"I love Madrona Venture Group"

2022-05-03 20:31:31

Plan your Back-to-Work strategy – Visit our Toolkit for Ideas and DirectionAboutPeopleCompaniesInsightsCareers You imagine.We support.You create.We amplify.You disrupt.We believe. We invest in Seed, Early and Acceleration stage companies leveraging technology to create or disrupt huge markets. Meet some of the founders we have partnered with:AmperityRedfinNautilusWrenchRoverHighspotFlexeCrowd CowWhy LabsSnowflakeSmartsheetClariSilaApptioEsperFaunaOctoMLUplevelUnearthUI PathAmperityKabir Shahani and Derek Slager, the founders of Madrona-backed Appature, turned to Madrona again as they started their new venture, Amperity. Amperity is a customer data platform built to help enterprise brands foster better relationships with their customers. By bringing together data from every in-person and online customer interaction, then making that data intelligible and accessible across the organization, Amperity helps world-class brands like Patagonia, Alaska Airlines, and Starbucks create better experiences for customers and better results for their business.“I can say with certainty that Amperity would not be what it is today without Matt and the Madrona team. Being there from Day One wasn’t just about what we wanted to go create, but about how we wanted to build the company and the steps we would need to take to get there. 5 years in, we are still in the early innings of an amazing journey and Madrona’s contributions to our strategy and the way in which we are executing against our opportunity permeate who we are as a company.” – Kabir Shahani, CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIwain & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeedRedfinRedfin (NASDAQ; RDFN) has led the technological transformation of the real estate industry with a mission to redefine the industry in the customer’s favor. Redfin offers brokerage, iBuying, mortgage, and title services, and it also runs the country’s #1 real estate brokerage website. Since its launch in 2006, it has saved customers over $800 million and helped buy or sell more than 235,000 homes worth more than $115 billion.“Redfin is made of up software engineers working beside real estate agents. It’s rare that two such disparate groups have the opportunity to learn from each other and share a common goal. When we started, funding operationally intensive businesses like ours wasn’t very popular. But Madrona wanted to help build a company for the ages. Over the years, Madrona has given us so much more than cash. They have been confidantes, advisors and supporters in countless ways,” – Glenn Kelman, CEOMADRONA TEAMPaul Goodrich & Scott JacobsonInitial InvestmentSeedNautilusNautilus Biotechnology is at the intersection of life sciences & data sciences. Sujal Patel and his co-founder Parag Mallick are building a platform for analyzing and quantifying the human proteome. Madrona first backed Sujal in 2001 when he, at age 26, started a scale-out storage company, Isilon Systems.“When Madrona first backed me, it was a tough time to raise money, but the team quickly understood the customer need and why our solution was disruptive. Madrona stuck by us during some very tough times and helped me navigate through that journey to the ultimate successful outcome.  Now with Nautilus, Matt has shown the same passion for learning and helping us as founders to bring our vision to life through corporate strategy, financing and executive hiring advice and support.” – Sujal Patel, Founder & CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIlwainInitial InvestmentSeries AWrenchWrench delivers car repair, inspections and roadside service on demand to consumers and for corporate and government owned fleets of vehicles.  Wrench works with licensed mechanics to provide service to vehicles wherever they are – in parking lots or driveways – reducing hassle for owners while providing exemplary services.“Madrona has been an unwavering supporter of Wrench since its inception. We’ve benefited from their team’s diverse perspectives and experiences across a range of industries and companies. Every start up is unique with their own individual challenges and goals. Len and Madrona have continued to help us navigate through our own journey in a very personalized and supportive way.”– Ed Petersen, CEOMadrona TeamLen JordanInitial InvestmentSeries SeedRoverRover is the world’s largest network of 5-star pet sitters and dog walkers. Founded in 2011, Madrona incubated, funded, and helped build the team at Madrona’s offices.“Madrona sees so much of the deal flow in the Pacific Northwest, they understand investors, the space, the dynamics, and the players. They worked extensively with me on the pitch to other investors, helping me to refine the Rover Story. My relationship with Madrona has been foundational since day one, through all of the ups and downs.”– Aaron Easterly, CEOMADRONA TEAMScott Jacobson & Ishani UmmatInitial InvestmentSeries SeedHighspotHighspot is an award winning sales engagement platform that helps companies win more customers. Highspot brings together content management, sales guidance and buyer engagement capabilities to provide a complete picture of the engagement and surface up the content most relevant to the situation.