Rebecca Lovell: Civic Thought Leader Builds Bridges

[00:00:00] Jonathan Sposato: Hi, I’m Jonathan Sposato, owner and publisher of Seattle Magazine. Joining us today is my very good friend, Rebecca Lovell, a self described mission driven technology leader with over 15 years of experience supporting startups, investors, and innovators. She also happens to be a very accomplished public speaker with a passion for equity, education, and entrepreneurship.

[00:00:31] Jonathan Sposato: I’ve known her for well over 15 years where she has consistently been an intelligent thought leader and a mentor to emerging entrepreneurs in the tech space. She was recently an adjunct faculty instructor at the University of Washington in entrepreneurship. She was also an executive director at the Madrona Venture Group.

[00:00:51] Jonathan Sposato: Of a group called Create 33, which was a resource center and membership organization for technology startups. Before that she was with the City of Seattle, where she was the acting director in the Office of Economic Development. Currently, she is the Chief Operating Officer of the Greater Seattle Partners, one of the more understated but hugely impactful nonprofits advancing Seattle’s stature, which I want to tell the world a lot more about.

[00:01:20] Jonathan Sposato: Last but not least, I happen to know that Rebecca is one hell of a karaoke singer. I know a karaoke event will be amazing if Rebecca is on the mic. So welcome, Rebecca. 

[00:01:31] Rebecca Lovell: And Jonathan, it’s great to be with you and back at you. We share a deep and abiding love for karaoke. 

[00:01:37] Jonathan Sposato: I know it. I know it. When’s the next one?

[00:01:38] Jonathan Sposato: When’s the next, uh, geek, uh, karaoke? Wednesday 

[00:01:41] Rebecca Lovell: night, Geekorokie. Tonight, just a few blocks away at the Runaway. 

[00:01:44] Jonathan Sposato: Wow. I wish I could be there. I have to manage drum lessons for my 14 year old. So lots for us to talk about. Thank you so much for being here. Tell us first about What you’re doing now, which is you’re with the greater Seattle partners and what is so incredible about them.

[00:02:00] Jonathan Sposato: I, to be honest, not everyone out there listening knows about the greater Seattle partners. 

[00:02:05] Rebecca Lovell: Well, greater Seattle partners, I think, as an organization, our strength is our mission. We exist much like you do and Seattle magazine. to amplify this region, to market the region, to bring in great jobs and investment.

[00:02:20] Rebecca Lovell: And frankly, we haven’t told a great story about this region historically, which is one of the reasons that we came into existence about five years ago. 

[00:02:28] Jonathan Sposato: What was the foundation history like who started it and, and what group of people got involved? 

[00:02:33] Rebecca Lovell: Right? I do love an origin story. I think one thing that’s so special about how we’re positioned is that we’re a public private partnership.

[00:02:40] Rebecca Lovell: years ago, former Governor Gregoire, um, and many others. There’s kind of took a look at the landscape that is economic development and broadly sort of international engagement and found that compared to other regions, we had a really fragmented ecosystem and we’d under invested. In fact, for years, we’d kind of relied on our good looks, you know, and great jobs and great people just flock to this beautiful place.

[00:03:06] Rebecca Lovell: But we wanted to be more intentional about it. The world has changed in these past five years, but in the beginning, the way we were formed is we combined the existing sort of economic development entity that works on recruiting businesses here with a trade development alliance, which welcomes international delegations to that region.

[00:03:25] Rebecca Lovell: So you marry up those missions, those organizations, and we brought along our private sector partners and public sector partners. or partners who share this vision that when we’re intentional about bringing business investment here, we can actually more equitably distribute opportunities and prosperity.

[00:03:42] Rebecca Lovell: So that is why we exist. 

[00:03:44] Jonathan Sposato: That’s really cool. And, and I’ll segue to some other questions that I have about what, what is in store for you all for the rest of the year. Sort of vis a vis my own background, as most people know, I’m half Chinese, half Korean, and I actually didn’t get a chance to understand or know about the Korean side of my family.

[00:04:03] Jonathan Sposato: I didn’t even meet my birth father until I was over the age of 50. So that was about seven years ago. And the number of really interesting, successful, resourceful, hardworking Korean Americans in our region and their connectivity to family and friends in Korea, it’s been a whole eye opening thing for me to discover that part of my heritage.

[00:04:28] Jonathan Sposato: My understanding is that there is an upcoming trip that the Greater Seattle Partners to Korea. There’s a delegation. Tell us a little bit more about what that’s about. 

[00:04:38] Rebecca Lovell: And again, one of the reasons we exist is not just to tell the story, but to engage the world. And along with our partners at the Metro Seattle Chamber of Commerce, we do yearly, at least international leadership missions, right?

[00:04:53] Rebecca Lovell: So it’s really more than just kind of a business mission, but a. cultural exchange. And what we find is this region, you know, not just Seattle, but Tacoma and Everett and Federal Way, we both have a remarkable Korean American population and sister cities in Korea. So you can imagine that this group of folks, I think it’s over 60 now, includes leaders from the public sector, leaders from the private sector who find that we have so much in common with not just the sister cities, but the people in Korea.

