After earning his Philosophy degree from the University of Washington, Hanauer got his business start at the family-owned Pacific Coast Feather Company, where he continues to serve as Co-chair and CEO.[2] In the 1980s he co-founded Museum Quality Framing Company, which has become a large West-Coast franchise. [3]

In the 1990s, Hanauer was one of the first investors in Amazon.com (where he served as adviser to the board until 2000). He founded gear.com (which eventually merged with Overstock.com) and Avenue A Media (which in 2007, under the new name aQuantive, was acquired by Microsoft for $6.4 billion). [4]

In 2000, Hanauer co-formed the Seattle-based venture capital company, Second Avenue Partners. The company advises and funds early stage companies such as HouseValues [5], Qliance [6], and Newsvine [7].

Hanauer is co-founder of The True Patriot Network, a political action tank framed upon the ideas he and Eric Liu presented in their 2007 book, The True Patriot.[8] The authors define true patriotism as country above self, and present that patriotism is lived every day in such core principles as service to others, stewardship of our resources, and shared sacrifice. [9]

Hanauer is active in the Seattle community and Washington’s public education system. He co-founded the League of Education Voters [10](LEV), a non-partisan political organization dedicated to improving the quality of public education in Washington. He also serves on the boards of Cascade Land Conservancy, The University of Washington Foundation, The University of Arizona's Mount Lemmon Science Center and the Biosphere2 climate research project. [11]