“We started working with Madrona in our first week, before we even had a prototype. Tim has been an excellent partner in shaping the business and has been a strong advocate throughout our development,” said Robert Wahbe, Highspot CEO.Madrona TeamTim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries AFlexeFLEXE is building the open logistics network to optimize the global delivery of goods. Its technology platform, combined with the world’s largest network of warehousing and fulfillment operators powers the omni-channel enterprise.“Madrona’s track record building enterprise-grade technology companies, paired with the team’s deep experience in eCommerce, makes them a great partner for FLEXE. Scott lives and breathes e-commerce and understands the changing omni-channel landscape. He is a helpful thought partner on strategy and in building out our leadership team.”– Karl, Siebrecht, Co-founder & CEOMadrona TeamScott Jacobson & Daniel LiInitial InvestmentSeries BCrowd CowJoe Heitzeberg and Ethan Lowry co-founded Crowd Cow after becoming obsessed with answering one simple question – where does my meat come from? Crowd Cow is now the marketplace for high quality craft meat and seafoods from farms and producers around the world, offering subscriptions and convenient delivery to customers’ doorsteps.“Investors aren’t just the people who give you money, you want to find someone who has founder empathy. One of the reasons I really appreciate working with Scott is that he’s been an operator, and when he has an opinion on a situation, he’s direct and to the point. And the more you can have people around the table as you build your company, who have got experience and have founder empathy, the more successful you’re going to be as a team, and frankly the happier you going to be as a founder.”– Joe Heitzeberg, Founder and CEO.Madrona TeamScott Jacobson & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeries AWhy LabsWhyLabs is on a mission to build the interface between humans and AI applications. As teams across industries adopt AI, WhyLabs enables them to operate with certainty by streamlining model monitoring, preventing costly model failures, and facilitating cross-functional collaboration. Incubated at the Allen Institute for AI, the company was founded by Amazon Machine Learning alums Alessya Visnjic, Sam Gracie, and Andy Dang, together with Maria Karaivanova, former Cloudflare executive and principal at Madrona Venture Group.“The team at Madrona has been part of the WhyLabs journey even before the company was formed. Since our first meeting, they were instrumental and eager to support us in our early market validation, recruiting as well as launch and PR. Tim Porter continues to be an invaluable thought partner, helping us shape our product and go to market strategy.” – Alessya Visnjic, CEOMadrona TeamTim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries SeedSnowflakeSnowflake’s (NYSE: SNOW) founders started from scratch and built a data platform that would harness the immense power of the cloud. Thousands of customers around the world now mobilize their data in ways previously unimaginable with Snowflake’s Data Cloud — a solution for data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, data science, data application development, and data exchange.“As a growing company in 2017, we needed a good partner in one of the hottest tech talent markets in the nation and when Madrona invested we saw an immediate rise in visibility that resulted in being able to build out a world-class engineering headquarters in the region. Additionally, Soma and the team at Madrona helped us navigate relationships with the two big cloud providers that call Seattle home, Amazon and Microsoft. The Madrona team really comes through for their companies.” – Benoit Dageville, Co-founder & President of ProductsMadrona TeamS. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries DSmartsheetIn 2006, Smartsheet (NYSE: SMAR) founders pitched their plan to design a SaaS product for team collaboration. In the depth of the 2008 recession, they had to rework the user interface and Madrona doubled down and invested alongside the founders. Smartsheet went public in 2018.“From the early and growth stages of Smartsheet to our IPO and beyond, Madrona served as a connector for talent, an advisor on trends, and a financial partner — a wonderful element of our diverse team.”– Mark Mader, CEO of SmartsheetMADRONA TEAMMatt McIlwain & Tim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries AClariClari’s Revenue Operations Platform automatically gathers data from across the enterprise—everything from emails and meetings to marketing campaigns and CRM data—then applies AI to create dashboards and execution insights that align the entire organization to execute its revenue strategy.“The team at Madrona understands revenue operations deeply. Steve and Soma are experienced operators with deep relationships that cut across the world’s most innovative and influential enterprises. They’ve not only been hands-on with us in accelerating key customer pursuits, they’ve also connected us with the right entry points at complex technology partners like Amazon, Microsoft and SAP.” – Andy Byrne, CEOMadrona TeamSteve Singh & S. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries DSilaFounded by Shamir Karkal, Angela Angelovska, Alex Lipton, and Isaac Hines, Sila is a fintech for fintechs. Sila has done the hard work of navigating not only the technology but also the complex web of US state and federal regulations in their API based service so that companies looking to offer innovative financial solutions can focus on their customers and not the regulatory complexities needed to hold and move money digitally.