When a lifelong Washington resident who built his third startup in Seattle declares that the state’s economic climate has become untenable, it signals more than one entrepreneur’s frustration. Jesse Proudman, founder and CTO of Venice.ai, a privacy-focused generative AI platform, is actively scouting relocation options in Texas, Nevada, Florida, and Tennessee. His warning is stark: “Everybody that I know that has means to leave has either left or is in the process of leaving.”
This is not the isolated complaint of a disgruntled millionaire. It reflects a predictable pattern playing out in high-tax, progressive strongholds where class-warfare rhetoric meets real-world consequences. Washington’s new 9.9% “millionaires tax” on income above $1 million, signed into law in late March, marks the state’s first income tax. Proponents sold it as targeting only the ultra-wealthy. Critics, including Proudman, see it as the opening salvo in a broader assault on success.
Proudman, who has called Seattle home for 28 years and started his first company at age 13, remembers a different city—one that celebrated builders and dreamers.
“Seattle used to be a place where you were excited to build something, where it was celebrated,” he recounted.
That vibrant startup ecosystem has given way to a culture that villainizes achievement. Over the last four or five years, entrepreneurship has shifted from admired to suspect in the eyes of local leadership.
The mayor’s response to concerns about an exodus only accelerates the flight. At a Seattle University event in April, Katie Wilson laughed off warnings that high earners would depart, waving them away with “the ones that leave, like, bye.”
This isn’t leadership; it’s dismissal of the very people who generate jobs, investment, and tax revenue. When public officials cheer the departure of wealth creators, they reveal a profound misunderstanding of how economies function.
History offers ample lessons here. States and cities that punish success through confiscatory taxation rarely achieve the egalitarian utopia they promise. Instead, they drive capital and talent elsewhere, leaving diminished services and shrinking budgets in their wake. Washington’s experiment arrives as AI represents one of the most promising frontiers for American ingenuity.
Chasing away founders like Proudman doesn’t punish the rich—it punishes the workers who depend on these companies for employment and the communities that benefit from their economic activity.
Critics of the tax have noted its likely expansion. Sponsors have signaled intentions to broaden its reach, a trajectory familiar to anyone watching California’s repeated tax hikes. The Wall Street Journal rightly called this approach a con that will eventually ensnare the middle class. Proudman echoes that concern: policymakers begin with millionaires because it’s politically palatable, but the logic of redistribution knows no natural limit.
Meanwhile, red states positioned as alternatives are reaping the rewards. Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Nevada continue to attract businesses precisely because they reject the notion that government must punish productivity to fund its ambitions. These locales welcome those who build rather than demonize them. The contrast could not be clearer.
Seattle’s struggles extend beyond taxes. The city grapples with visible decay—homeless encampments, open drug use, and declining quality of life—that compounds the economic disincentives. When leaders prioritize ideology over governance, the productive class votes with its feet.
Proudman draws a parallel to Elon Musk’s departure from California to Texas, noting that when government signals you’re unwelcome, rational actors seek friendlier shores.
The lesson from Seattle is straightforward yet urgent for policymakers nationwide. You cannot simultaneously attack wealth creators and expect them to continue funding your vision. As AI and other transformative technologies reshape the economy, states that embrace builders will lead. Those that treat them as villains will watch their best minds and companies depart for greener pastures.
Proudman’s move is not capitulation—it’s confirmation that markets and human nature still operate as they always have, regardless of progressive fantasies.
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