Shows / Founded & Funded
Founded & Funded
Listen to conversations between Madrona investors and entrepreneurs, founders, and startup personalities who talk about some of the key moments in building a company. Designed to give would-be founders and others interested in working with or for startups a view into the struggle and the lessons learned, these conversations are informal and informative. With more than 25 years of investing in early-stage technology companies, Madrona has worked with founders from day one to help build their…
Episodes
- Founded & Funded
Is Your Startup Idea Too Early, Or the Wrong Thing?
Building a company before all the pieces are in place forces calls on timing, focus, and trust. Concurrence co-founder and CEO Ali Khokhar shares how he has…
- Founded & Funded
The Legal Decisions Every AI Founder Needs to Get Right
Who is responsible when an AI agent does something its user never intended? Janel Thamkul, former deputy general counsel at Anthropic, explains why the answer…
- Founded & Funded
Is AI a Bubble? What PitchBook's Head of Research Sees in the Data
Recorded live at Seattle Tech Week, this episode of Founded & Funded brings together two people who track the AI capital markets from different vantage points…
- Founded & Funded
Why AI Made Your Buyers Harder to Sell To
After leaving a long sales career, David Rubenstein spent a year meeting more than 300 founders across 41 countries and turned what he heard into a framework…
- Founded & Funded
The Best Infrastructure Moment Since Cloud
Joe Beda and Craig McLuckie co-created Kubernetes, the infrastructure standard that became the default for cloud native computing. Now running Stacklok…
- Founded & Funded
AGI Needs Formal Reasoning. Carina Hong is Building it at Axiom.
There's a theorem being tested about how AI reaches general intelligence. Carina Hong's answer: through mathematics. Carina is the founder of Axiom, and in…
- Founded & Funded
Palantir Alum Explains How AI is Used and Bought by the Federal Government
Nick LaRovere spent years at Palantir before co-founding Pryzm with friends, including a Lockheed Martin alum. And in this episode of Founded & Funded, Nick…
- Founded & Funded
Zapier Has More AI Agents Than Employees. Here's How That Happened
Zapier is doing hundreds of millions in ARR, has 800 employees, and has more AI agents than people. That ratio isn't an accident. Wade Foster, CEO and…
- Founded & Funded
Twitter's Ex-CEO: The Web Was Built for Humans — Let's Make it Work for AI Agents
What happens when AI agents — not humans — become your primary customer? That's not a hypothetical. It's already happening, and the founders who recognize it…
- Founded & Funded
How to Sell AI Into the Enterprise: Pilots, Pricing, and Closing 12-Month Deals
What does it really take to sell an AI-native product into the Fortune 500? In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain sits…
- Founded & Funded
The Infrastructure of Intelligence: Inside Crusoe's Massive AI Factory in Texas
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Ben Gilbert, co-host of the Acquired podcast, sits down with Chase Lochmiller, co-founder and CEO of Crusoe-AI, the…
- Founded & Funded
Can We Trust AI? The Future of Verified Reasoning in High-Stakes Systems
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Partner Jon Turow hosts a live conversation with Carina Hong, Founder & CEO of Axiom, and Byron Cook, VP &…
- Founded & Funded
Microsoft's Agent Factory: The Future of AI Software with EVP of Core AI Jay Parikh
In this live episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Soma Somasegar sits down with Jay Parikh, EVP of Core AI at Microsoft, to unpack the…
- Founded & Funded
How — and What — to Build in the Age of OpenAI
Where is OpenAI going, and what does it mean for the broader AI and tech ecosystem? Madrona Partner Vivek Ramaswami sits down with Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy…
- Founded & Funded
The Analyst Mindset in Venture: Madrona Investor Rasik Parikh's story
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Digital Editor Coral Garnick Ducken sits down with Investor Rasik Parikh to unpack his journey from public markets…
- Founded & Funded
Redefining Communication: Yoodli Founders on AI Roleplays, Confidence & Building in Seattle
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Venture Partner Patrick Ennis sits down with Varun Puri and Esha Joshi, co-founders of Yoodli, an AI-powered…
- Founded & Funded
From Google and Amazon to NewDays: Why These Tech Vets Bet on AI for Dementia
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter sits down with Babak Parviz and Daniel Kelly, co-founders of NewDays, a platform…
- Founded & Funded
The Future of Biology Is Generative: Inside Synthesize Bio's RNA AI Model
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Investor Joe Horsman sits down with Jeff Leek and Rob Bradley, co-founders of Synthesize Bio, a foundation model…
- Founded & Funded
From $1M to $10M ARR in 6 Months: How Fyxer is Winning AI Productivity
Fyxer.ai is an AI-powered assistant that helps users reclaim hours of their day by managing their inboxes, writing replies, and taking meeting notes. But Fyxer…
