For many early-stage startups, the hardest part is not building the product, it is building the market around it. Even the most promising teams often struggle to turn early interest into consistent demand, clear messaging, and a repeatable path to revenue.
Supporting founders through those challenges has been part of Madrona’s work for decades. Helping companies build their commercial engine, refine their customer focus, and establish the foundations for durable growth has always been central to how we partner with teams from day one. Our GTM Center of Excellence, which Venture Partner Anna Baird and I help lead, reflects that long-standing commitment to hands-on go-to-market support across the portfolio.
Today, as part of that continued effort, Madrona welcomes Eric Wong as our director of portfolio growth. Eric brings deep expertise in demand generation and marketing operations to a team dedicated to helping more companies move from early traction to breakout scale.
Why Eric
I first met Eric nearly two decades ago, when we joined DocuSign at roughly the same time. Even in the chaotic early days of building a category-defining company, Eric was the person who never hesitated to dive in wherever help was needed. He was, and still is, a builder: someone who takes pride in doing the work well, who rolls up his sleeves without being asked, and who cares deeply about outcomes rather than recognition.
That mindset earned him tremendous respect across DocuSign. Whether you talked to sales, product, finance, or operations, the feedback was consistent: Eric made teams better. He understood how to translate a strong product into a clear, compelling story for customers. And he knew how to operationalize the systems that support a dependable go-to-market engine.
In the 14 years since then, Eric has taken on early marketing and operations leadership roles at seven startups. Across these companies, he repeatedly guided teams through the critical $0-to-$50M phase of growth. He helped founders identify the right customers, build repeatable demand, and implement the marketing operations infrastructure that connects early leads through to closed revenue.
Most importantly, Eric knows exactly where he does his best work. He thrives in the earliest stages of company building, helping founders move from experimentation to clarity, from early traction to measurable, sustainable growth. This role within Madrona’s GTM Center of Excellence allows him to build on the skills he’s honed over decades as he supports our portfolio companies on their journeys to become the next DocuSign.
What We’ve Learned From Founders
In working with more than 40 companies over the past two years, Anna and I have seen clear patterns in where early-stage founders need the most support. While product innovation is essential, the “market” side of product-market fit often receives far less attention. Early teams frequently wrestle with questions like:
- Who exactly is our ideal customer?
- How do we create predictable demand rather than relying on founder-driven hustle?
- What does a healthy funnel look like at our stage?
- Which systems and processes actually support growth instead of slowing it down?
These challenges aren’t signs of failure; they’re signs of early-stage traction outpacing a company’s systems and competencies.
But if left unaddressed, they compound. Many founders reach out only once problems have become acute: the sales motion no longer works, messaging has drifted, the funnel has stalled, or a key commercial leader has departed. We can still help at that point, but the company is often starting from behind.
Our goal with the GTM Center of Excellence — and with leaders like Eric — is to engage before those moments arrive. We aim to offer real support earlier and more deeply than founders expect from a venture firm, helping them avoid costly clean-up cycles and instead build strong foundations from the start.
Strengthening Early Foundations
Internally, we think of the Center of Excellence as a way to strengthen the earliest phases of company building. These are the moments when clarity, focus, and disciplined execution have an outsized impact on long-term outcomes. It is exactly where many early-stage companies struggle: translating a strong product into durable market traction.
By engaging sooner and supporting founders through those foundational steps, we aim to help more companies progress confidently through product-market fit, early distribution, and repeatable growth. With Eric joining the team, we are expanding our capacity to:
- Accelerate product-market fit by identifying the right customers and sharpening the value narrative.
- Establish early distribution through clear segmentation, channel strategy, and early sales motions.
- Build strong marketing and revenue operations that connect leads → opportunities → bookings with transparency and discipline.
- Drive focused expansion as companies find traction, ensuring founders invest resources where they can win.
Over time, we expect this work to show up in a simple but meaningful way: more companies advancing through the early and growth stages with stronger fundamentals, clearer direction, and a greater likelihood of reaching meaningful scale.
We could not be more excited to welcome Eric to the Madrona team. His expertise strengthens our ability to support early-stage founders from day one, and his approach to company building aligns deeply with our values.
Eric is based in Seattle but will support founders wherever they are. We look forward to the impact he will have across the portfolio and on the next generation of exceptional teams.
Eric, welcome to Madrona. We’re thrilled to have you.