Hope became a managing director in early 2019, following two years as a venture partner. As managing director, Hope identifies and leads new investments, provides strategic and operational advice to Madrona portfolio companies, and fosters corporate and strategic business development relationships with larger companies and investors. Hope spearheads Madrona’s leadership in the OnBoarding Women program, which focuses on a business-first education for prospective women corporate board members. In addition, Hope serves on the boards of Ai2, Hasbro, Inc, MongoDB, and NewRelic.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to joining Madrona, Hope was the CFO of King Digital, the creator of Candy Crush and other successful mobile games, where she helped the company manage explosive employee and revenue growth, guided the company’s IPO, and successfully completed a $5.9 billion acquisition by Activision in early 2016. Before King Digital, Hope was CFO at Clearwire, a telecom company that navigated the complicated world of spectrum, partnerships, and competition as the modern wireless industry took shape. While at Clearwire, she brought the company through $12 billion of capital raises, including an IPO, secondary offering, multiple debt offerings, and strategic investments from large public companies, and ultimately through the acquisition by Sprint.

Hope started her career as an entrepreneur and founder of SkillsVillage. A company she grew to 200 employees and $10 million in revenue. Acquired by Peoplesoft and folded into its larger platform, SkillsVillage created a system for companies to easily manage contract labor.

Listen to Hope shares her inspiring story in her own words on one of our episodes of Founded & Funded.

Lessons learned

• In the life of startups, when capital is available, take it quickly and then spend time planning how to utilize it.
• When motivating your team, understand what motivates them first – professionally and personally.
• Enjoy the journey. The destination is enticing, but it is better because of the successes and failures experienced to get there!

When she’s not in the office…

Hope is an avid supporter of the arts. When not in the office, she can be found chasing her three children around or pursuing other outdoor activities.

Noteworthy

Hope holds a bachelor’s in economics and music from Stanford University. Among other honors, Hope has been named one of Fortune’s Top 10 Women in Gaming, Women Inc’s 2018 Most Influential Corporate Director, Puget Sound CFO of the Year for Public Companies, and 2021 Puget Sound Director of the Year. She also received a Top 50 Global Telecom CFO award from Global Telecom Business.

Paul loves the ever-evolving nature of technology and the fact that every great breakthrough ignites the creative fires of yet another generation of entrepreneurs who have a vision of what lies ahead and the passion for building a world-changing company that capitalizes on that vision. There literally is no bottom to the well of opportunities that can become the next big idea.

Journey to Madrona

Before co-founding Madrona Investment Group in 1995, Paul was a partner at the Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie, a co-founder of William D. Ruckelshaus Associates, and a general partner in the Environmental Venture Fund, a Chicago-based venture capital fund formed in 1987.

Lessons learned

If it ain’t broke … then maybe it’s time that it should be broken. Perfection may be the enemy of good, but good shouldn’t become the enemy of great.

When he’s not in the office…

Paul is a former board member of the Seattle Opera and is currently on the board of Friends of Waterfront Seattle, a nonprofit organization that has teamed with the city of Seattle to construct and manage a waterfront park revitalizing the city’s central waterfront after the demolition of the Viaduct. He enjoys hiking all over the world, kayaking, and windsurfing. He is also a self-professed chocoholic and an “avid, but mediocre, Texas Hold’em player.”

Noteworthy

Paul is a graduate of Amherst College and the University of Utah Law School.

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.

2. Massive markets (and market opportunities) trump pretty much everything else.

3. The best-performing companies put the customer at the center of everything they do.

4. 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.

Matt is passionate about founders building companies that leverage applied machine learning and cloud computing to solve problems better than ever. They can be intelligent applications for enterprise or “intersections of innovation” — where life science and data science intersect.

Journey to Madrona

Before joining Madrona in 2000, Matt was vice president of business process for the Genuine Parts Company (NYSE: GPC). He also was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, concentrating on strategy and marketing in technology-driven sectors. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse. For more about Matt and lessons learned from 20 years of VC investing, traits of top entrepreneurs, and building a bigger pie, listen to this episode of “Built in Seattle.”