[00:05:24] Rebecca Lovell: And we share with them, not just Histories and traditions, but key sectors. We have so much in common in terms of a commitment to innovation and the green economy, the creative economy, information technology, just to name a few. So it’s really an exchange of ideas. 

[00:05:42] Jonathan Sposato: Awesome. Awesome. And of course, the world is really small and it’s smaller than we always think it is.

[00:05:46] Jonathan Sposato: And so this, this, this sounds like just an exciting trip. I, I’m actually kind of jealous. I have a little bit of FOMO that, uh, that I won’t be able to be a part of it. You know, one of the things that I thought was most interesting about the work that you do is that you are always shining a spotlight on people doing really impactful things, people doing really great things.

[00:06:06] Jonathan Sposato: And they may be some of the more silent heroes that are not always visible, but you bring them to light. There’s this concept of an uncommon thinker. What is an uncommon thinker? 

[00:06:18] Rebecca Lovell: No, thank you for highlighting that. And when we talk about business attraction and investment at the end of the day, these are humans making decisions, not just in the moment, but a generational investment.

[00:06:30] Rebecca Lovell: And should they. Might they bring their company, their investment to the greater Seattle region? And what’s so important in that decision making is they need to see themselves in this region. 

[00:06:43] Jonathan Sposato: So 

[00:06:43] Rebecca Lovell: when we talk about storytelling, uncommon thinkers welcome very much centers the human. Not just the CEOs who, you know, bless you, there’s lots of ink spilled on what those very public figures are doing all day, every day.

[00:06:58] Rebecca Lovell: But how about the engineers who are, you know, the kitchen of any startup, uh, the founders who are the, the lifeblood of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. So finding those really unusual folks who are brilliant, who are innovative, who we might be just a little quirky compared to the rest of the world. And we lean into that.

[00:07:18] Rebecca Lovell: Our diversity, our quirkiness is a strength. So we love to tell those stories. And that’s certainly part of this mission to Korea and in every story that we try to tell about ourselves. 

[00:07:29] Jonathan Sposato: That’s great. I love it. We really are so mission aligned in many ways. You know, this number one that Seattle really is a world class city.

[00:07:37] Jonathan Sposato: We may not know it yet. And to tell that story is a real honor. And secondly, part of how we tell that story is. Elevating and shining a spotlight on some of these folks that, that are doing really great work and are thinking outside the box, uh, but are making a difference in, in, in raising our stature.

[00:07:52] Rebecca Lovell: Yeah. And it’s tricky. And you’re a storyteller as well. Um, we are going to go about this in a very different way than some of our other, uh, metro areas that are innovative, like a New York or a Bay Area. We haven’t, we’re not really beating our chest and, you know, we don’t have that sort of arrogance if you will, or we have a different kind of swagger where, you know, geeky is, is cool.

[00:08:13] Rebecca Lovell: Um, and, and we have this remarkable convergence of assets that very few other regions do. So finding a way to tell that story that’s authentic and we can be proud of that 

[00:08:25] Jonathan Sposato: without being boastful. 

[00:08:26] Rebecca Lovell: Right? 

[00:08:27] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, that’s exactly right. I mean, in many ways, I think of our late friend, Tom Allberg as a canonical example of that.

[00:08:34] Jonathan Sposato: That alternative kind of swagger, if you will, just, just, um, quiet confidence, uh, you don’t have to tell the world, you don’t have to shout to the world how great you are, uh, you just are. And, and, and that’s exhibited by the great work that you do. And, and, uh, it’s clear to me that you follow suit as well as your colleagues at Greater Seattle Partners.

[00:08:55] Jonathan Sposato: So, so let’s, you know, you are someone who is, you [00:09:00] Deeply connected to Seattle, which is one of the reasons, honestly, the main reason why I wanted to have you on the podcast. You are originally from Seattle. I believe you went to Garfield High School, but tell us where you grew up. 

[00:09:13] Rebecca Lovell: Yeah. So actually a tale of two cities here a little bit.

[00:09:17] Rebecca Lovell: Uh, you may not know that my early childhood was in Tacoma. Um, and so my parents are both art majors who found careers. My mom with clothing design, my stepdad as a general contractor. Uh, so I went to McCarver Elementary and then Jason Lee Junior High. And my mom had been doing this commute for 12 years.

[00:09:36] Rebecca Lovell: So we moved our family and I, I did go to Garfield High School. And so I’ve got kind of that Tacoma and Seattle roots going for me and I’m a proud Garfield Bulldog. I left the region, went to undergrad in the Midwest and worked. I worked in various industries, uh, in Chicago and Cleveland, and then by choice came back home for family and for this remarkable community.

[00:09:59] Rebecca Lovell: I went to grad school at UDEP, so I’m a bulldog and a husky. That’s right. That’s right. I 

[00:10:03] Jonathan Sposato: sort of glossed over the fact that you have a master’s in business administration at the University of Washington and I think a, an executive MBA from Harvard. Very impressive. Actually, I’m curious to know, what was Garfield like at the time?

[00:10:14] Jonathan Sposato: that time. 

