The next Seattle? No way. But here’s how Tacoma can get tech jobs for its college grads
If they’re good, David Hirschberg’s students almost always leave. To make a living in the growing tech industry, those who study under the RAIN incubator CEO and University of Washington Tacoma professor — who has previously worked at Stanford and Columbia — have to go elsewhere.
Sometimes, they end up in Seattle or Bellevue. Other times, it means Silicon Valley or Austin or Denver. What they’re very rarely able to do — even if they want to — is stay in Tacoma or Pierce County.
That’s the problem we need to solve.
“I export my students,” Hirschberg said last week. “They get jobs, but unfortunately they usually get them in Seattle or the Bay area or the East Coast. So that’s my frustration ... and my motivation.”
Like a lot of places, Tacoma has spent a lot of time talking about how to grow its aspiring tech sector. In the shadow of the Emerald City and the behemoth Jeff Bezos created there, it’s an equally understandable and fraught conversation. While it doesn’t take a self-proclaimed disruptor in a black turtleneck to see the benefits of trying to capitalize on the economic promise of tech, there’s also legitimate concern about what that might entail. Simply put, the high-paying jobs and regional economic impact that tech promises are hard to deny, but — at least from here in T-Town — what Seattle has become looks fairly miserable.
If tech is a future worth pursuing, there has to be a different way, many Tacomans — including this one — would argue. That’s why the straightforward dilemma Hirschberg underscores — which can sometimes get lost in the noisy debate about what the city’s future will look like — is worth focusing in on.
Tacoma doesn’t need to transform for the sake of transforming. Becoming Seattle shouldn’t be anyone’s goal. But to have an economy that works for everyone in this region, we do have to find a way to hold onto and authentically cultivate our own talent, before they’re forced to leave to pursue their dreams.
“It’s all here. We have it,” Hirschberg said of the talent and drive necessary to develop a homegrown tech industry in a way that aligns with Tacoma’s local values. “We just need to create the spaces where people can really work on something.”
So what does that actually look like and mean?
Hirschberg, and others working in the field, have plenty of ideas worth considering.
Amazon can’t save us
One of Pierce County’s biggest impediments, according to Hirschberg, is the appeal of the quick fix, at least among those in local government. If what we need is jobs, the easiest way to fill this void is to lure a massive tech company that suddenly realizes our underappreciated charms, or so the thinking often goes.
It’s as desperate as it sounds, but it hasn’t stopped us from trying in the past. In 2017, Tacoma made its play for Amazon’s second headquarters, coming up predictably short, like a host of other cities hoping to win the lottery. It’s also a misguided civic mindset that extends beyond tech; for every red carpet we’ve rolled out to the likes of DaVita or Russell, we’ve been made to look foolish twice over.
Hirschberg argues that we’ve got it all wrong. Peeking into local garages or sitting in beloved pubs, you quickly learn that Tacoma already has plenty of potential home-grown innovators, he says. All they need is their shot, and if we give it to them, Tacoma’s tech industry will grow organically, built off the people who know and understand how the city ticks.
It’s something the city — as well as those in the industry — are already trying to do, Hirschberg says, as evidenced by the tech incubator he leads and other similar efforts. He also believes it’s a development that should be accelerated, and every bit of energy and political capital that’s exhausted trying to woo an established tech giant to Tacoma or Pierce County could be better spent by elevating our own.
“Instead of hoping Jeff Bezos wants to come to Tacoma, I would really look around and see what’s going on here,” Hirschberg said. “There are a lot of small companies that are innovative and doing things, and what I would try to do is work with them and try to enable them to be more successful.”
Playing to our strengths
A big part of the equation, Hirschberg says, is recognizing the economic qualities Tacoma currently possesses. We have the Port of Tacoma. We have the military. We have people skilled in manufacturing. We have a number of universities, colleges and trade schools with the ability to train — or retrain — a growing workforce. While none of these things sound synonymous with tech at first blush, all of them possess elements that can translate in the industry or be leveraged to help it blossom, he says.
