When special people have something powerful to say, we all take notice. Such was the case when we met Varun Puri and Esha Joshi more than three years ago. They spoke about how two out of three people fear public speaking, and how valuable it is for individuals and teams to improve their communication abilities on crucial skills like sales pitches, employee feedback conversations, and speeches.
You know when you encounter great communication: every part clicks—clarity, tone, timing, empathy — and what could have been awkward or average becomes compelling, persuasive, even memorable. From our vantage point, we can say that the same is true for great startups. When the team, product, vision, technology, timing, and execution align, something special happens. It’s rare. It’s unmistakable.
That’s what we’ve seen in Yoodli from Day one. And in just a few years, they’ve gone from a bold idea to pioneering a new category — AI Roleplays — with a platform that is now trusted by some of the world’s top enterprises.
And that’s why we’re excited to announce that we’re reinvesting in Yoodli’s $13.7M Series A, led by Neotribe Ventures with participation from Cercano. This brings their total funding to over $20M, and affirms our deep relationship with these spectacular founders and this special team.
We met founders Varun and Esha in 2021, as they incubated and then spun out Yoodli from our partners at the AI2 Incubator here in Seattle. Their mission was deeply personal: to make world-class communication coaching accessible to everyone. Since then, they’ve transformed Yoodli from a public speaking app into a powerful platform used by some of the world’s most respected enterprises.
AI Roleplays: A New Way to Practice What Matters Most
Yoodli AI Roleplays is a revolutionary platform that lets people practice high-stakes conversations in a dynamic, individualized, and scalable way. From sales pitches and partner onboarding to performance reviews and interview prep, the platform simulates real-world scenarios with real-time coaching on content, tone, and body language.
It’s like a flight simulator for communication. And it works.
Organizations including Google, Databricks, Snowflake, Toastmasters, and others use Yoodli to scale go-to-market enablement, accelerate onboarding, personalize coaching, and build confidence across teams.
A True Intelligent Application
Yoodli is a standout example of Intelligent Applications: AI-native products that continuously learn and improve, delivering value that compounds over time in ways that were never before possible. Yoodli combines computer vision, speech recognition, and large language models to give precise, adaptive feedback — something traditional training tools can’t do.
This is applied AI at its best: solving real workflows, delivering real results.
The Team Behind the Chemistry
The reason Yoodli works so well is the same reason the company does: the right team. Varun spent years at Google X leading projects for Sergey Brin. Esha, formerly at Apple, brings deep engineering talent and a strong vision for equity in communication. They’ve since added Derek Sessions as CTO and Josh Vitello to lead go-to-market, rounding out a leadership team with deep experience and complementary strengths.
This team doesn’t just build features; they build momentum. They’ve moved with precision, empathy, and urgency since day one, and their customer traction reflects that. Moreover, they have built a powerful ecosystem that complements their own capabilities, partnering with communication coaches and learning management systems to provide an even deeper network of support for organizations.
We’re also excited to welcome Neeraj Hablani of Neotribe to the board. His operating experience at Waymo and long-standing relationship with Varun will be invaluable as the company scales.
Why We’re All In
This partnership reflects everything we value at Madrona:
- Founder-market fit rooted in personal mission and technical excellence
- Day-one involvement through our AI2 partnership
- Hands-on support across product, hiring, and strategy
- Conviction in AI-native products that create new categories
We’ve been fortunate to support Yoodli across every stage of its journey — from their first check to this Series A — and we’re more excited than ever about what’s ahead.
If communication is the meta-skill of the modern workplace, Yoodli is making it learnable, measurable, and scalable.
To Varun, Esha, Derek, Josh, and the entire Yoodli team: thank you for letting us be part of something that clicks — because when it does, you feel it.
Ready to see what better communication can do for you and your team? Experience AI roleplays for yourself today at yoodli.ai