Former Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman co-founds an AI-native company in Seattle

Glenn Kelman, who led Seattle real estate company Redfin as CEO for 20 years before leaving in January after its acquisition by Rocket Companies, has co-founded a new company. Writing Friday in a first-person essay, Kelman said he and his business partner will announce their plans after they have built their product. He described it as an AI-native company in Seattle, in an industry where he has no prior experience.

During 10 months of unemployment, Kelman wrote, he met people about becoming a high school teacher, a Whistler bagel shopkeeper, a candidate for the state legislature, the founder of a tree-planting nonprofit, the CEO of a pre-IPO company and a project leader for Sound Transit. Early on, a CEO recruiter told him Seattle's startup scene was "dead." "At least for me, the logical response to all this has been to start an AI-native company in Seattle," he wrote.

He set up meetings with potential co-founders, shared ideas before they were ready and used AI to turn those ideas into products so he could see what worked. "Many of us are in transition because society is in transition, with AI hollowing out big companies and making it easier to start new companies," he wrote. Kelman has also joined venture firm Greylock as an executive in residence.