Derek Young and his inevitable connection to Exit133...

The voice behind Exit133, Derek Young, stopped by to tell us that he wishes to not be umbilically connected to his blog forever...but with this blog, it is set in stone! (Evil laugh inserted here)

Now to be serious...

Derek Young is the mind behind, as said above, Exit133. This hyper-local blog of Tacoma and its communities has been a voice in the city since 2005. With over 5,000 unique hits a week, according to Young, it is constantly growing and retaining readers in the immediate Puget Sound area and has also got national and worldwide attention. Aspects of the blog have stemmed into other businesses which Derek has started such as Suite133, a small business collaboration office which is open to new and small companies looking to move out of the home office. Another new company which Derek has been working on is Seasonal View. Seasonal View focuses on bridging the gap between companies which have a difficult time communicating with one another. Another major focus of Seasonal View is call center management. With many companies wanting to outsource, just as many are wishing to return stateside and gain back customer loyalty. The flexibility of the businesses that Seasonal View works with internationally is also shown by how broad and far between employees are from it's home in Tacoma. With managing workers in places as far away as Miami, Seasonal View has national appeal.

Derek Young mentioned something that truly took me by surprise for how successful his previous and current ventures were shown off to be. Every one of the businesses was bootstrapped, not a single investment dollar taken in for development of the companies so far. This is completely different from any other speaker and a welcomed refresher in how businesses can be started. As I have questioned nearly all the speakers this year in relation to finances this quarter, Derek just pointed out that Exit133 is run off just advertisement money, the basic web financier. 

Bruce Kendall

The CEO of the Pierce County Economic Development Committee. A mouthful of a title for sure.

Bruce stopped by to drop off some of his vast knowledge of the current economic opportunities in the area of Pierce County. Through the EDC and personal business ventures, he is pushing for proactive retention and recruitment of primary jobs in our area. He is hopeful in bringing more businesses that are looking to build up in areas close to where employees already reside. This includes companies which are yet to have been built and those looking for a new home in the Puget Sound area. He hopes to bring in more defense contractors and corporate headquarters into the area as well. Some of his ideas for retention and partnerships are key in making sure that Puget Sound businesses are flourishing in his examples.

All of what Bruce Kendall is trying to accomplish is what we in the Puget Sound should be focusing on. We have the "big five" (Aerospace, Clean Tech, Information Technology, Life Science, and Logistics and International Trade) that he spoke on that are constantly growing in the immediate area of Pierce County. But will these be the "big five" in ten years? Twenty years? We have to make sure that fluidity is a key component here and that we understand nothing in business is concrete. Not even twenty years ago who was focusing on information technologies and clean tech as a major industry? No one that thought it would take off.

The world is changing everyday.