[00:10:15] Rebecca Lovell: Oh, so now I’m dating myself, but we’re compadres, so yeah, so, so 1989 is when I graduated. Um, I was the only girl on the math team, so that may have been a little before geeky was as chic as it is now. Um, incredibly, you know, diverse community within Garfield, however, frankly, pretty segregated, right?

[00:10:38] Rebecca Lovell: I mean, there was a lot of a lot of swirl going on in the heart of the black community, uh, in the central district in Seattle, which continues today, right? Um, um, it’s, it’s evolved and, and some of the players have changed. I got a remarkable education at Garfield and not just excellent instruction, but one teacher every year who I [00:11:00] think changed the trajectory of my life, you know, tap me on the shoulder and awaken me to possibilities that weren’t even in my consideration set.

[00:11:08] Rebecca Lovell: Um, I’m grateful to them every day. I want to hear more 

[00:11:12] Jonathan Sposato: about that because part of what we ask many of our guests is an origin story or their hero’s journey from, from somebody who was maybe relatively unknown to someone who was a huge impactful impact player in the community or in the world. Tell us about that.

[00:11:27] Jonathan Sposato: This particular instance of a teacher making a difference. 

[00:11:31] Rebecca Lovell: Oh, my goodness. Um, Craig McGowan, our marine science teacher, just got us out there into nature in a really immersive way and gave us the tools to be really respectful of science, I think, in ways that I had never imagined I had. And it’s English teacher who informed my writing to this day, um, had another history teacher who encouraged me to run for office, you know, senior class vice president.

[00:12:00] Rebecca Lovell: Did you run? I did. All right. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So, so again, it’s these. Incremental nudges that I don’t know if any of them realize the impact they had on me, uh, and, and that would be just kind of a word to, to all of us who might not know that we’re inspiring or changing the trajectory of others lives, but having someone you respect tap you on the shoulder 

[00:12:22] Jonathan Sposato: and 

[00:12:22] Rebecca Lovell: encourage you to, to pursue, to push further, um, has made all the difference at every inflection point in my life.

[00:12:29] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, that’s really great. So about. Going back to Seattle, in your opinion, what do you love best? about Seattle that you feel like has always been present in our community, in our city. 

[00:12:42] Rebecca Lovell: I, I feel like we’re this beautiful mashup, and I’m not just talking about music, but let’s face it, that is a big part of what I think has drawn people here, music and art and culture.

[00:12:53] Rebecca Lovell: And it’s this almost, to borrow a concept from improv, it’s the yes and. Yes, we’ve got these entrenched spaces. Industries that you might think of as traditional, like maritime or logistics or real estate or manufacturing, and we have these innovative thinkers and cutting edge, bleeding edge technology and all of those forces converging into one, right?

[00:13:17] Rebecca Lovell: This history of hardware engineering and manufacturing and software engineering. We can become a leader in connected devices and augmented reality. You think about what we have in our backyard with, with AI. And how might that revolutionize the health care sector, right? So you’ve got the old and the new, um, the, uh, you know, the blue collar, if you will, and I celebrate that coming from that background, uh, yeah, with, with the academic and research institutions in our backyard.

[00:13:49] Rebecca Lovell: So in a very kind of small square area, we’ve got all of these assets coming together to make. Every one of them better. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

[00:14:00] Jonathan Sposato: here. Here. I agree wholeheartedly with that. Now, in your opinion, how has Seattle changed? 

[00:14:06] Rebecca Lovell: Yeah. So, you know, you and I were deeply engaged in the startup community.

[00:14:10] Rebecca Lovell: I think back to 2010. That’s right. Facebook now meta had literally two employees. That’s right. Right. And so you think just about the meteoric change from then to now where it’s not just it’s Uh, the Tale of Two Bills being, you know, Gates and Boeing and Amazon, of course. Uh, but we have over 80 engineering centers, you know, like your, your Metas, um, and your Googles who said, oh, gosh, like, let me set up shop here.

[00:14:38] Rebecca Lovell: That has completely changed the landscape of our population in many exciting ways. And at the same time, what we have found is that so many of the folks, communities of color, artists, musicians, who made this city in this region what it is, can no longer afford to live in the urban centers, you know, Seattle and Bellevue and what you see.

[00:15:02] Rebecca Lovell: And what we see is this dispersion, really kind of up and down the I 5 corridor, you know, people being displaced and, and moving and choosing to, to, to live in wonderful cities like Tacoma, uh, or Auburn or Everett. So I think we need to recognize that that has happened and be really thoughtful about the interventions that any one of us can run to ensure that everyone has.

[00:15:26] Rebecca Lovell: Right. 

[00:15:31] Jonathan Sposato: Rebecca, let’s talk about that and the shortage of affordable housing. Do you happen to have a position about what we should be doing more of? 

[00:15:44] Rebecca Lovell: So without having a formal policy position, let me just say that what we are facing as a region is a generational moment, like there’s a real opportunity here.

[00:15:57] Rebecca Lovell: And the first time in my long career in various forms of economic development for the last 20 years, we have empty space. That has not been the challenge that we faced or the opportunity that we’ve had in front of us. So. We can ask ourselves, What do we do with those empty spaces, whether it’s at the street level or office buildings in our urban cores around the region?