“Hope immediately understood the problem we were trying solve to solve at Sila. Her operating experience and CFO background gives her keen insight into the challenge, and opportunity, associated with embedding financial services into digital applications. This insight has helped us grow over time while staying hyper focused on solving problems from our customers.”– Shamir Karkal, Co-founder & CEOMadrona TeamHope Cochran & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeries SeedApptioApptio provides SaaS solutions to help CIOs, CFOs, IT and business leaders make smart decisions as they analyze and plan technology investments. The company pioneered Technology Business Management (TBM) as a category and built a TBM community of more than 11,000 IT professionals.“Apptio was born in 2007 as the recession was kicking into full force. The Madrona team, and specifically Matt, partnered with Apptio from day-1 before we even had a name for the company – they helped with early market fit, scaling our executive team, and identified early customers for Apptio. Madrona and Matt have been strategic partners and advisors through the evolution of our company, which has included an IPO, and eventual sale of Apptio to Vista Equity for $2B. I’m proud of what we’ve built at Apptio and grateful for the support Madrona has shown over the years.” – Sunny Gupta, CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIlwainInitial InvestmentSeries A, Apptio went public in 2016 and was acquired by Vista in 2019 for $2 billion.EsperThe world is moving towards more and more intelligence at the edge, and Android will be the operating system of choice for devices with a screen and user interface.  Founded by former Amazon and CE device engineer, Yadhu Gopalan, and mobile industry veteran, Shiv Sundar, Esper provides the tools for deployment and management of these rapidly growing networks of devices.“Madrona has been a perfect fit for Esper and very helpful in many aspects of our growth, from PR support to help in recruiting. Tim has been a thoughtful advisor and partner, always accessible and with incredibly helpful insight and guidance.” – Yadhu Gopalan, Cofounder & CEOMadrona TeamTim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries AFaunaFauna is a flexible, developer-friendly, globally distributed, transactional database delivered as a secure, web-native API. One of the crucial elements in the new serverless stack, Fauna enables developers to replace their (typically complex) database infrastructure with fully-managed data APIs.“I first got to know Matt McIlwain, Tim Porter and the Madrona team as an executive in the early years of Apptio. The opportunity to partner with Madrona again to help build Fauna along with the co-founders Evan and Matt was a key input to my decision to take on the CEO role. Soma understands cloud database businesses and brings a deep appreciation of what is required to build a product that developers love. He has been super helpful as we have expanded the service and scaled our product-led go-to-market motion. He and the entire Madrona team have been a true partner in the strategy and execution of scaling the leadership team and the company.” – Eric Berg, CEOMadrona TeamS. Somasegar & Anu SharmaInitial InvestmentSeries AOctoMLAI components are quickly becoming pervasive in modern applications of all shapes and sizes, from edge to cloud. OctoML applies cutting edge AI to enabling performance, portability, and productivity of AI deployment on any edge or cloud hardware.“I have always been impressed about how Madrona anticipates the future and nurtures relationships. Our founding team’s research suggested an emerging opportunity. Specifically, the growing number of hardware platforms and the proliferation of ML models – and the disconnect in between early on. In Madrona, I knew we had both a strategic partner who understood the technology and the Go-to-Market needed to make OctoML a success. The Madrona team is incredibly supportive, and they are always bringing new value-add to the table, not to mention genuine care and support the OctoML team.” – Luis Ceze, Cofounder & CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIlwain & Anu SharmaInitial InvestmentSeries SeedUplevelUplevel is an engineering effectiveness platform that elevates engineering managers & their teams with data-driven insights to unlock their full potential. The platform helps managers by identifying risks and blockers to getting work accomplished (such as low deep work, too many meetings, stuck PRs, and potential burnout) and offers alerts and tips to improve.“By working in collaboration with the team at Madrona Venture Labs and now with continued support from Tim Porter and the at Madrona, we assembled an incredible founding team and have been able to leverage support with introductions, recruiting and communications to help us grow.”– Joe Levy, CEOMadrona TeamS. