Our recent spotlight on Seattle’s up-and-coming startups covers a lot of ground — dog-influenced connectivity, shareable travel itineraries, personalized test prep, and streamlined product reporting.
This regular series spotlights early-stage startups that are getting off the ground with innovative ideas.
Read on for a brief description of each company — and a pitch evaluation from GPT-powered “Min VCs,” which we solicit for both positive and critical feedback.
Check out past Startup Radar posts here and email metaylor@geekwire.comTo flag other companies or startup news.
Established: 2025
Business: Learning platform that helps high school students prepare for the SAT, ACT and AP exams with personalized daily practice. Uses AI and an adaptive question engine to tailor each learning path to a student’s performance. The bootstrapped startup has served more than 200 beta users and plans to expand its pilot program later this year.
Leadership: CEO Dong Zhang Spent three years at Amazon as a Machine Learning Scientist and two years at IBM as a Data Scientist.
Average VC: “AceRocket hits a timeless market with an AI-powered, adaptive prep system that can actually make studying for standardized tests less soul-crushing and more effective. But the test-prep space is dominated by giants with brand trust, so unless you show radically better results — or pivot quickly when tests become optional — you’re not winning, you’re not getting in.”
Established: 2025
Business: AI-native social travel companion that automatically turns original trips into shoppable itineraries that friends can copy, personalize and book. Boop wants to build the world’s largest travel network — connecting travelers, creators and local businesses with personalized recommendations. Boop is backed by Bling Capital, BBG Ventures and AI2 Incubator, and has just launched its public waitlist.
Leadership: CEO Nancy Lee Smith Meta is a long-time product leader working at Microsoft and most recently BrightAI.
Average VC: “Boop taps into the perfect nexus of social discovery and travel commerce, with a clear path to viral growth, if itineraries are truly personal and sharable.
Established: 2025
Business: Automate product reporting by pulling live data from tools like Jira, GitHub, and Slack, turning it into lead-ready narratives. Aims to replace slide decks, free product teams from manual updates, and provide executives with real-time visibility and control. Dotted is currently in closed beta developing its B2B early access program.
Leadership: Co-Founder Dunni Abiodun Spent nearly a decade at Microsoft as a software engineer and manager. Co-Founder Eric Newman Was a principal product manager at Axon and worked at Amazon and Microsoft. Former director of Microsoft Jeremy Schreiber Recently joined as Chief Commercial Officer.
Average VC: “Dotted smartly targets a universal pain point — turning scattered product data into clean, executive-ready updates without wasting the PM’s weekend on slides. But automation in the report is the graveyard of ‘almost useful’ tools, and unless the accuracy of Dotted’s descriptions of nails is more convincing than what they already write in any context.
Established: 2024
Business: The goal is to help locals break the “Seattle freeze” through dog-friendly social connections. The app organizes puppy play dates and events that help dog owners build real-world friendships. The company plans to introduce premium subscription features and earlier this year partnered with the Seattle Mariners for a Bark in the Park event at Victory Hall.
Leadership: the founder Avery Morton Was a former Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon and Product Manager at Prodigy.
Average VC: “FurFriends cleverly uses dogs as a social catalyst to melt the ‘Seattle freeze,’ tapping into a playful, emotionally resonant niche with real community tightness. But if you don’t crack consistent engagement beyond the first tail wag, you’ll end up with more ghost towns than dog parks.”