Sarah Haggard’s Tribute tied for the top prize at Seattle Angel Conference XVII in 2020, a milestone she described as personally validating. Her advice about “bold actions” was not to wait for a perfect roadmap: make meaningful progress toward a goal even when the route is unclear. Tribute later shut down after struggling to turn enterprise interest into enough signed deals, a reminder that a pitch-competition win is a milestone, not a guarantee of a lasting business.
What Sarah Haggard and Tribute won
Haggard founded Tribute, a Seattle workplace-mentorship startup launched in 2018. The company’s digital platform was designed to connect colleagues and support peer and group mentorship. Haggard had worked in product marketing at Microsoft for more than a decade before building the company, drawing in part on a workplace problem she had encountered herself: conventional mentoring advice did not always fit what a mentee actually needed.
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At Seattle Angel Conference XVII in 2020, Tribute tied with PDM Automotive for the top prize. Tribute also received the Audience Choice award and was one of six businesses selected as “most investable.” Haggard called the win personal and validating, saying it affirmed her belief that there was a real market need.
The reported prize amount differs between two contemporaneous GeekWire stories. Taylor Soper’s May 14, 2020 event report said each company received $132,500; Lisa Stiffler’s June 1, 2020 profile said each would receive $140,000. The available accounts do not resolve the discrepancy, so neither figure should be treated as definitive without its attribution.
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How the 2020 conference worked
The conference took place virtually during the pandemic, with sessions, company reviews, and investor due diligence conducted over Zoom. GeekWire reported that 53 companies applied and 44 investors participated in 2020. The figures describe that conference year, not the program’s usual or current scale.
The win came on Haggard’s third pitch to the conference. That context matters: the award was not an overnight result, but the culmination of repeated attempts to present the company and its case to investors.
What Haggard meant by taking bold actions
Haggard’s “bold actions” idea is practical rather than a call to take reckless risks. In the June 2020 GeekWire interview, she said founders should believe in their goal and take meaningful steps forward even when others doubt it or the full route is not clear. The emphasis is on action that advances a considered goal—not on ignoring evidence or treating confidence as proof.
Her own example was building Tribute around a problem she understood from experience. She did not claim to have every product detail figured out from the start. Recalling a difficult feature-design problem, she said: “During that nap the feature came to me, and it’s one of our most used features today.” The anecdote illustrates persistence through uncertainty, but it is not a formula for product success: a useful idea still has to meet a real customer need.
What happened to Tribute after the award
Tribute’s focus evolved from matching people with mentors toward workplace relationships and knowledge sharing. GeekWire reported in December 2024 that the company was closing after eight years. The retrospective said Tribute had signed customers including Microsoft, Sonos, Zillow, Remitly, Reckitt, and the University of Washington.
Haggard said enterprise buyers expressed strong interest, but that interest did not turn into enough signed deals; the startup ran short of money. Looking back, she warned that “False-positive signals can keep a company going longer than it should be.” The later shutdown does not erase what the 2020 award recognized. It does show why external validation and customer interest must ultimately translate into durable business results.
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