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries CUnearthUnearth’s OnePlace is a new category of work and asset management software, powering digital transformation for organizations that build, inspect, and maintain physical assets. It combines GIS and project management to create a unique map-based system that lives at the center of an organization’s IT infrastructure – connecting field and office teams through mobile and desktop applications. The result is faster, more reliable work and asset management that scales with ease.“We started working with Madrona when Unearth was still just an early idea of connecting drone data and construction sites. They helped us focus our thinking and led our seed round. As a seed stage company, Soma and Chris were integral in helping us evolve the product and carve out our niche while scaling at the right pace. Today our business creates safer, stronger communities by simplifying the maintenance of complex infrastructure through trackable, organized data.” – Brian Saab, Founder & CEOMadrona TeamS. Somasegar & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeries SeedUI PathUIPath is on a mission to accelerate human potential and is a crucial component in the digital transformation of the enterprise.  Thousands of companies around the world use their software to automate business processes and workflow through software bots that streamline processes, eliminate waste and automate office worker tasks.  The company is a leader in the Robotic Process Automation market according to Gartner for two years in a row.“We had just started an engineering office in the Seattle region. I was talking to Soma and thought of how he and Madrona can be a great local partner for us as we continued to build and scale UiPath through a hyper-growth phase. Beyond helping us build out a great team in the area, Soma and the team have been very helpful in providing product and market advice over the years including effectively partnering with the big cloud platform providers.”– Daniel Dines, Co-Founder & CEOMadrona TeamS. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries CAmperityRedfinNautilusWrenchRoverHighspotFlexeCrowd CowWhy LabsSnowflakeSmartsheetClariSilaApptioEsperFaunaOctoMLUplevelUnearthUI PathAmperityKabir Shahani and Derek Slager, the founders of Madrona-backed Appature, turned to Madrona again as they started their new venture, Amperity. Amperity is a customer data platform built to help enterprise brands foster better relationships with their customers. By bringing together data from every in-person and online customer interaction, then making that data intelligible and accessible across the organization, Amperity helps world-class brands like Patagonia, Alaska Airlines, and Starbucks create better experiences for customers and better results for their business.“I can say with certainty that Amperity would not be what it is today without Matt and the Madrona team. Being there from Day One wasn’t just about what we wanted to go create, but about how we wanted to build the company and the steps we would need to take to get there. 5 years in, we are still in the early innings of an amazing journey and Madrona’s contributions to our strategy and the way in which we are executing against our opportunity permeate who we are as a company.” – Kabir Shahani, CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIwain & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeedRedfinRedfin (NASDAQ; RDFN) has led the technological transformation of the real estate industry with a mission to redefine the industry in the customer’s favor. Redfin offers brokerage, iBuying, mortgage, and title services, and it also runs the country’s #1 real estate brokerage website. Since its launch in 2006, it has saved customers over $800 million and helped buy or sell more than 235,000 homes worth more than $115 billion.“Redfin is made of up software engineers working beside real estate agents. It’s rare that two such disparate groups have the opportunity to learn from each other and share a common goal. When we started, funding operationally intensive businesses like ours wasn’t very popular. But Madrona wanted to help build a company for the ages. Over the years, Madrona has given us so much more than cash. They have been confidantes, advisors and supporters in countless ways,” – Glenn Kelman, CEOMADRONA TEAMPaul Goodrich & Scott JacobsonInitial InvestmentSeedNautilusNautilus Biotechnology is at the intersection of life sciences & data sciences. Sujal Patel and his co-founder Parag Mallick are building a platform for analyzing and quantifying the human proteome. Madrona first backed Sujal in 2001 when he, at age 26, started a scale-out storage company, Isilon Systems.“When Madrona first backed me, it was a tough time to raise money, but the team quickly understood the customer need and why our solution was disruptive. Madrona stuck by us during some very tough times and helped me navigate through that journey to the ultimate successful outcome.  Now with Nautilus, Matt has shown the same passion for learning and helping us as founders to bring our vision to life through corporate strategy, financing and executive hiring advice and support.” – Sujal Patel, Founder & CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIlwainInitial InvestmentSeries AWrenchWrench delivers car repair, inspections and roadside service on demand to consumers and for corporate and government owned fleets of vehicles.  Wrench works with licensed mechanics to provide service to vehicles wherever they are – in parking lots or driveways – reducing hassle for owners while providing exemplary services.