- Founded & Funded
Autonomous CRM: How Clarify Is Reinventing a $100B Category
Thompson and Austin Hay, co-founders of Clarify, the startup that's pioneering the idea of autonomous CRM. Their vision? A CRM that actually does the work for…
- Founded & Funded
Bridging Strategy and Startups: Madrona Investor Rolanda Fu's Story
In this Investor Spotlight episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona's Coral Ducken sits down with Investor Rolanda Fu to explore her journey to VC — from playing…
- Founded & Funded
V0's Creator on What's Next for AI Dev Tools
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Partner Vivek Ramaswami sits down with Jared Palmer — designer, developer, and founder of Turborepo (acquired by…
- Founded & Funded
Engineering in the AI Era: Qodo Founder on the AI-Powered SDLC
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Investor Rolanda Fu is joined by Dedy Kredo, the co-founder and chief product officer of QodoAI — formerly…
- Founded & Funded
Breaking into Enterprise: How Anagram Landed Disney with Cold Outbound
In the latest episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Partner Vivek Ramaswami sits down with Harley Sugarman, founder and CEO of Anagram, to unpack how one pivot…
- Founded & Funded
Building Biotech in Seattle: Madrona Investor Spotlight with Joe Horsman
What happens when a scientist becomes a VC? We sat down with Madrona's Joe Horsman to find out. In this episode, Joe shares his journey from late nights in the…
- Founded & Funded
The End of Biz Apps? AI, Agility, and The Agent-Native Enterprise from Microsoft CVP Charles Lamanna
In this Founded & Funded episode, Madrona Managing Director Soma Somasegar sits down with Charles Lamanna, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, to unpack his…
- Founded & Funded
Building AI That Sells: Scaling Smarter with Luminance CEO Eleanor Lightbody
Entrepreneurs often ask: When do I know it's time to scale? Or, how do I lead when I wasn't the original founder? In this week's Founded & Funded, Madrona…
- Founded & Funded
Customer Obsession & Agentic AI Power Ravenna's Reinvention of Internal Ops
Most startups bolt AI onto old products. @ravennahq reimagined the entire workflow. When we first met Kevin Coleman and Taylor Halliday, it was clear they…
- Founded & Funded
Reinventing Recruiting: SeekOut's Anoop Gupta on the Rise of Agentic AI
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Soma Somasegar sits down with Anoop Gupta, co-founder and CEO of @SeekOut — an AI-first company…
- Founded & Funded
Unscripted: What Happened After the Mic Went Off with Douwe Kiela
This bonus episode of Founded & Funded is a follow-up to Madrona Partner Jon Turow's conversation with Douwe Kiela, CEO of Contextual AI and co-inventor of…
- Founded & Funded
AI, Ambition, and a $3 Trillion Vision: Satya Nadella on Microsoft's Bold Bet
Microsoft Chairman & CEO Satya Nadella sat down with Madrona Managing Director Soma Somasegar at Madrona's 2025 Annual Meeting to discuss the key inflection…
- Founded & Funded
RAG Inventor Talks Agents, Grounded AI, and Enterprise Impact
What does it take to invent a foundational AI paradigm — and then build a company to bring it to the enterprise? In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona…
- Founded & Funded
Dropzone's Edward Wu on Solving Security's Biggest Bottleneck
The security industry has a math problem: 12 million job postings, only 7 million qualified professionals. The solution? AI. Edward Wu spent nearly a decade at…
- Founded & Funded
AI+Data in the Enterprise: Lessons from Mosaic to Databricks
The biggest AI breakthroughs won't come from Ph.D. labs — they'll come from people solving real-world problems. So how do AI founders actually turn…
- Founded & Funded
Scaling, AI, and Leadership after Big Tech: Lessons from Highspot's Bhrighu Sareen
Thinking about leaving Big Tech for a startup? In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter sits down with Bhrighu Sareen, who…
- Founded & Funded
Serial Entrepreneur Mohit Aron on Founding, Scaling, and Leading Category-Leading Companies
What does it take to go from engineer to founder, from startup CEO to scale CEO? In this special live episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director…
- Founded & Funded
Terray's Jacob Berlin on The AI-Powered Future of Medicine
Terray Therapeutics CEO Jacob Berlin returns to Founded & Funded after three years to share how the company has scaled from an ambitious startup to an industry…
- Founded & Funded
Curt Medeiros on Revolutionizing Precision Medicine and Scaling Ovation
Imagine a future where healthcare isn't just reactive but deeply personalized — where every patient gets the right treatment at the right time based on a…
- Founded & Funded
Breaking Conventional Wisdom: Jama Software's Blueprint for Profitable Growth
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter and Jama Software CEO Marc Osofsky discuss the intentional strategies that fueled…
- Founded & Funded
Archon's Jamie Lazarovits on Unlocking the Full Power of Antibodies With AI
