When Joe Nguyen left his role as director of the Washington State Department of Commerce at the end of last year, it wasn’t because he was done fighting for the state’s economic development. He just was ready to do it in the place that drives so much of it.
As the new president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Nguyen has come home to that place.
“When you look at this state, and you look at the ecosystem that is Puget Sound, we are the economic engine for Washington state, that is just unquestionable,” Nguyen told GeekWire. “Right now we’re at a very unique moment with federal actions impacting us, state actions impacting us, local actions impacting us. Being able to focus on this region was important.”
A former state senator who represented Seattle’s 34th Legislative District, Nguyen is a Seattle University graduate and tech veteran who held leadership roles at Microsoft and Expedia.
He spent just a year in his Commerce role, but says he’d grown worried about a “divide” happening between state legislators and the business community.
“We have fantastic values in Washington state, but you have to pay for them somehow,” he said. “If you don’t have a thriving ecosystem, if you don’t have economic development, if there’s a tension between the business community and the political community, nothing works.”
Focusing on the Seattle area where he was born and raised and where he lives with his own family was important. He credits his success and that of his family to the economic opportunities they found in Seattle.
“I really want to make sure that that is available for the next generation as well,” Nguyen said.
GeekWire caught up with Nguyen to learn about his priorities with the chamber; the state of Seattle’s economy; competition in the age of AI; and more.
On the “fragile” Seattle economy: Nguyen acknowledges that gross domestic product growth in King County continues to be very strong, but economic output is highly concentrated in the technology sector.
“I am cautiously optimistic, because I do really think that we have a great thing going for us, but the fragility of our economy is very real,” Nguyen said.
He said almost 100% of the growth in the Seattle city budget since 2019 is largely JumpStart, the payroll tax that targets large businesses to fund affordable housing and more. He credits about 10 companies — including one very large one — with fueling JumpStart.
“When you have that high of a concentration on tax revenue from a key sector in a key industry and really a key company, that makes it risky for us as a whole, because if they even move away a little bit, that would have a big impact on the budget,” Nguyen said. “So even though Amazon stock prices might be up, even though they may be growing, if they aren’t growing here, that can be a problem.”
On regional competition and Bellevue’s AI rise: The ability of Seattle’s cross-lake neighbor to attract a huge Amazon presence as well as engineering hubs for more and more companies (OpenAI, xAI) does present a cautionary tale, in Nguyen’s view. While shared prosperity overall is a good thing, he thinks companies are making decisions to grab office space in Bellevue in part because of policies enacted in Seattle historically.
“When you still have access to talent, and all you have to do is go across the bridge and it’s significantly cheaper and more friendly, that certainly says something,” Nguyen said. “Tax policy is one, but even the rhetoric is another.”
Nguyen applauds the work that is being done to drive success and economic growth in Bellevue. But he said Seattle is still the foundation for a lot of the magic that is happening.
“Being wanted is a positive thing, and we’re very lucky,” he said. “We have a legacy and history of success. I just don’t think that that should be taken for granted. And right now, it feels like tech is simultaneously vilified but also asked to be the giver of all the things at the same time. And there certainly can be a better way for us to engage.”
On engaging the tech community and supporting startups: Nguyen points to Seattle’s AI House as a prime example of how to better engage with the startup community. The state and the city both chipped in funding and the space run by AI2 Incubator on Seattle’s waterfront is thriving as a gathering spot for AI experts, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and builders in Seattle’s AI ecosystem.
“The fact that you go from a concept a couple of years ago now to that beautiful space that they have on the waterfront … you have to actually hustle and go for that. You need to have the community actually rally around that,” Nguyen said.
He views the 145-year-old chamber as a convener or bridge for forging such relationships. And with his unique background as a tech veteran and as a legislator, Nguyen thinks he can further help enlighten the community on how to work together.
“Even if you’re uber-progressive and you want to tax the rich, you need to have rich people to tax,” he said. “We are competing on a global stage, our companies are competing on a global stage, and we’re very thankful and we’re very lucky to have these companies here, and there’s a lot of reasons for them to be here and why we’re better than other places. But again, that’s not a guarantee.”
On Seattle vs. Silicon Valley: A lot’s been said about how San Francisco is winning the AI race. Some Seattle startup founders are even relocating to the Bay Area to try their luck in that region’s boom times.
Nguyen appreciates Seattle’s “low-key” approach when it comes to hyping companies and products.
“We just have a different personality,” he said. “When you fly into SFO and you get an Uber and you go downtown, every single billboard is a new tech company pitching you. We don’t really do that here. So I think our culture and our ethos is a little bit different.”
In Silicon Valley, Nguyen says the goal is to make it and sell your tech company, spin off a venture capital firm, do some private equity, and then try to reinvest in the next big thing.
“Our culture is very different. We do philanthropy, we try to serve our communities. We try to help,” Nguyen said. “We’re very fortunate to have great opportunities and strengths here. I just think that we need to double down and make sure that people know that.”
On future policy priorities: Economic development strategy is top of mind for the chamber, and new areas of the tech startup community are a big focus.
“Whether it’s clean tech, whether it’s AI, whether it’s quantum, there’s gonna be a whole host of things in that space — even the space economy is gonna be a big deal for us as well,” Nguyen said. “We’re probably going to make strategic bets around specific industries and what resources we need to be successful in that place.”
