Ben Gilbert

Co-Founder / Co-Host

2015 - Current

Acquired tells the stories and strategies of great companies.

Venture Partner

2024

General Partner + Managing Director, PSL Ventures

2021 - 2023

Pioneer Square Labs is a startup studio (PSL Studio) and $100m early-stage venture capital fund (PSL Ventures). We partner with entrepreneurs to co-found, build, and invest in market-defining technology companies based in the Pacific Northwest.

Co-Founder

2015 - 2021

Board of Directors

2017 - 2020

Interim CEO

2017 - 2018

Taunt was a startup launched by PSL as a meta-game you play with your friends while watching esports and streamers. Taunt was used by millions of viewers and thousands of streamers around the world.

Co-Founder, Madrona Venture Labs

2014 - 2015

A startup studio within Madrona Venture Group. I worked on finding new ideas, initial customer development to gain traction, and doing the engineering work for iOS apps (Objective-C) and web apps (Ruby on Rails). Companies launched: Mighty Ai (acq. Uber), ReplyYes (acq. Nordstrom).

Head of The Garage

2013 - 2014

The Garage is the place for grassroots innovation at Microsoft. It is where a community of over 35,000 hackers and makers come together to work on side projects, prototype new ideas, and build with others across the company. The program hosts hackathons, Garage Weeks, Science Fairs, Stay Late and Code events weekly, and has local chapters across 20 locations worldwide. I was responsible for leading and growing the program.

Program Manager, Office for iPad

2012 - 2013

I was the Program Manager on the user experience team, shipping version 1.0 of Office for iPad. I was responsible for designing and delivering a variety of features, including: - Search Experience - Ribbon and Galleries - "Create New" Experience - Product Activation & First Run Experience - Text Selection UX - Word Ruler

Co-Founder

2013 - 2013

Red Ride was an early attempt to be the Kayak of ride sharing, aggregating ride sharing services such as Uber, Sidecar, Car2go, and other options into one app. I was specifically responsible for creating the iPhone app.

Co-Founder

2009 - 2011

Products: SeizeTheDay, Zero. Both were iPhone productivity apps. SeizeTheDay was released in July of 2010 and was downloaded over a million times. It was featured by Apple as "New and Noteworthy" and was Time.com's "App of the week". I designed the app, and co-developed the iPhone client. Zero was released in July of 2011, and was downloaded over 200,000 times. It was featured by Apple as "New and Noteworthy" as well as "What's Hot". I developed the Python cloud syncing service based on an open source CalDAV implementation, and worked with a designer to design the app.

Program Manager Intern - Office Web Apps

2011 - 2011

I worked with developers, testers, and members from teams across the organization to design and spec functionality for the Microsoft Word Web App.

Solutions Designer – CoTweet

2010 - 2011

Business development, Javascript hacking, design, lead qualification, and project management.

Telepresence Exchange Test Engineer

2009 - 2009

I worked as a software design engineer with an emphasis on testing automation. I gained experience in test case management working with agile tools such as Rally. I developed testing frameworks and automated test cases using Java, and Selenium RC to ensure functionality of scheduling web interfaces for Telepresence Exchange. I also conceptualized, designed, and implemented an automated Linux build deployment and testing infrastructure using Python, Maven, JBoss, and SVN.