Startup radar: Seattle founders tackle cooking, golfing, online shopping, and AI coding agents
From top left, clockwise: GolfGuiders CEO Richard Hussain; So-Me.ai CEO Zeynab Raeesy; Deglaze CEO Jacob Edelstein; and Insforge CEO Hang Huang.
From the golf course to the kitchen, we're back with another fun spotlight on up-and-coming startups out of the Seattle area.
This batch includes companies building a backend service for AI agents; a recipe, cooking, and meal-planning app; a platform for golfers; and a new way to shop for clothes online.
A big thanks to Jessica Kamada, managing partner at Swizzle Ventures, for providing the 'VC View.'
And this time, I'm also getting in on the fun with 'Taylor's Take' — my quick thoughts on each company are below.
Check out past startup radar spotlights here and email me at taylor@geekwire.com to flag other companies and startup news.
Deglaze
Founded: 2022
The business: Recipe apps aren't new, but AI is changing the game. That's the bet from Deglaze, which helps users organize recipes they collect from social media, cookbooks, websites, and more. It also taps into AI to provide guidance for meal plans, shopping, and cooking. The company has raised a small investment round.
Jacob Edelstein.
Leadership: Jacob Edelstein was CTO at Seattle fintech startup Copper Banking, and was vice president of engineering at Curalate. He also spent seven years at Microsoft. His co-founder Angel Azcarraga was CTO at Spotahome and held engineering leadership roles at Amazon and Microsoft.
VC View from Jessica Kamada: 'Deglaze is for the cooking/baking enthusiast who finds joy in the kitchen, but wants to make it as efficient as possible. Deglaze differentiates itself from other 'meal planning/cooking' apps in the productivity category like Ollie by leaning more heavily into the emerging category of niche interest communities (i.e. Auggie) with surprise & delight consumer features like 'cook mode' and a community feel where users can follow their favorite chefs. As a freemium app, the monetization at scale is a concern, but if they can monetize their cooking creator community of chefs, they may be on to something.'
Taylor's Take: I can see this being beneficial for a wide range of users — from those who just want to organize grocery lists and meal plans, to more experienced cooks who love following recipes. I've been using ChatGPT to help guide me when I cook — but would Deglaze be better? The app seems ripe for various revenue models, and this is an experienced founding team.
GolfGuiders
Founded: 2021
The business: A central hub for all things golf — social networking, golf course discovery, tee times, e-commerce, AI-powered assistance, and more. The company just launched its app and has a handful of revenue-generation ideas — including affiliate programs, trip planning, white-labeling, and more. It has raised $500,000.
Richard Hussain.
Leadership: Founder Richard Hussain is a longtime technologist who previously founded a healthcare startup. He was also a solutions architect at IT services company Denali.
VC View from Jessica Kamada: 'The golf industry exploded during COVID, as one of the few safe activities available. A new generation and diverse population was introduced to the game. With multiple new apparel brands (Malbon, Eastside Golf) making golf cool again, the modern golfer may be open to technology that supports their new hobby. The question is if GolfGuiders can grow the community large enough to evolve from a free app to a premium must-have golf companion.'
Taylor's Take: I'm a big-time golfer, so this one caught my attention. But I'm not sure what would make me stick around on the app, or get me opening it on a daily basis. Perhaps some gamification feature? There's also stiff competition from existing golf apps such as 18Birdies. I do like the idea of more specialized media and community networks that focus on a topic.
Insforge
Founded: 2025
The business: A back-end platform for AI coding agents. Insforge provides authentication, databases, storage, functions, real-time updates, and more — all optimized for AI agents rather than human developers. Users can create backend systems with prompts. The company generates revenue off subscriptions and has raised $1.5 million to date.
Hang Huang.
Leadership: CEO Hang Huang was a senior product manager at Amazon and earned his MBA from Yale last year. CTO Tony Chang was a software developer at Databricks.
VC View from Jessica Kamada: 'After foundational Gen AI models, Agentic AI is the next wave. As a consumer investor, I'm investing in companies that would be customers of Insforge. Our portfolio is building for a world where agentic APIs will interact with each other to complete a task on a consumers' behalf. Agentic infrastructure like Insforge will be paramount to teams reaching that future faster.'
Taylor's Take: This one combines a bunch of hot trends — AI agents, virtual coders, natural language commands, infrastructure, etc. If the current direction doesn't pan out well, feels like the company could pivot quickly given the nature of the product. Also loved the website — slick and simple.
So-Me.ai
Founded: 2025
The business: Personal shopping agent that learns the unique style, preferences, and behavior of a user. The software aims to turn tedious scrolling into a visual-first curated experience. The company is bootstrapped and is working with a small group of private beta testers.
Zeynab Raeesy.
Leadership: Founder Zeynab Raeesy spent more than seven years at Amazon in applied science roles. She also worked at Nuance Communications and VoiceBox Technologies as a research engineer and speech scientist.
VC View from Jessica Kamada: 'Consumer AI is in its 'Fun' era, and fashion/commerce enablement is having a moment. There is an obvious market opportunity in fashion search and shopping agents, as new fashion brands come online constantly, making consumers heads spin. However, new players are entering the market quickly with big investment behind them such as Daydream and Doji. The pie is likely big enough for multiple players. If So-Me can differentiate on agents that truly learn shopper personal taste, they can carve out a slice!'
Taylor's Take: Shopping for clothes online could really use a refresh, and perhaps AI will shake things up. I'm curious about the business model and whether this could be used as a white-label solution for online shops. If things go well, this could be ripe for an acquisition by a larger retailer wanting to offer customers a more personalized experience.
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