Scott Jacobson

Managing Director

Scott Jacobson
“Madrona became our first institutional investor when they led our series A in 2019. As first-time founders, we were nervous about how things might change by adding a VC board member and investor to our cap table. Would we be bullied to grow in ways we were uncomfortable with? Our fears were unfounded. What we found in Scott was a perfectly balanced partner. Empathetic to our business and individual needs — but also just the right amount of push to become the best version of ourselves. I've since raised money from numerous VC firms, but no one has been as holistically supportive of our team and business as Scott and Madrona — not even close. I wish that all investors were like Madrona, and I would 10/10 raise money from them again.”
— Demetri Themelis, co-founder and CEO, Knock

Scott Jacobson

Managing Director

Scott joined Madrona in 2007. Scott is particularly interested in marketplaces, consumer-facing technologies, prop tech, and all facets of digital commerce.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to joining Madrona, Scott worked at Amazon.com, where he held senior product and business management positions in the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Marketplace groups. He led several key initiatives, including the international rollout of Amazon’s Merchants@ platform. Earlier in his career, Scott was a senior consultant in Accenture’s strategy consulting practice, working with clients in enterprise software, retail, and energy sectors.

Lessons learned

  1. Getting the right people into the right roles has a huge impact on the trajectory of companies at all stages — particularly at the earliest stages.
  1. Massive markets (and market opportunities) trump pretty much everything else.
  1. The best-performing companies put the customer at the center of everything they do.
  1. Choosing what not to do is more important than choosing what to do.

When he’s not in the office…

Scott enjoys traveling with his family, chasing his kids around sports fields, and restoring cars.

Noteworthy

Scott graduated cum laude from Northwestern University, receiving his bachelor’s in applied mathematics and economics. He earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. His guilty pleasures are $1.99 pulp sci-fi e-books on Kindle and peanut butter cup Blizzards from DQ.

Insights

Scott on Madrona

“I was attracted to Madrona because of the firm's partnership approach to investing. As an early-stage investor, we are truly rolling up our sleeves and partnering with the entrepreneurs we back on a day-to-day basis. We really do invest a lot of ourselves in our companies.”