Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of July 12, 2026.

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Most popular stories on GeekWire

Seattle indie hit ‘Stardew Valley’ is coming to ‘Magic: The Gathering’

Stardew Valley, the blockbuster farming sim from solo Seattle developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, is coming to Magic: The Gathering via a three-part Secret Lair drop from Renton-based Wizards of the Coast — with original pixel art from Barone himself. … Read More

Tech Moves: Former Amazon exec joins F5; Microsoft security CVP departs; Qualtrics adds leadership

F5 names former Amazon executive as its chief people officer; Rudra Mitra departs as a Microsoft CVP after more than 27 years; and Qualtrics adds leaders. … Read More

AWS EC2 and AI leader Dave Brown to exit, replaced by Amazon exec and Microsoft vet Dave Treadwell

Dave Brown is leaving Amazon Web Services after nearly 19 years, departing at the end of July for a new role outside the company. … Read More

Grunge meets slop: An AI time traveler visits 1992 Seattle when music, not tech, ruled the city

The AI-generated video is an interesting study in how technology that’s very much being built and hyped in Seattle can be used to illustrate what the city sort of looked like more than three decades ago. … Read More

Apptio co-founders reunite to launch enterprise AI startup Thira with $21M in funding led by Madrona

Apptio co-founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer launched Thira, a Bellevue-based enterprise AI startup, with $21 million in seed funding led by Madrona. … Read More

JPMorgan Chase bets on Seattle to build its AI control layer

JPMorgan Chase is building out a new AI software infrastructure team, with a major presence in Seattle, focused on running AI across its data centers and outside providers in a way that controls costs, protects its intellectual property, and avoids tying its fortunes to any one vendor. … Read More

Tech Moves: Remitly CMO departs; Temporal names EVP; Veeam and Qualtrics leadership changes

Rina Hahn leaves role as Remitly’s CMO; Temporal promotes Preeti Somal to EVP amid reorganization; and Veeam and Qualtrics make leadership changes. … Read More

Departing AWS exec Dave Brown is reportedly joining Meta, as Facebook parent mulls its own cloud

Dave Brown, the senior AWS executive whose departure Amazon announced this week, is joining Meta to work on its data center build-out, according to a Wall Street Journal report. … Read More

As General Fusion makes historic Nasdaq debut, report shows global funding surged to $4.5B

General Fusion’s stock is trading up after it became the first fusion energy company to go public on a major exchange, debuting Monday on Nasdaq. … Read More

Venture funding drops in Seattle area as AI boom reshapes startup world

Seattle-area startups raised $2.7 billion in the first half of 2026, down 40% from a year ago, even as U.S. … Read More

Current AI, a non-profit building AI that leaves no one culture behind, has made remarkable progress across devices, AI chat and more.

Elizabeth Stone is the Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) at Netflix, where she oversees Engineering, Product, and Design. Since her first appearance on the podcast two years ago—which remained my second-most-popular episode for more than a year—she has expanded her role to lead product, in addition to engineering. Before Netflix, Elizabeth was VP of Science at Lyft, Chief Operating Officer at Nuna, an economist at Analysis Group, and a trader at Merrill Lynch.

In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:

1. Why “systems thinking” is now the most important skill she looks for

2. How to manage the flood of AI-generated output without losing quality or signal

3. How Netflix thinks about AI fluency as a universal expectation rather than a level-specific skill

4. What “excellence as an operating system” means

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Brought to you by:

WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: https://workos.com/lenny

Mercury—Radically different banking, now with Command: https://mercury.com/command?utm_source=lennys&utm_medium=sponsored_newsletter&utm_campaign=26q3_brand_campaign

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Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/netflix-cpto-on-ai-and-the-future

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Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0

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Where to find Elizabeth Stone:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-stone-608a754

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:25) AI and role confusion: the storming phase before the forming phase

(07:36) How roles have changed in the past two and a half years

(11:55) Will functions survive? The case for craft specialism

(13:26) What Netflix is hiring more of—and less of

(17:22) Why systems thinking is the rising skill across every function

(20:20) Is the design process dead?

(22:08) Skills trending down

(28:33) AI fluency and Netflix’s career ladder overlay

(31:00) AI use cases beyond coding

(35:12) Netflix’s AI history

(38:36) Excellence as an operating system

(41:11) The pillars of the excellence OS

(46:41) The keeper’s test—and why it’s mostly a positive conversation

(50:21) Attracting top talent in the age of frontier AI labs

(52:54) Junior talent, craft mastery, and the mentorship question

(56:25) Where engineering goes in 5 to 10 years

(59:45) The future of entertainment: beyond film and TV

(1:02:18) AI in Hollywood: Netflix’s creator-enablement position

(1:06:15) Lightning round and final thoughts

—

Referenced:

• How Netflix builds a culture of excellence | Elizabeth Stone (CTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-netflix-builds-a-culture-of-excellence

• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach

• The design process is dead. Here’s what’s replacing it. | Jenny Wen (head of design at Claude): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-design-process-is-dead

• Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-code

• Claude Cowork: https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-cowork

• Netflix’s “Keeper Test” and Why You Need It | Lorne Rubis: https://www.highlights.lornerubis.com/2015/08/the-netflix-keeper-test-and-the-courage-to-take-it

• Innovation for Filmmaking, By Filmmakers: Why InterPositive Is Joining Netflix: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/why-interpositive-is-joining-netflix

• InterPositive: https://weareinterpositive.com

• Netflix Prize: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize

• Quarterback on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81482895

• The Bill Simmons Podcast on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/82186214

• Spencer Pratt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spencerpratt

• Salman Rushdie’s Substack: https://salmanrushdie.substack.com

• Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81911351

• Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com

• Tour de France: https://www.letour.fr/en

—

Recommended books:

• Thinking in Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557

• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster: https://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0385494785

• Liar’s Poker: https://www.amazon.com/Liars-Poker-Norton-Paperback-Michael/dp/039333869X

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com



Download audio: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/205675851/497b10441135a842dbe35a6891de72bb.mp3

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