For one, they’re all friends of UW CSE. But the real answer is that they’re among the Puget Sound Business Journal‘s “15 in 15: Here’s who to watch in 2015.”
“He may not be a household name, but Etzioni is a force to be reckoned with. Years ago, he developed and sold the technology Bing Travel uses to find fares, and then went on to found Decide.com, which was acquired in 2013 by eBay. In fact, Etzioni has co-founded six startups, all of which have been acquired. He’s currently the CEO of Paul Allen’s artificial intelligence research group, a professor at the University of Washington and a venture partner at Madrona Venture Group.”
Read more here.