[koji]

I've worked both in the Valley and in Seattle, and in my experience the startup mentalities have been pretty much the same. There may be a lot of former MS people working at the startup, but they don't seem to have any attachment to it. If iOS or Android are where the numbers are, that's where they go. I've also never met a startup in Seattle solely focused on developing something for MS, although there probably are some that exist. Whatever trend you saw in the northwest previously must have changed, from my limited perspective.

[BlakePetersen]

You are probably correct in that the trend has changed. My feeling is that it may be that the companies we do business with are a bit more established and they may still be subject to the decisions made during a trend-phase that doesn't really make financial sense to step away from and build again from scratch, but if those decisions were made now, it may be taken in a different direction.

But the fact that they no longer have such a strong foothold in their home turf is a bit concerning for MS I'm sure. That's why I was curious to see whether there was any effort on MS's part to change their approach and invest more in grassroot business building that will establish those long lasting relationships with brands that will be both valuable and recognizable in the future.

[koji]

They are doing some things. They sponsor some startup events, and try to get people to use Windows Azure (which is actually quite nice) to compete with AWS (also Seattle). However, I think the reputation of Microsoft as the "Big Evil" is pretty hard for them to overcome. I think people tend to roll their eyes at them when they try to get into the startup space.

That being said, the other giant here, Amazon, seems to be doing just fine with their reputation.

Employees from both companies are common in the startup land here, having jumped ship to go on their own.