[00:16:22] Rebecca Lovell: We need to be intentional. Is housing a proper use? In some cases, it might be. Or how might we think differently about how to activate our downtowns? Um, what are the new industries that we can welcome in where we never had room before? What are our latent assets, our incredible workforce, and how might we bring opportunities closer to where they live?

[00:16:44] Rebecca Lovell: So that’s a roundabout way of saying that there’s a lot of moving parts in this equation. One might be transit oriented development. And when we think about this region’s massive investment, Some might say too little too late, but it’s like planting a tree right? Best time is 30 years [00:17:00] ago. Second best time is today.

[00:17:01] Rebecca Lovell: We are putting 54 billion into this light rail. What does it all mean? It’s not just transit, but what does that mean for the vacant camp? You know, spaces around those stations. How can we maximize ridership and really take advantage of this investment? How can we ensure that people can get to work? Right?

[00:17:23] Rebecca Lovell: So there’s a combination of what does housing look like around transit? What do jobs look like close to where people live? So they don’t have to drive 45 or 60 minutes into that great job that that is available to them. So It’s going to have to be a lot of those things. It’s workforce development and economic development and housing investments, you know, are all part of the same story.

[00:17:48] Jonathan Sposato: Now, now, that’s great. And I knew you would have big thoughts about this stuff. Do you happen to know what some of the biggest barriers might be to getting this stuff moving forward or accelerated? 

[00:18:02] Rebecca Lovell: It’s such a complex. Rich tapestry of stakeholders that we have here when we consider, you know what to do with these assets.

[00:18:11] Rebecca Lovell: And I remember back to my city of Seattle days when we we talk about what is the ideal use or outcome of this asset. I’m talking about an empty building. That’s right. Building that could be redeveloped. Imagine building Who’s got a stake in this? It could be various industries. It could be neighborhood groups.

[00:18:33] Rebecca Lovell: It could be the small business community. It could be the labor community. It could be municipalities or ports, developers, landowners. So we’re talking about six or seven categories of people who have different desired. Outcomes. So I don’t ever see a silver bullet, but I think the most important thing to do, whether it’s in our lane at G.

[00:18:58] Rebecca Lovell: S. P. of economic development or folks who are, you know, in planning is to a set a table in a really thoughtful manner and be listen. Right? I mean, we all have our own opinions. Everyone might end up being a little upset about the outcome, but you have to start with a listening tour. When it comes to placemaking, um, and community building, it is a very long story arc, you know, and, and conversations we had.

[00:19:30] Rebecca Lovell: Eight years ago, about what might we do with these incredible industrial lands are now coming to fruition in terms of policy, and you know what? It could be another 10 years from now that you see the implementation, right? So when I say long story arc, that is no exaggeration. So in this longer story arc of how we ensure that our policies are Are matching pace with innovation and meeting the needs of all of these stakeholders across these communities.

[00:20:00] Jonathan Sposato: Very good. Since nothing is all good or all bad, we touched on the impact of the tech community on Seattle as it’s grown and how it has caused a lot of, um, upwards pricing pressure on, on, on affordable housing and, and we have to Think about how we solve those things. You have been quite a real steward within the tech community, you know, when we first met, and you’ve done so much since that time as well.

[00:20:28] Jonathan Sposato: And you have made a transition as I have recently from tech to sort of broader non tech segments. Um, when. Catalyze that transition for you. 

[00:20:39] Rebecca Lovell: So if, if we look at the story arc, talk about a long story arc of my own career, it’s a bit of a corkscrew. And so going back to when we graduated college, I have worked in private sector, public sector, for profit, nonprofit and academia, right?

[00:20:57] Rebecca Lovell: So I’ve kind of bat for the cycle, if you will. And while I have spent a lot of time and energy and so much of my passion still lives with technology and startups, that hasn’t necessarily been the through line of my career. I would say it’s always been, at least since I sort of found my calling, the through line has been, how might I make an impact?

[00:21:21] Rebecca Lovell: Um, how might I. I use whatever my superpowers are in service of equity, whether it’s gender equity, race and social justice, access to opportunity, access to capital. If you, if you sort of connect the dots between when we first met and all of my side hustles, whether it’s teaching or board service and the day jobs that I’ve said yes to, I’d like to think that I’ve made incremental shifts.

[00:21:48] Rebecca Lovell: In the last 20 years, but that accrues to me being a generalist on a mission. 

[00:21:55] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Yeah. You know, sometimes I get asked, what are your top three philanthropic causes? Um, usually that’s in the context of someone asking me for money, but that’s okay. It does. It’s a forcing function for me to think about what, what is really.

[00:22:08] Jonathan Sposato: the most, what are the most important things to me? What if I was to ask you with no subtext of asking, you know, what are your top three philanthropic beliefs causes? 

[00:22:17] Rebecca Lovell: Well, I’ll tell you one thing, I have a filter for things that I say yes to. And my filter has gotten a much more finely tuned since becoming a parent.

[00:22:26] Rebecca Lovell: So, um, so the filter that I use is one, uh, Can I contribute something valuable to this organization? Two, uh, will I learn something that’s interesting? And three, and I never compromise here, does it align with my values, right? And then if I had corollaries, four and five would be, it has to be at least as interesting as my day job.

