A story earlier this week by Spokesman Review staff reporter Meghann Cuniff called attention to a new company, Safe Trade USA, started by Spokane's Nate Brantingham. His business provides a safer place and a secure location for people to sell items via online sites like Craigslist.

Cuniff's story noted Brantingham, 33, decided to open the store after the shooting death of Jim Sanders in Edgewood, Wash., in April 2010. The killing appears to have been committed by people spotting a Craigslist ad posted by Sanders.

We wanted to go down memory lane and remind readers that Brantingham has done other things in the Spokane tech industry. In 2004 he was part of a team of three EWU students who won a first prize and startup cash in the Gonzaga University Hogan Entrepreneurial Competition.

Their company idea, called GamerZunion, created an online portal for gamers. Nate's brother Austin was part of that team. Game maker Cyan Worlds invested in the company. Nate was the CEO until 2006, when he and Austin left GamerZunion.

The third EWU co-founder, Tye Hooley, continued running the firm until it shut down. We'll track down when the closure occurred. If you know, please comment here.

See new update, compliments of Nate Brantingham. It's in a separate post filed July 27.

The photo here, shot by former staffer Brian Plonka, shows Nate talking about GamerZunion during a 2005 gamefest in Spokane Valley.

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