What does it take to move from cutting-edge academic research to launching a biotech company that could transform medicine? In this week's episode of Founded &…
- Founded & Funded
Beyond the Model: Taking AI From Prototype to Production with Unstructured's Brian Raymond
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Karan Mehandru hosts Brian Raymond, founder and CEO of 2024 IA40 winner Unstructured…
- Founded & Funded
Perseverance Over Speed: Creating a New Category with Impinj's Chris Diorio
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter and Venture Partner Patrick Ennis host Chris Diorio, co-founder and CEO of Impinj…
- Founded & Funded
Startup to Scale: A Mini Masterclass in Efficient Growth and GTM
In the latest episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter hosts Pradeep Rathinam, a seasoned software executive with over three decades…
- Founded & Funded
From Dark Matter to Voice AI with Deepgram Founder Scott Stephenson
Today Madrona Managing Director Karan Mahandru and Scott Stephenson, Co-Founder and CEO of Deepgram, a foundational AI company building a voice AI platform…
- Founded & Funded
Temporal Founders Bet on Open Source and Developers to Enable Invincible Applications
Madrona Managing Director Soma Somasegar hosts Temporal Co-Founders Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev in studio. Temporal was founded in 2019 based on an…
- Founded & Funded
Investor Spotlight: Chris Picardo on Cross-Disciplinary Innovation and Finding Unique Founders
In this episode of Founded & Funded, host Coral Garnick Ducken interviews Madrona Partner Chris Picardo for the latest Investor Spotlight. With degrees in math…
- Founded & Funded
Transforming TV Advertising: iSpot's Sean Muller on the Role of AI and the Future of Streaming
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Venture Partner Len Jordan sits down with Sean Muller, Founder and CEO of iSpot, to talk about the company's…
- Founded & Funded
Investor Spotlight: Sabrina Wu on Founder Grit, Authenticity, and Building Intelligent Applications
In this episode of Founded & Funded, host Coral Garnick Ducken interviews Madrona Investor Sabrina Wu for the latest Investor Spotlight. These two discuss…
- Founded & Funded
Building Predibase: AI, Open-Source, and Commercialization with Dev Rishi and Travis Addair
Madrona Partner Vivek Ramaswami hosts Dev Rishi and Travis Addair, co-founders of 2023 IA40 Rising Star, Predibase. Predibase is a platform for developers to…
- Founded & Funded
Read AI's David Shim on Making Meetings More Efficient With Intelligent Agents
In this episode, Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain hosts David Shim, founder and CEO of Read AI. These two have known each other for over two decades…
- Founded & Funded
Transforming Corporate Travel: A Conversation With Steve Singh and Christal Bemont
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Steve Singh and Christal Bemont, CEO of Direct Travel, Madrona's newest portfolio company, delve…
- Founded & Funded
Building a Modern Database: Nikita Shamgunov on Postgres and Beyond
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Investor Paul Goel and Neon Co-founder & CEO Nikita Shamgunov dive into the database market and the importance of…
- Founded & Funded
How Bobsled is Revolutionizing Cross-Cloud Data Sharing
Investor Sabrina Wu hosts Bobsled Co-founder and CEO Jake Graham for the latest episode of Founded & Funded. Jake is revolutionizing data sharing across…
- Founded & Funded
How Writer CEO May Habib Is Making GenAI Work For the Enterprise
Madrona Partner Vivek Ramaswami hosts May Habib, co-founder and CEO of Writer, a 2023 IA40 winner. Writer is a full-stack generative AI platform for the…
- Founded & Funded
Investor Spotlight: A Conversation with Madrona's Soma Somasegar
Hear from Madrona Managing Director Soma Somasegar as he discusses his path to venture capital by way of 27 years at Microsoft. He shares invaluable insights…
- Founded & Funded
Dust Founders Bet Foundation Models Will Change How Companies Work
Madrona Partner Jon Turow hosts Gabriel Hubert and Stan Polu, the co-founders of a 2023 IA40 winner, Dust, which enables information workers to create…
- Founded & Funded
From Creating Kubernetes to Founding Stacklok: Open-Source and Security with Craig McLuckie
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter talks to Craig McLuckie, who's most known as one of the creators of Kubernetes at…
- Founded & Funded
The Evolution of Enterprise AI: A Conversation with Arvind Jain
Madrona Investor Palak Goel talks with Arvind Jain, founder and CEO of Glean, which has raised about $155M since launching in 2019 and was named a 2023 IA40…
- Founded & Funded
Investor Spotlight: A Conversation with Madrona's Tim Porter
Hear from Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter as he discusses his path to venture capital by way of mechanical engineering and Microsoft. He shares invaluable…
- Founded & Funded
Navigating the Dynamics of Startup Boards: Managing Disagreements & Effective Governance
In this episode, Madrona Managing Director S. Somasegar and General Counsel Joanna Black discuss the fundamental role of a board in a startup's growth and…