Nick Hanauer is one of the most successful entrepreneurs, investors, and managers in the Pacific Northwest with over 30 years of experience across a broad range of industries including manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, digital media and advertising, software, aerospace, health care, and finance. He is a co-founder and partner of Second Avenue Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm that provides management, strategy, and capital for early stage companies. 

Hanauer’s experience and perspective have led to an unusual record of serial successes. He has managed, founded or financed over 30 companies, creating aggregate market value of tens of billions of dollars. Some of his notable successes include Amazon.com, Aquantive Inc., (purchased by Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion), Insitu Group (purchased by Boeing in 2008 for $400 million), and Market Leader (purchased by Trulia in 2013 for $350 million). He has helped found or manage a portfolio of companies across a diverse array of industries, including Marchex, Newsvine, Qliance, Seattle Bank, and Pacific Coast Feather Company.

At the same time, Hanauer, a self-described “proud and unapologetic capitalist,” has become a leading critic of modern economic policy. He is now one of the world’s most provocative thinkers about our society’s growing inequality and the dire consequences that increasing inequality creates for our democracies. His political organizations include Civic Ventures, Civic Action, the League of Education Voters, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and he was one of the first advocates for a $15 minimum wage. 

Hanauer has been featured in a variety of publications and is a frequent commentator on politics and economics in the media. His opinion pieces have been featured in the New York Times, Bloomberg Business Week, The Atlantic and Democracy Journal, among many other publications.