The Eastside’s movers and shakers came out to Bellevue’s Hyatt Regency Inn on March 29 to honor the winner’s of this year’s Eastside Business Awards.
Former Bellevue Chamber of Commerce Chairman David Masin served as MC.
“The Bellevue Chamber is a champion of the free enterprise system, where people with big ideas can realize their dreams,” he said to start the ceremony.
This year’s nominees were: AutoMech; Bellevue Embroidery; Bensussen Deutsch Associates; Beyondsoft Consulting, Inc.; BitTitan; Boone Wealth Advisors; CFO Selections, LLC; Chameleon Technologies; Cobalt & Sapphire; Edifecs; Foodjiff; Fresh Look Real Estate; General Microsystems, Inc.; Integrity Financial Corporation; IntellaSphere; Lincoln South Food Hall; Overlake Family Vision; Overlake Medical Center; PhotoPad for Business; Polyverse; Prime 8 Consulting; Seattle Humane; and Sequoia Scientific, Inc.
The honor of Eastside Business of the Year was bestowed on BitTitan, a Bellevue software company that helps IT service providers “assess, deploy, and manage cloud solutions with greater profitability,” according to its website.
Business of the Year went to a business employing over 100 people and generating $10 million per year.
Upon presenting the award to BitTitan, Kris Wilson of Perkins Coie called BitTitan “one of the Eastside’s great entrepreneurial stories.”
BitTitan CEO Geeman Yip said that he started the business 11 years ago “in my basement, because you can’t do it in a garage in Seattle, it’s too cold.” Now BitTitan has over 200 employees and services businesses in over 150 countries.
“It’s amazing to be part of this,” Yip said.
Small Business of the Year went to an organization that has been in business since 1897 — the Seattle Humane Society. Aided by a team of 3,500 volunteers, Seattle Humane saves 98 percent of the dogs and cats it brings in, giving it one of the highest save rates in the nation. 2017’s renovation of Seattle Humane will allow the facility to go from saving 6,500 to 10,000 animals per year.
As he received the award, Seattle Humane Board Chair Chris Falco described how, before the renovation, vets “used to do surgery in closets.” Now, he said with a smile, “it’s a state-of-the-art facility to rival Overlake.” This prompted a laugh from Overlake’s table.
Overlake was another of the winners that evening, taking home the Chairman’s Community Pillar Award. Lincoln South Food Hall was named Startup of the Year. Polyverse received the Innovative Product of the Year Award.