[00:22:49] Rebecca Lovell: Or better than sleep because I’m not going to compromise on time with my daughter. So that becomes, you know, that narrows the aperture pretty significantly compared to what I might have done early career. But I spend most of my volunteer time now in the tech and startup and entrepreneur community. I have served as chair and now board of advisors for Washington, D.

[00:23:12] Rebecca Lovell: C. based Center for American Entrepreneurship. So there we focus on really federal policy to lower barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and some really exciting legislation that’s actually, I think, going to change the investor base in a really, um, really powerful way. We won’t change what investment looks like until we change who’s doing the investing, right?

[00:23:34] Rebecca Lovell: So that’s something that I’m passionate about. I have. Always said yes to opportunities to coach entrepreneurs was along with T. A. McCann. I think the, uh, the mentor that was with, uh, TechStars since we launched here in 2010 through recent announcements and also have been engaged. in Graham and Walker, formerly known as the Female Founders Alliance, in coaching entrepreneurs.

[00:23:57] Rebecca Lovell: So that is a tremendous point of passion for me. The latest thing I said yes to, um, because it checks all the boxes, is a grassroots national organization called Right to Start. And kind of like the Center for American Entrepreneurship that really focuses on how can we ensure that Everyone has access to entrepreneurial opportunity.

[00:24:17] Rebecca Lovell: We’re working at the sort of local and regional level to lower barriers to entrepreneurship. So I just said, yes, I’m the ambassador now for Washington state for right to start. So super excited about that. 

[00:24:29] Jonathan Sposato: That’s great. Thanks for sharing all of that. I love. If you’re thinking or you’re filtering how you narrow the aperture, as you put it, in terms of what you say yes to, that, that is really something I think a lot about, and I think you and I talked about it in the past, how as, as you become a little bit more, um, more mature.

[00:24:46] Jonathan Sposato: You can say it. Yeah. I would say just perhaps more, well, in my case, definitely old, but not more mature necessarily. Um, but, but, you know, you become a parent or whatever, or, Are your reasons you really do have to prioritize and you cannot say yes to everything and it does seem like that on the one hand I feel very as I know you you do to your grateful and have a humility and and for anybody like that who has reached a certain amount of visibility you feel grateful that people ask you.

[00:25:16] Rebecca Lovell: Absolutely. And it’s a privilege too. And I don’t believe I would have earned that opportunity without saying yes to so many things early on. Like I, for decades, love to play in traffic and serendipity has always been my best friend when it comes to opportunity. So saying yes to a lot of things, figuring out where I can actually make an impact has enabled me to Narrow the aperture, but still get invited to those opportunities, right?

[00:25:44] Rebecca Lovell: That’s right. 

[00:25:45] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, yeah, that, that’s one of my first, uh, criteria also can’t, can I add value? And if, and if I can’t, then respectfully, probably you should ask someone else who’s going to be better and you’re going to be happier with that someone else anyway. So anyway, I love the way that you’ve thought through that.

[00:26:00] Jonathan Sposato: And it’s interesting to hear about the other organizations that you’re involved with. You sound very busy. If I, if I was to sum up a theme for you. You’re kind of here in this universe to activate and enable other really great people to reach their potential. That is my favorite thing to 

[00:26:18] Rebecca Lovell: do, whether you call it, you know, force multiplier or capacity building, it’s like it goes back to the beginning, you know, of my early career days and having those incremental nudges, having someone be a champion for you.

[00:26:31] Rebecca Lovell: I feel like it’s just so powerful. 

[00:26:33] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, totally. What are you most proud of in your distinguished career? Yes. 

[00:26:39] Rebecca Lovell: I have Always loved teaching. That’s sort of a one to many opportunity, uh, to, to make an incremental difference in people’s lives. And frankly, it’s always helped me stay on top of my game. Like, there is no better way to become a subject matter expert than having 30 to 70 really smart students asking you tough questions.

[00:27:02] Rebecca Lovell: So I’ve loved that. I am, I think, most proud, though, of the, I stopped counting a few years ago, but I think it, It was about 2, 500 entrepreneurs that I had coached or mentored. And I am particularly passionate about working with women, with people of color, with communities that have been underestimated, overlooked, underinvested, and trying to help people find their voice and own their story.

[00:27:30] Rebecca Lovell: That is what’s most meaningful to me. 

[00:27:33] Jonathan Sposato: Now, someone like You, who has done well more than 10, 000 hours, perhaps over 100, 000 hours of mentoring, and you see these amazing individuals whom you’ve mentored succeed, not all of them, but some. Is there a, an observable sort of pattern? Are there certain critical success factors that you as the mentor can kind of, you know, Pick out earlier on before success happens.

[00:28:04] Rebecca Lovell: Goodness. Um, and thankfully with so much data, you can see some patterns. There’s a special blend. I think of confidence and humility that I see in my favorite entrepreneurs where you, of course, you know, have that grit and determination and passion that Everyone’s written about and enough humility to listen, right?

