FounderCivic Ventures, LLC
Nick Hanauer is one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors in the Northwest with over 30 years of experience across a broad range of industries including manufacturing, retailing, e-commerce, digital media and advertising, software, aerospace, health care, and finance.
Hanauer’s experience and perspective have produced an unusual record of serial successes. Hanauer has managed, founded or financed over 30 companies, creating aggregate market value of tens of billions of dollars. Some notable companies include Amazon.com and Aquantive Inc., (purchased by Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion). In 2000, Hanauer co-founded the venture capital company Second Avenue Partners where he and his partners invested in companies such as Insitu (purchased by Boeing for $400 million), and Market Leader (purchased by Trulia in 2013 for $350 million).
Hanauer is actively involved in a number of civic and philanthropic activities. In 2000, he co-founded the League of Education Voters (LEV); a non-partisan statewide political organization focused on promoting public education. He remains Co-President today. Additionally, Hanauer serves or has served a broad range of civic organizations including the boards of the Cascade Land Conservancy, The University of Washington Foundation, The Seattle Alliance for Education, and The MT Lemmon Science Center. He currently serves as a Director for The Democracy Alliance and as a board advisor to the policy journal DEMOCRACY.
In 2007, Hanauer published the national bestseller in politics, The True Patriot, with co-author Eric Liu. In 2010 Liu and Hanauer published their second book, The Gardens of Democracy, also a national best-seller in politics. Following the success of his books, Hanauer founded Civic Ventures, LLC and has been a political advocate for social change ever since.
Hanauer had a degree in philosophy from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle Washington and is married with two children.
