From farm robots to cybersecurity to AI-powered medical records, the 2026 GeekWire Awards Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalists represent some of the ambitious bets being made in the Pacific Northwest startup scene.
The finalists in this category, presented by Prime Team Partners, are: Emily Choi-Greene (Clearly AI); Caleb John (Pioneer Square Labs); Kavian Mojabe (MediScan AI); Charles Wu (Orchard Robotics); and Zheqing (Bill) Zhu (Pokee AI).
Now in its 18th year, the GeekWire Awards is the premier event recognizing the top leaders, companies and breakthroughs in Pacific Northwest tech, bringing together hundreds of people to celebrate innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. It takes place May 7 at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle.
Continue reading for information on the Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalists, who were chosen by a panel of independent judges from community nominations. You can help pick the winner: Cast your ballot here or in the embedded form at the bottom. Voting runs through April 16.
Emily Choi-Greene is co-founder and CEO of Clearly AI, a cybersecurity startup that helps security, privacy, and compliance teams review new products, features, vendors, and AI deployments before they ship.
Less than two years after launching, Clearly AI raised an $8.4 million seed round. The company was also named one of 10 finalists in the RSAC 2026 Innovation Sandbox Contest, a high-profile competition tied to the RSA Conference, a major event for the cybersecurity industry. Choi-Greene previously worked on natural language understanding for Amazon’s Alexa and later on device security teams at the tech giant.
Caleb John is an engineer and investor at Pioneer Square Labs, the Seattle-based startup studio and venture fund.
John’s previous experience spans robotics, AI, and defense tech. He co-founded the AI search ranking startup Pongo (acquired by M87 Labs) and founded Cedar Robotics, which built robot waiters for restaurants. He also contributed to national security AI at Anduril Industries and was recognized on the Forbes Under 30 Seattle list in 2023.
Kavian Mojabe is co-founder and CEO of MediScan AI, a Seattle startup using AI to help medical professionals evaluate patient records.
Launched in 2024, MediScan AI raised $1.4 million in funding last June. Its platform can quickly scan records — including typed and hand-written notes — and generate summaries and comprehensive reports, reducing the time it takes human evaluators to perform such tasks. The startup has positioned itself at the intersection of medicine, insurance and legal industries. Mojabe was previously a software engineer at Amazon.
Charles Wu is founder and CEO of Orchard Robotics, an agtech startup using AI to deliver precise data on farm operations.
Wu is a Thiel Fellow who dropped out of Cornell University to launch Orchard Robotics. The startup, which raised $22 million in Series A funding last September, has developed a system with cameras that are mounted on tractors and other equipment to gather images as they traverse a farm. The collected images are then analyzed by Orchard Robotics’ AI to generate data on vines, trees and crops, which is then processed to track the growth, yield and health of crops.
Zheqing (Bill) Zhu is founder and CEO of Pokee AI, a Seattle-area startup building AI agents that automate online workflows.
Pokee, which raised a $12 million seed round last July, differentiates itself by applying reinforcement learning to help agents sequence and use tools efficiently, rather than relying solely on large language models. Zhu was previously head of applied reinforcement learning at Meta, where he worked for more than seven years. He completed his Ph.D. at Stanford in the same field and did his graduate and undergrad studies at Duke.
Astound Business Solutions is the presenting sponsor of the 2026 GeekWire Awards. Thanks also to gold sponsors Amazon Sustainability, Baird, BECU, JLL, First Tech and Wilson Sonsini, and silver sponsors Prime Team Partners.
The event will feature a VIP reception, sit-down dinner and fun entertainment mixed in. Tickets go fast. A limited number of half-table and full-table sponsorships are available. Contact [email protected] to reserve a spot for your team today.
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