[00:28:26] Rebecca Lovell: This goes back to the listening tour. Um, you don’t have to take all the advice that you get from mentors. You don’t want to chase the shiny object that is every customer’s need, but being a really active listener and sort of startup terms. Call it product market fit, you know, you might not. Oh, you probably don’t have that out of the gates.

[00:28:46] Rebecca Lovell: And so you have to have the confidence to be willing to iterate on it and the humility to listen to and incorporate that feedback, right? So it is a pretty magical blend. When I think about, um, you know, folks Who’ve been incredibly successful, Manny Medina, you might not necessarily and you might not necessarily say he’s a humble guy, but I will tell you this, like he would be the first to acknowledge that when he was launching at Techstars, he’d say he was bottom of the class, like they were really struggling to make it.

[00:29:23] Rebecca Lovell: And as he was going around pitching investors, they were having such a hard time sort of tracking their sales conversations. Um, and one investor, I think, leaned across the table and said, Okay, but what’s, what’s that thing? What are you using to enable your sales? And that’s where outreach came from. He listened to that feedback, pivoted massively, had the humility to say, Wow, was I wrong?

[00:29:50] Rebecca Lovell: But all of those other assets along with his co founders and an incredible team to build a unicorn business. Uh huh. That’s right. 

[00:29:57] Jonathan Sposato: Really good. Really good stuff. Do you feel like that balance between humility and confidence, uh, the ability to pivot and be, and listen to feedback that may change your whole course and you have to admit like, boy, was I wrong?

[00:30:11] Jonathan Sposato: And, and you go in a different direction. Do those kinds of things trump the Conventional beliefs of what what makes a great startup entrepreneur. Does it? Does it trump, um, you know, really great, uh, technical or engineering prowess? Does it trump raw intellectual horsepower? Does it trump persuasiveness?

[00:30:34] Jonathan Sposato: Because you’re always, you know, convincing people to jump on board. What do you think 

[00:30:38] Rebecca Lovell: my personal opinion is that, um, emotional intelligence and resilience are so critical. Um, and, and I’m not saying I’m an example of that, but I will tell you one of my strengths is hiring people that are better than I am.

[00:30:55] Rebecca Lovell: at the thing that they do, probably better than I am at the thing that I do. So, so having again, the confidence to say, I can surround myself with really smart, talented people. Uh, and I’m not threatened by that. I embrace it. I celebrate it. I amplify it. Um, I see actually great founders and CEOs doing that every day.

[00:31:13] Rebecca Lovell: So being able to be self critical, have really good self awareness, and then, you know, the confidence to fill those gaps with great. Partners, that to me is the formula. 

[00:31:26] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah, right on. Who do you admire in our community? 

[00:31:31] Rebecca Lovell: Oh, goodness. I mean, the list is long. Trish Malines DiZico has been just an inspiration to me and just sort of thinking about her career path and just little nuggets that she shared with me in the community of her own journey and challenges.

[00:31:50] Rebecca Lovell: She’s just remarkable. I remember when 

[00:31:53] Jonathan Sposato: she and I were both sitting at Microsoft together and when she decided that she would leave. To retire, quote unquote, it was sort of in vogue during a certain time when a lot of us were of a certain age, you hit a certain stock price. We were all very lucky. We had that lottery ticket, and a lot of people decided I’m going to retire with no idea of what that meant.

[00:32:17] Jonathan Sposato: But Trish had no idea. Very clear idea of how she wanted to give back. She really didn’t think it was right that that she wouldn’t put herself in a position to give back to the rest of the community. And I admired a hell out of her for that, because precisely because we were we were quite young at the time, and she had that maturity and that prescience.

[00:32:36] Jonathan Sposato: So, um, just always have loved her for that. 

[00:32:39] Rebecca Lovell: Yeah. And so, and, and you know, most of my role models are women. Mm-Hmm. And there, there is, you know, some data that suggests that, you know, we need to see ourselves in our role models. And I’m, I do not hundred percent see myself and, and Trish, she’s quite remarkable.

[00:32:54] Rebecca Lovell: But, you know, if you’re a podcast one another two hours, we could talk about in all the folks in this community that Yeah. That I admire. 

[00:33:00] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Yeah. So, so I’m gonna, we’ll flip it back to, to you in, in this way, since you do so much mentoring, what advice. Would you have for your younger self? 

[00:33:11] Rebecca Lovell: Oh, wow. It took me a long time to find my own voice.

[00:33:19] Rebecca Lovell: And I think, I suspect, like so many of us in our 20s, and certainly for me into my 30s, I really wanted to blend and I just wanted to fit and, you know, you’re talking to, right, the mathlete from Garfield from the late 80s who, who didn’t look or speak or act like anyone else. And I spent a lot of time trying to blend.

[00:33:39] Rebecca Lovell: I literally gave myself an ulcer in my 20s when I was working in industrial supply distribution, was the youngest and only woman. In that management training program, and I just wanted to sound and be like the other folks. My body rejected it. My whole being rejected, you know, the need to blend and fit in.