“Madrona has been an unwavering supporter of Wrench since its inception. We’ve benefited from their team’s diverse perspectives and experiences across a range of industries and companies. Every start up is unique with their own individual challenges and goals. Len and Madrona have continued to help us navigate through our own journey in a very personalized and supportive way.”– Ed Petersen, CEOMadrona TeamLen JordanInitial InvestmentSeries SeedRoverRover is the world’s largest network of 5-star pet sitters and dog walkers. Founded in 2011, Madrona incubated, funded, and helped build the team at Madrona’s offices.“Madrona sees so much of the deal flow in the Pacific Northwest, they understand investors, the space, the dynamics, and the players. They worked extensively with me on the pitch to other investors, helping me to refine the Rover Story. My relationship with Madrona has been foundational since day one, through all of the ups and downs.”– Aaron Easterly, CEOMADRONA TEAMScott Jacobson & Ishani UmmatInitial InvestmentSeries SeedHighspotHighspot is an award winning sales engagement platform that helps companies win more customers. Highspot brings together content management, sales guidance and buyer engagement capabilities to provide a complete picture of the engagement and surface up the content most relevant to the situation.“We started working with Madrona in our first week, before we even had a prototype. Tim has been an excellent partner in shaping the business and has been a strong advocate throughout our development,” said Robert Wahbe, Highspot CEO.Madrona TeamTim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries AFlexeFLEXE is building the open logistics network to optimize the global delivery of goods. Its technology platform, combined with the world’s largest network of warehousing and fulfillment operators powers the omni-channel enterprise.“Madrona’s track record building enterprise-grade technology companies, paired with the team’s deep experience in eCommerce, makes them a great partner for FLEXE. Scott lives and breathes e-commerce and understands the changing omni-channel landscape. He is a helpful thought partner on strategy and in building out our leadership team.”– Karl, Siebrecht, Co-founder & CEOMadrona TeamScott Jacobson & Daniel LiInitial InvestmentSeries BCrowd CowJoe Heitzeberg and Ethan Lowry co-founded Crowd Cow after becoming obsessed with answering one simple question – where does my meat come from? Crowd Cow is now the marketplace for high quality craft meat and seafoods from farms and producers around the world, offering subscriptions and convenient delivery to customers’ doorsteps.“Investors aren’t just the people who give you money, you want to find someone who has founder empathy. One of the reasons I really appreciate working with Scott is that he’s been an operator, and when he has an opinion on a situation, he’s direct and to the point. And the more you can have people around the table as you build your company, who have got experience and have founder empathy, the more successful you’re going to be as a team, and frankly the happier you going to be as a founder.”– Joe Heitzeberg, Founder and CEO.Madrona TeamScott Jacobson & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeries AWhy LabsWhyLabs is on a mission to build the interface between humans and AI applications. As teams across industries adopt AI, WhyLabs enables them to operate with certainty by streamlining model monitoring, preventing costly model failures, and facilitating cross-functional collaboration. Incubated at the Allen Institute for AI, the company was founded by Amazon Machine Learning alums Alessya Visnjic, Sam Gracie, and Andy Dang, together with Maria Karaivanova, former Cloudflare executive and principal at Madrona Venture Group.“The team at Madrona has been part of the WhyLabs journey even before the company was formed. Since our first meeting, they were instrumental and eager to support us in our early market validation, recruiting as well as launch and PR. Tim Porter continues to be an invaluable thought partner, helping us shape our product and go to market strategy.” – Alessya Visnjic, CEOMadrona TeamTim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries SeedSnowflakeSnowflake’s (NYSE: SNOW) founders started from scratch and built a data platform that would harness the immense power of the cloud. Thousands of customers around the world now mobilize their data in ways previously unimaginable with Snowflake’s Data Cloud — a solution for data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, data science, data application development, and data exchange.“As a growing company in 2017, we needed a good partner in one of the hottest tech talent markets in the nation and when Madrona invested we saw an immediate rise in visibility that resulted in being able to build out a world-class engineering headquarters in the region. Additionally, Soma and the team at Madrona helped us navigate relationships with the two big cloud providers that call Seattle home, Amazon and Microsoft. The Madrona team really comes through for their companies.” – Benoit Dageville, Co-founder & President of ProductsMadrona TeamS. