We asked Seattle startups about the economy and its impact on their business – GeekWire

Tech startups are impacted by the shaky economy. But some are feeling it more than others.

That was the takeaway from our conversations Tuesday evening at a BBQ in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood hosted by the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

We asked startup leaders the same question: On a scale from 1-10, how impacted is your business by the ongoing economic uncertainty — 1 being no impact at all, and 10 being the most severe impact.

Vikram Chalana, CEO of PictoryAI, a Seattle startup that helps content creators and marketers make short-form videos

Number: 1 or -1

Reason: “People have quit their jobs and they want to be independent and entrepreneurs. Being a creator seems like a great opportunity. Being a coach or a teacher seems like an awesome opportunity. That drives our licensing. Every user pays us a certain amount to make and edit videos.”

Erin Green, Jason Maddocks, and Dave Siegfried of LOANtuitive, a Seattle startup that runs a commercial real estate debt marketplace

Number: 8

Reason: “The biggest impact for us right now is runway. It’s been dramatic. But our business, it still has strong fundamentals. We are in an industry that does well in economic [uncertainty].”

Ivan Liachko, CEO of Phase Genomics, a Seattle DNA analysis startup that sells sequence kits

Number: 3

Reason: “I’m in biotech. Biotech has generally done pretty well [in downturns]. We are a little unique. We’re supported by sales and grants; we’re not supported by VC money. We’ve been all right.”

Yifan Zhang and Adam Stelle, co-founders of Loftium, a Seattle startup that lets homeowners rent out space in their home

Number: 8

Reason: “There’s a positive side and a negative side. The positive is that we’re in affordable housing. Affordability is the biggest issue. We’re seeing huge demand. But from the macro-perspective, there’s housing costs, the housing market, cost of capital.”

Joe Golden, CEO of PerfectRec, a Seattle startup that develops personalized recommendation engines for electronics

Number: 2

Reason: “It’s a bad environment to be raising funding. But we’re self-funded. We are hiring. We’re just building our product for now. We just need people to be shopping and buying stuff.”