[00:33:59] Rebecca Lovell: And so, I flipped that a little bit and started to ask myself, you know, why do Blend in when you can stand out and I will say that I don’t believe it’s coincidental, perhaps even causative when I really discovered my love for karaoke. That was a literal journey of finding my voice and developing my confidence and deciding that it’s okay to have a quirky personal brand and be a little bit different.

[00:34:25] Rebecca Lovell: Well now karaoke is like the not so secret, not so guilty pleasure of the entire tech community. But you and I were there first, right? We got the t shirts. We were there. We were there. Speaker. 

[00:34:33] Jonathan Sposato: Speak. Rebecca, there was a time when there were people who were not believers in how fun karaoke was. I mean, the common refrain, you know, you’re at a dinner party, hey, let’s go sing some karaoke.

[00:34:46] Jonathan Sposato: People are like, um, what are you nuts? You know, we’re not going to do that, but now, of course, it’s, it’s, um, uh, much more popular, but, uh, yeah, yeah, you were there right at the beginning. Of that. Yeah. 

[00:34:59] Rebecca Lovell: Well, and I, I have a bush garden to thank for that. Right. So they are, they were, and they will be back. I believe we’ll be back.

[00:35:06] Rebecca Lovell: Yeah. Longest running carry karaoke join here. And, you know, uh, being Jewish on Christmas Eve, my brother and I would head the Chinese 

[00:35:15] Jonathan Sposato: restaurant connection. I love they’re 

[00:35:16] Rebecca Lovell: going to be open. And what an incredible welcoming, diverse community. That’s like the microcosm. I think of Seattle’s best version of itself.

[00:35:25] Jonathan Sposato: What is your favorite favorite place of all time that you’ve ever karaoke’d at? 

[00:35:29] Rebecca Lovell: Well, that 

[00:35:31] Jonathan Sposato: one holds a very 

[00:35:32] Rebecca Lovell: special place in my heart, but I will tell you this. In the last decade or so, I have found what I’m sure is old news, rockaroki, which is getting to perform in front of a live band. And there is no consistent place to find that, but it’s like, follow the band, follow the, you know, uh, and, and I’ve gotten to do that in Atlanta, gotten to do that in Portland, um, at the Screwdriver here in Belltown.

[00:36:00] Rebecca Lovell: So wherever there is rockeroke, I will be there. 

[00:36:03] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Yeah, that’s cool. My, my, my, my, I developed my love for karaoke actually, some years in advance of it being popular in the West because I was doing a lot of business in Japan. And, um, I’m not Japanese as I disclosed earlier. I’m half Chinese, half Korean with kind of a Japanese ish sounding last name.

[00:36:24] Jonathan Sposato: It’s actually Italian American. Uh, that’s a long story that we won’t tell here. For some reason, my white bosses at Microsoft back in the day would always go, Jonathan, can you get on a plane and be in a meeting, uh, next Monday morning to meet with these Sony executives and talk to them about X, Y, and Z.

[00:36:42] Jonathan Sposato: And I’d be like, go to Tokyo . 

[00:36:44] Rebecca Lovell: Yes, please. Uh, yes, please. You, I put a lot to unpack there, but you get to go a lot to unpack. 

[00:36:48] Jonathan Sposato: But, but you know, I, I probably at the time didn’t have the language to kind of go, something doesn’t feel right about this, but I’m just gonna go with it. Uh, obviously younger people listening out there would be like, Jonathan, you need to, you should have said this.

[00:37:00] Jonathan Sposato: You know, right there and then, but I was happy to go to, but, but I was arguably sort of a Japanophile, uh, and that’s not uncommon growing up, uh, sort of a poor kid in the streets of Hong Kong, you know, watching anime and, and reading imported Japanese, uh, manga, um, you know, I was into that stuff and, um, and so still are, still are.

[00:37:23] Jonathan Sposato: That’s right. Yeah. Um, so. My point is that I, I loved being taken out by, uh, these, uh, uh, Japanese shot shows, these businessmen, these CEOs. And I was kind of like the young American kid that they delighted and sort of making fun of. And they would always challenge me. That was like some sort of litmus test doing business over there back then anyways, like in the late.

[00:37:47] Jonathan Sposato: So I am in full disclosure, a few years older than you. So I did it. graduated college in 89. And so I was doing business, you know, in Japan in the early nineties. And I remember that was like this litmus test, like, you know, let’s bring the American guy, you know, the American guy who doesn’t speak Japanese, let’s take him to the diviest karaoke bar.

[00:38:07] Jonathan Sposato: And over there at the time, it was not performance oriented. There was no stage. It’s literally like there’s these different tables. You’re sitting there having your drinks, maybe eating your edamame or a snack and a microphone passed around and people, it was kind of an odd thing to get used to. You would just sing at your own table, sometimes to no one, if you’re just drinking alone, sometimes to just your friends.

[00:38:31] Jonathan Sposato: When you’re done, the whole restaurant claps, but they’re not watching you the whole time. They’re just carrying on having their own. So kind of something, uh, in terms of the dynamics of it was, was really interesting to get used to. But I learned to just, what have I got to lose? You know, I am the American guy, the young guy that’s here to sort of have some fun.

[00:38:50] Jonathan Sposato: So I kind of leaned into that role and really developed my own, uh, uh, karaoke persona. 