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries DSmartsheetIn 2006, Smartsheet (NYSE: SMAR) founders pitched their plan to design a SaaS product for team collaboration. In the depth of the 2008 recession, they had to rework the user interface and Madrona doubled down and invested alongside the founders. Smartsheet went public in 2018.“From the early and growth stages of Smartsheet to our IPO and beyond, Madrona served as a connector for talent, an advisor on trends, and a financial partner — a wonderful element of our diverse team.”– Mark Mader, CEO of SmartsheetMADRONA TEAMMatt McIlwain & Tim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries AClariClari’s Revenue Operations Platform automatically gathers data from across the enterprise—everything from emails and meetings to marketing campaigns and CRM data—then applies AI to create dashboards and execution insights that align the entire organization to execute its revenue strategy.“The team at Madrona understands revenue operations deeply. Steve and Soma are experienced operators with deep relationships that cut across the world’s most innovative and influential enterprises. They’ve not only been hands-on with us in accelerating key customer pursuits, they’ve also connected us with the right entry points at complex technology partners like Amazon, Microsoft and SAP.” – Andy Byrne, CEOMadrona TeamSteve Singh & S. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries DSilaFounded by Shamir Karkal, Angela Angelovska, Alex Lipton, and Isaac Hines, Sila is a fintech for fintechs. Sila has done the hard work of navigating not only the technology but also the complex web of US state and federal regulations in their API based service so that companies looking to offer innovative financial solutions can focus on their customers and not the regulatory complexities needed to hold and move money digitally.“Hope immediately understood the problem we were trying solve to solve at Sila. Her operating experience and CFO background gives her keen insight into the challenge, and opportunity, associated with embedding financial services into digital applications. This insight has helped us grow over time while staying hyper focused on solving problems from our customers.”– Shamir Karkal, Co-founder & CEOMadrona TeamHope Cochran & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeries SeedApptioApptio provides SaaS solutions to help CIOs, CFOs, IT and business leaders make smart decisions as they analyze and plan technology investments. The company pioneered Technology Business Management (TBM) as a category and built a TBM community of more than 11,000 IT professionals.“Apptio was born in 2007 as the recession was kicking into full force. The Madrona team, and specifically Matt, partnered with Apptio from day-1 before we even had a name for the company – they helped with early market fit, scaling our executive team, and identified early customers for Apptio. Madrona and Matt have been strategic partners and advisors through the evolution of our company, which has included an IPO, and eventual sale of Apptio to Vista Equity for $2B. I’m proud of what we’ve built at Apptio and grateful for the support Madrona has shown over the years.” – Sunny Gupta, CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIlwainInitial InvestmentSeries A, Apptio went public in 2016 and was acquired by Vista in 2019 for $2 billion.EsperThe world is moving towards more and more intelligence at the edge, and Android will be the operating system of choice for devices with a screen and user interface.  Founded by former Amazon and CE device engineer, Yadhu Gopalan, and mobile industry veteran, Shiv Sundar, Esper provides the tools for deployment and management of these rapidly growing networks of devices.“Madrona has been a perfect fit for Esper and very helpful in many aspects of our growth, from PR support to help in recruiting. Tim has been a thoughtful advisor and partner, always accessible and with incredibly helpful insight and guidance.” – Yadhu Gopalan, Cofounder & CEOMadrona TeamTim PorterInitial InvestmentSeries AFaunaFauna is a flexible, developer-friendly, globally distributed, transactional database delivered as a secure, web-native API. One of the crucial elements in the new serverless stack, Fauna enables developers to replace their (typically complex) database infrastructure with fully-managed data APIs.“I first got to know Matt McIlwain, Tim Porter and the Madrona team as an executive in the early years of Apptio. The opportunity to partner with Madrona again to help build Fauna along with the co-founders Evan and Matt was a key input to my decision to take on the CEO role. Soma understands cloud database businesses and brings a deep appreciation of what is required to build a product that developers love. He has been super helpful as we have expanded the service and scaled our product-led go-to-market motion. He and the entire Madrona team have been a true partner in the strategy and execution of scaling the leadership team and the company.” – Eric Berg, CEOMadrona TeamS. Somasegar & Anu SharmaInitial InvestmentSeries AOctoMLAI components are quickly becoming pervasive in modern applications of all shapes and sizes, from edge to cloud. OctoML applies cutting edge AI to enabling performance, portability, and productivity of AI deployment on any edge or cloud hardware.