Longtime Amazon executives are using lessons learned from their time on the tech team to help grow new companies at Jelly Collective, the new startup that’s popping up in Seattle.
Jelly joins a list of other similar companies in the Seattle ecosystem, including Pioneer Square Labs, Madrona Venture Labs, Conduit Venture Labs, TF Labs and Mudita Studios.
Many of these organizations are small internal teams that test different startup ideas before building a full-fledged company. This structure can support early start-ups and reduce risk for entrepreneurs who are hindering innovation.
Jelly’s founder, Stacy Saal, is a 13-year Amazon vet who leads teams working in delivery, drones and other businesses.
Sal told GeekWire that Amazon’s DNA runs through Tire.
Citing Amazon’s guiding principle of “customer care,” Sal said, “We are 100% of the customers who have problems.”
Gelly has three other former Amazon employees – Lauren Kappel, Garth Meader, and Sara Utepka.
“We are the majority of Amazon. And this is a big fraud for us from a cultural point of view.” It’s aligning the culture and sharing the same language.” Amazon, or previously at the company.
Jelly’s first spin-off, a home care startup called Para Home Services, named former Amazon executive Ben Spencer as CEO.
Sal left Amazon in 2021, then held leadership positions at Babylon Health, Fabric and Glydways to start Jelly in part to help women and non-traditional entrepreneurs to launch startups. “People who are good at solving problems and building ideas into products and products of companies that aren’t your techies don’t want to spend years surfing the net and eating Ramen Uptown ,” Seal said.
Jelly is considering hiring outside investors to run operations—for example, hiring Spencer as CEO of Waste Home Services—and its own staff to lead the way, Amazon leadership.
The lab focuses on industries including consumer technology, health/wellness and enterprise computing.
Startup labs can provide a lot of lateral support to CEOs and take the first steps of building a company. But one of the accusations is that there is too much justice in their revolution.
Saal did not reveal how much money Jelly will receive. If foreign investment increases, the shares will be divided between foreign investors, the company’s employees and Jali itself, he said.
“Every company and team is different,” he said. “Time, company quality and market conditions help determine financial needs, value and performance. We focus on creating stable, high performing companies that are loved by customers and value as an outcome.”
Jelly is self-funded and has not used outside investors for its operations or spin-offs. They recently launched a fund on AngelList that allows the studio to raise money as needed.