[00:38:55] Rebecca Lovell: And in fact, in my opinion, that is the biggest success factor in karaoke. And that’s why I submit to you that karaoke can be an equalizer if that’s where deals are getting done versus on the golf course. So then there was this kind of trend around the poker table.

[00:39:10] Rebecca Lovell: But karaoke. Most of your success is in selling it. Second after that is song selection. That only leaves maybe maximum 10 percent for talent. So if you can sell it with conviction, you choose the right song, one that you can sing, and when reading the room, one that’s going to resonate with the audience.

[00:39:29] Rebecca Lovell: You’ve got yourself a hit. 

[00:39:30] Jonathan Sposato: That’s right. I think that’s a beautiful way of putting it, of kind of breaking down the percentages there. I think there’s also something really beautiful about watching someone who may have, well in my case, way less than 10 percent talent and you’re right. Like maybe it’s song selection.

[00:39:46] Jonathan Sposato: Maybe it’s. You know, just kind of pulling off something with a little bit of confidence, and then that signals, I think, to your business colleagues, Well, you know, that guy doesn’t or that guy doesn’t take themselves too seriously, right? They can they can let their hair down, and they’re secure enough to know that they can look a little foolish.

[00:40:06] Jonathan Sposato: And that’s and I think that that is ultimately a positive thing. It’s a signal. 

[00:40:10] Rebecca Lovell: It ties back to successful entrepreneurship. That’s right. So many common threads here. Yeah, 

[00:40:16] Jonathan Sposato: that’s exactly right. That’s exactly. So I have to ask what, what are your favorite go to songs now? It’s been a few years since you and I’ve been shared the stage together, but what are your go to songs?

[00:40:25] Jonathan Sposato: It’s been 

[00:40:25] Rebecca Lovell: a minute. So if you’re reading the room, you want to select your songs kind of based on the vibe. As I mature, that’s become more like, what am I in the mood to sing? And so my classic go to had been Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes, but I have since added. Um, Ellie King and Adele and Rihanna, Aretha Franklin is a standard, Joan Jett, um, so, so many hits.

[00:40:50] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. Yeah. Joan Jett, who has quite a nice connection to Seattle, by the way. My 

[00:40:54] Rebecca Lovell: daughter’s middle name is Joan. I’m not saying it’s after Joan Jett, but, you know. 

[00:40:57] Jonathan Sposato: Yeah. My go to songs have really changed [00:41:00] too. It used to be a lot of kind of old standards, yeah, Bee Gees, you know, 70s stuff. But now, can’t resist Joon Kook.

[00:41:07] Jonathan Sposato: BTS. K pop. Now that’s kind of like, that’s just, you know, me sort of channeling my inner Korean guy or something. So anyway, you’ll have the band back together. Yeah. Absolutely. That’s right. That’s right. Okay. So what are you working on now? And how can we all help? 

[00:41:23] Rebecca Lovell: One of the things that that gets me up in the morning is both getting to cheerlead for this incredible region and thinking about how we run some of the interventions that we discussed earlier.

[00:41:35] Rebecca Lovell: Like what might we do to live our values of equitably shared prosperity? So the mantra that we have right now is, Bringing jobs to people and connecting people to jobs. It sounds really simple, but it’s a way for us to be laser focused and looking at again, communities of color where there’s some incredible talent.

[00:41:58] Rebecca Lovell: What can we do to bring great jobs there? And I will tell you this, as much as a nonprofit, it’s our job to do that. Public sector partners. It’s their job to do that. What really wins the hearts and minds of businesses choosing to locate here is other leaders in the private sector saying, You know what?

[00:42:16] Rebecca Lovell: This is a great place to live and work and raise my kids and invest. And when Companies, investors, people see themselves in that community. We need the private sector to step up like so many of our partners have. And so showing up for those conversations and really embracing the idea, uh, not of scarcity, but that, you know, classically it’s a rising tide raises all ships and I’ll go full maritime with that pun, but, but own it.

[00:42:44] Rebecca Lovell: Um, private sector has a role. And, and we’re so thankful to the leaders who’ve said yes already to engaging those in those conversations. And so many more leaders out there have superpowers that they might not even be aware of. 

[00:42:59] Jonathan Sposato: That’s really great, Rebecca. I just want to thank you on behalf of our readers and on behalf of Seattle Magazine for being here today.

[00:43:05] Rebecca Lovell: Thanks for having me. 

[00:43:08] Jonathan Sposato: Thanks again for listening. Please check out recent episodes with award winning author Daniel James Brown, author of Boys in a Boat, high profile legal expert Anne Bremner. CIFF CEO Tom Mara and Artistic Director Beth Barrett. We’ll see you again next time.

[00:43:30] Jonathan Sposato: Thank you for listening to the Seattle Magazine podcast. You can always find us on seattlemag. com. Look for new episodes approximately every two weeks on our website. A special thank you to the entire Seattle Magazine staff and to podcast producer, Nick Patry. Contact Lisa Lee at lisa at seattlemag.com for partnership opportunities.

[00:43:54] Jonathan Sposato: Until next time, let’s keep celebrating Seattle.