“I have always been impressed about how Madrona anticipates the future and nurtures relationships. Our founding team’s research suggested an emerging opportunity. Specifically, the growing number of hardware platforms and the proliferation of ML models – and the disconnect in between early on. In Madrona, I knew we had both a strategic partner who understood the technology and the Go-to-Market needed to make OctoML a success. The Madrona team is incredibly supportive, and they are always bringing new value-add to the table, not to mention genuine care and support the OctoML team.” – Luis Ceze, Cofounder & CEOMadrona TeamMatt McIlwain & Anu SharmaInitial InvestmentSeries SeedUplevelUplevel is an engineering effectiveness platform that elevates engineering managers & their teams with data-driven insights to unlock their full potential. The platform helps managers by identifying risks and blockers to getting work accomplished (such as low deep work, too many meetings, stuck PRs, and potential burnout) and offers alerts and tips to improve.“By working in collaboration with the team at Madrona Venture Labs and now with continued support from Tim Porter and the at Madrona, we assembled an incredible founding team and have been able to leverage support with introductions, recruiting and communications to help us grow.”– Joe Levy, CEOMadrona TeamS. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries CUnearthUnearth’s OnePlace is a new category of work and asset management software, powering digital transformation for organizations that build, inspect, and maintain physical assets. It combines GIS and project management to create a unique map-based system that lives at the center of an organization’s IT infrastructure – connecting field and office teams through mobile and desktop applications. The result is faster, more reliable work and asset management that scales with ease.“We started working with Madrona when Unearth was still just an early idea of connecting drone data and construction sites. They helped us focus our thinking and led our seed round. As a seed stage company, Soma and Chris were integral in helping us evolve the product and carve out our niche while scaling at the right pace. Today our business creates safer, stronger communities by simplifying the maintenance of complex infrastructure through trackable, organized data.” – Brian Saab, Founder & CEOMadrona TeamS. Somasegar & Chris PicardoInitial InvestmentSeries SeedUI PathUIPath is on a mission to accelerate human potential and is a crucial component in the digital transformation of the enterprise.  Thousands of companies around the world use their software to automate business processes and workflow through software bots that streamline processes, eliminate waste and automate office worker tasks.  The company is a leader in the Robotic Process Automation market according to Gartner for two years in a row.“We had just started an engineering office in the Seattle region. I was talking to Soma and thought of how he and Madrona can be a great local partner for us as we continued to build and scale UiPath through a hyper-growth phase. Beyond helping us build out a great team in the area, Soma and the team have been very helpful in providing product and market advice over the years including effectively partnering with the big cloud platform providers.”– Daniel Dines, Co-Founder & CEOMadrona TeamS. SomasegarInitial InvestmentSeries C InsightsWhy RelationalAI Will Revolutionize Next-Generation Data-Driven Intelligent ApplicationsWhen I first met Molham Aref and heard what he and his team at RelationalAI were building, I was blown away by his vision but was skeptical about whether he and the team could pull it off. For over a decade now, I have seen teams struggle to build intelligent applications at scale due to… LEARN MORE >The Power of Why – Madrona 2022Madrona’s mission is to help positively transform the world by partnering with incredible entrepreneurs to build lasting and significant companies. Every March at our Annual Meeting, we provide a progress report to our investors – primarily university endowments, foundations, and families who are aligned with our mission. This week, for the first time since 2019,… LEARN MORE >The Time is Now for Enterprise RoboticsGeorge Devol created Unimate, the first digitally operated and programmable robot in 1954, and since then, we have been awed by the likes of C-3P0 from “Star Wars,” Tipsy – the cocktail serving robot in Las Vegas, and Scout – Amazon’s delivery robots in Snohomish County. But recent technological advancements mean robotics is now primed… LEARN MORE >more insightsFOUNDED & FUNDED: A PODCAST ABOUT & FOR START UPSThis week on Founded and Funded, we spotlight our next IA40 winner – Starburst… LEARN MORE >In this episode of Founded and Funded, Madrona is launching a special series to highlight… LEARN MORE >Portfolio Companies Reflect on 2021, Share 2022 Goals and Advice for Other StartupsWe just wrapped our annual meeting, which we were able to have… LEARN MORE >more podcasts25years investing in Northwest companies21IPOs85+portfolio companies from pre-seed to late stagemore about usCONTACT USLP LOGIN©2022 Madrona Venture Group By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies. We use cookies to provide you with a great experience and to help our website run effectively.  Accept  Privacy PolicyPrivacy & Cookies Policy Close Privacy OverviewThis website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 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