Our latest spotlight on up-and-coming startups in Seattle covers a lot of ground — dog-influenced connections, shareable travel itineraries, personalized exam prep, and streamlined product reporting.
This regular series spotlights early stage startups that are getting off the ground with innovative ideas.
Read on for brief descriptions of each company — and a pitch assessment from GPT-powered “Mean VC,” which we prompt to offer both positive and critical feedback.
Check past Startup Radar posts here, and email me at [email protected] to flag other companies or startup news.
AceRocket
Founded: 2025
The business: Learning platform that helps high school students prepare for SAT, ACT, and AP exams through 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.
Mean VC: “AceRocket hits a timeless market with an AI-driven, adaptive prep system that could actually make standardized test study less soul-crushing and more effective. But the test-prep space is dominated by giants with brand trust, so unless you show radically better outcomes — or pivot fast when tests go optional — you’re launching into headwinds, not orbit.”
Boop
Founded: 2025
The business: AI-native social travel companion that automatically turns real trips into shoppable itineraries friends can copy, personalize, and book. Boop wants to create the world’s largest network of itineraries — connecting travelers, creators, and local businesses through personalized recommendations. Boop is backed by Bling Capital, BBG Ventures, and the AI2 Incubator, and just launched its public waitlist.
Leadership: CEO Nancy Li Smith is a longtime product leader with stints at Meta, Microsoft, and more recently BrightAI.
Mean VC: “Boop taps into the perfect intersection of social discovery and travel commerce, with a clear path to viral growth if itineraries truly feel personal and shareable. But unless Boop cracks retention and monetization beyond influencer sparkle, it risks becoming another glossy app people forget between trips.”
Dotted
Founded: 2025
The business: Automates product reporting by pulling live data from tools like Jira, GitHub, and Slack, turning it into leadership-ready narratives. Aims to replace slide decks, free product teams from manual updates, and give executives real-time visibility and control. Dotted is currently in closed beta is building out its B2B early access program.
Leadership: Co-founder Dunni Abiodun was a principal product manager at Axon, and worked at Amazon and Microsoft. Co-founder Eric Neuman spent nearly a decade at Microsoft as a software engineer. Former Microsoft director Jeremy Schreiber recently joined as chief commercial officer.
Mean VC: “Dotted smartly targets a universal pain point — turning scattered product data into clear, executive-ready updates without wasting a PM’s weekend on slides. But automation in reporting is a graveyard of ‘almost useful’ tools, and unless Dotted nails narrative accuracy and context, leaders won’t trust what it writes any more than what they already ignore.”
FurFriends
Founded: 2024
The business: Aims to help locals break the “Seattle Freeze” through dog-friendly social connections. The app organizes puppy playdates and events that help dog owners form real-world friendships. The company plans to launch premium subscription features and partnered with the Seattle Mariners earlier this year for a Bark at the Park event at Victory Hall.
Leadership: Founder Avery Morton is a former senior technical product manager at Amazon and was a product manager at Prodege.
Mean VC: “FurFriends cleverly uses dogs as social catalysts to thaw the ‘Seattle Freeze,’ tapping into a playful, emotionally resonant niche with real community stickiness. But unless you crack consistent engagement beyond the first tail wag, you’ll end up with more ghost towns than dog parks.”