“I think what we need to do is really be authentic in terms of what our skills are in this area. We’re not going to set up a cancer research institute here, but we can easily train people to do that,” Hirschberg said.
As an example, Hirschberg pointed to a local manufacturer near his Tacoma office. The company once worked in aerospace but transitioned to weaponry years ago. Today, it uses 3-D design, which is a skill that has plenty of applications in tech.
“Those same machines could make ventilators. They could make any number of things, and those people have those skills to do it,” Hirschberg said. “We need to be freeing up resources to really get people experimenting and trying things, and then actually enhancing those things that are working.”
Cool factor
According to Don Morrison, the founder and CEO of the local co-working company Traction Space, one thing that cities where upstart tech companies flourish tend to have is a quality that can be hard to quantify: coolness.
If you find a city where tech startups are booming, chances are that city has focused on becoming a desirable place for young people to live and work. Things like public transit, vibrant nightlife and even restoring old buildings with potential all play a part in that, Morrison said.
Tacoma already has some of these attributes, he believes, and the ability to foster the others.
“The vibe of the city is super important to tech workers. You know, exciting, edgy, creative, offbeat,” Morrison said. “I would love to see more of that here.”
One thing that would help speed up the process of making Tacoma the kind of place young tech gravitate towards, he suggests, would be to dedicate an area of downtown — not unlike the brewery district — where Tacoma’s tech community could make a home for itself.
The ability for tech companies to work together in close proximity — in a place that’s been zoned and designed with their needs in mind — could pay serious dividends, he said.
Hirschberg agrees.
“It really starts from a nucleus,” Hirschberg said. “If we had a plan for where technology companies would come in here ... I think that’s really important to start something. And I don’t think I’ve seen a plan like that from the city.”
Government support
David Kirichenko is one of the students Hirschberg is talking about.
The son of Ukranian immigrants, and the first person in his family to attend university, Kirichenko grew up in Tacoma and Federal Way, then studied at the University of Washington and Princeton. But when it came time to find a job, he ended up working as a security engineering program manager in Seattle, even though he would have preferred to stay closer to home.
Like many, Kirichenko is frustrated by the slow pace of tech job growth in Tacoma, even if his recent experience makes him more critical than some. He’s heard the city’s leaders talk about supporting the local tech industry, but believes their actions — or lack thereof — undermine that goal.
Kirichenko, 24, says he’s seen how other cities in the region work collaboratively with tech leaders to understand the needs and demands they face. In Seattle, Kirichenko notes, the city has had a community tech advisory board since the 1990s, which draws from a wealth of local experiments to help inform city policy decisions. It’s an idea he’s been trying to sell in Tacoma since at least 2018, with little luck.
He finds the lack of interest baffling, in part because he believes it would help young people like himself find careers in Tacoma that would last.
“If you want to make a big jump in your career, you can’t stay in Tacoma forever. That’s the honest truth,” Kirichenko said. “So many people that I know (in Tacoma) are looking to leave. They want better jobs. They want higher pay. You find that outside of Tacoma, and that’s going to continue to be the trend unless we do something about it.”
As CEOs who have already spent decades working in tech, Hirschberg and Morrison take slightly different views, but largely emerge at a similar conclusion. Both agree that cultivating local tech talent and giving people the resources they need to succeed is crucial.
For his part, Morrison says existing local tech leaders should form an independent advisory committee that could then partner with the city to make Tacoma more hospitable to the industry,
Hirschberg, meanwhile, believes that area governments should focus on enabling people to lead tech growth in Tacoma, and instead of forming commissions or hiring consultants, spend those resources hiring tech liaisons at the city who have expertise in the industry.
“I would love to have technical wonks, so that on Friday afternoon, at two o’clock, if I call somebody and say, ‘Hey, you gotta check this out. This is really cool,’ they’ll jump, and say, ‘I’ll be down there in 30 minutes,’” Hirschberg said.
“Most of my geek friends do that. But I don’t have geek friends at the city.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
