am sure the startup life will suck me back in at some point,” said Collins.
The company’s chief revenue officer, Jed Paulson, will oversee marketing efforts with Collins’ departure.
— Washington Research Foundation (WRF) CEO Ron Howell will be retiring at the end of April after 29 years leading one of Washington state’s largest private foundations. WRF CFO Jeff Eby will be acting CEO until a new leader is announced.
“I love that I met so many great innovators and was able to learn about interesting science and engineering, then think creatively about its role, its value, and how we could help,” Howell said in a statement.
Washington Research Foundation was founded in 1981 by Tom Cable, Bill Gates Sr. and W. Hunter Simpson. The organization supports life science and technology through grants, commercialization, and licensing technologies from universities and other nonprofit research institutions. University of Washington, for example, has earned more than $445 million in licensing revenue through WRF.
During Howell’s tenure, the organization expanded from primarily intellectual property management to include grant-making programs and a venture investment arm, WRF Capital. The organization’s assets grew from $13 million to $300 million.
“Under Ron’s leadership, WRF has thrived and dramatically expanded its mission,” said Cable. “…Thanks to Ron, WRF is on very solid footing as it moves forward with a primary focus on the support of life-science-related technologies.”
— Expedia Group added SoftBank deputy general counsel Patricia Menendez-Cambo to its board. She fills a vacancy created by the resignation of longtime board member A. George “Skip” Battle. Read the story.
— Seattle-based sales and marketing analytics company Marchex promoted Leila Kirske as its new CFO. Kirske joined Marchex in late 2020 as SVP of finance and administration.
Prior to that, she was CFO at health tech company 98point6. She has also held executive finance roles at Seattle startups Tune, Simply Measured, and EMC’s Isilon division.
— Saad Syed, the former VP of engineering at Azure Core, has left Microsoft and will join Stripe as head of reliability serves and business continuity.
Syed spent 20 years at Microsoft and was a founding member of Project RedDog, which would go on to become the company’s cloud computing service Microsoft Azure.
— Clothing rental service Armoire announced Kristin McNelis as its first CMO. McNelis was also the Seattle startup’s first customer when it launched.
Based in Boston, McNelis was most recently a senior director at Drinkworks, a joint venture of AB-INBev and Keurig Dr. Pepper. She was a classmate of Armoire co-founder and CEO Ambika Singh at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
“As Armoire’s first customer in 2016, I intimately understand the unique solution that the clothing membership provides to busy, boss lady women who want to look good wherever their crazy lives take them,” said McNelis.
Armoire landed funding in January from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and others.
— Immersive entertainment company Hunt A Killer expanded its board, adding three new members:
- NextLevel Partner and Hunt A Killer CFO Allyn Hebner.
- American Licorice Company CEO John Kretchmer.
- Discovery Inc.’s former VP of Digital Growth Yasmin Moorman, who is also joining the company as its chief business and operations officer.
Founded by Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith, the company offers monthly subscription boxes that deliver stories, clues, correspondence, interactive tasks and more in the pursuit of helping to solve a crime. Based in Seattle and Baltimore, Hunt A Killer reported over $50 million in revenue last year and is expanding its digital offerings and delivery formats.
