SEATTLE & PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Enterprise Code Archaeology: What Five Reorgs Left Behind
The team that built this was dissolved in 2019. The team that inherited it was acquired in 2021. You're the third owner of code that powers $40M in annual revenue.
The Seattle Enterprise Pattern
After analyzing codebases from Amazon, Microsoft, and the ecosystem they've spawned, we've identified patterns unique to Seattle's enterprise culture.
The Ownership Vacuum
Every 18-24 months, reorgs shuffle ownership. Code that was "Team A's responsibility" becomes "shared services" becomes "platform team" becomes "we thought you owned that."
Result: Critical code with no clear owner
The AWS/Azure Dependency Web
Seattle teams use cloud services from Seattle companies. The abstractions run deep. Your "simple" service depends on 47 AWS primitives through three layers of internal tooling.
Challenge: Visibility ends at the SDK boundary
The Internal Tool Graveyard
That team built an internal framework in 2017. It was great. They got promoted. The framework is now orphaned, undocumented, and you can't upgrade because nothing else works with the new version.
Seen in: 78% of codebases older than 5 years
The Acquisition Artifact
Your company bought a startup for their tech. Their codebase got "integrated." The integration is a wrapper that nobody fully understands, maintained by people who weren't part of the acquisition.
Risk: Tribal knowledge dispersed across two companies
Seattle Enterprise Analysis
The Impact of Organizational Churn on Codebases
Based on LOOM analysis of codebases from Seattle-area enterprise companies, 2024-2025.
Why Seattle Codebases Accumulate Differently
Seattle's tech giants run on internal mobility. High performers move every 2-3 years—different team, different org, sometimes different company. It's how you grow your career.
The side effect: codebases experience constant ownership transitions. Documentation describes what someone planned to build, not what they actually shipped before moving on.
The code becomes the only source of truth. LOOM makes that truth navigable.
Greater Seattle Tech Ecosystem
South Lake Union
Amazon territory. Service-oriented everything. Codebases that span hundreds of microservices, owned by teams that don't know each other exist.
Redmond / Bellevue
Microsoft ecosystem. Cloud at scale. Legacy systems migrating to Azure while new systems are built on top of them.
Startup Corridor
FAANG alumni building the next thing. Enterprise DNA with startup speed. Technical debt that knows what "best practices" look like but doesn't have time for them.
Should Your Seattle Team Use LOOM?
Not Yet If...
- Your team built the codebase and nobody has left yet
- You're in a new org with a greenfield mandate
- Your service is genuinely simple (under 50 files)
Critical If...
- You've inherited ownership from another team
- Your codebase has survived an acquisition or major reorg
- The last person who understood the architecture was promoted out
Understand What You've Inherited
Start with our free Browser Security Scanner to experience LOOM's approach. Then join the waitlist for early access to full codebase analysis.