Lessons learned

Matt believes in The Power of Why and The Learning Loop for entrepreneurs who continuously use curiosity and triangulation to make better decisions. And he loves being a Full-Stack VC that helps founders from Day One for the long run.

When he’s not in the office…

Matt was a board member (and previous chair) of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center for a decade and continues to serve on the Board of Advisors. He is also a board member of the Washington Policy Center. Matt enjoys adventures with his family, discussing public policy issues, and trying out new technologies. He is also an avid runner, Peloton biker, and Seahawks and Sounders fan.

Noteworthy

Matt graduated from Dartmouth College and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has been on the Forbes Midas list and Top 100 Venture Capitalists by CB Insights and The New York Times several times. In 2024, Business Insider named him to The AI Power List, which features the most powerful people in artificial intelligence. In 2017, Matt was named Emerging Company Director of the year by the Puget Sound Business Journal in partnership with the prestigious National Association of Corporate Directors’ Northwest chapter. In 2011, he received the Washington Policy Center’s Champion of Freedom Award.

Tim joined Madrona in 2006 and invests in B2B software companies in the Pacific Northwest. He is currently interested in intelligent applications and SaaS, cloud-native software infrastructure, the modern data stack, machine learning, DevOps, and cybersecurity. He is also a board member of numerous Madrona portfolio companies.

Journey to Madrona

Before joining Madrona, Tim was a key member of Microsoft’s corporate development group, where he shared responsibilities for sourcing, structuring, and negotiating Microsoft’s acquisitions, strategic investments, and joint ventures. While at Microsoft, Tim focused on enterprise software, security, and mobile. He closed 14 transactions for over $850 million. Notable transactions included Microsoft’s acquisitions of Softricity, FrontBridge Technologies, ProClarity, Whale Communications, and Giant Company Software. Earlier in his career, Tim worked nearly five years for broadband satellite startup Teledesic, spending his last year there also working for Craig McCaw’s Eagle River Investments.

Lessons learned

1. You can never do too much customer and market validation. When you think you have done enough, still do more. This is the first critical step to ensuring product-market fit.
2. Do not try to do too many things at once. Ruthlessly prioritize. Focus is paramount. Make sure you put all your attention on your people and customers.

When he’s not in the office...

Tim is a member of the board of the Washington Technology Alliance. He also serves on the board of impact-first investment fund Global Partnerships and is on their Social Venture Fund’s investment committee. Global Partnerships is dedicated to expanding opportunity for people living in poverty in Africa and Central and South America. Outside of work, Tim enjoys spending time with his wife and two children. He loves sports and the outdoors, particularly basketball, running, mountain biking, snowboarding, fishing, golf, and tennis.

Noteworthy

Tim received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a proud cheesehead, born and raised in Wisconsin.

Steve primarily focuses on next-generation B2B and enterprise-related startups. He invests across a wide variety of technology areas, including machine learning /artificial intelligence, intelligent applications, and next-generation cloud infrastructure. Steve is on the board of portfolio companies Clari and Leaf Logistics. He also serves as the executive chairman of Spotnana, Troop, Stratify, Magnify, and Center.

Journey to Madrona

Before joining Madrona in 2020, Steve had a long career building and running scale businesses, including being the founder and CEO of Concur [NASDAQ: CNQR] and serving on the executive board of SAP [NYSE: SAP], running its cloud business group.

When he’s not in the office…

Steve loves working with others to build cool products and companies. But he also enjoys spending time with family and good friends – ideally skiing, exploring the world, or enjoying a great meal, good wine, and great conversation.

Noteworthy

Steve and his family run the Singh Family Foundation, which focuses on education for girls, conservation, and several local charitable initiatives.

Soma joined Madrona in 2015 and focuses on B2B and enterprise-related startups. He invests across a wide variety of technology areas, including machine learning/artificial intelligence, next-generation cloud infrastructure, intelligent applications, developer and DevOps platforms and tools, robotic process automation and the intersection of innovation — where life science and data science intersect.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to Madrona, Soma had a successful 27-year career at Microsoft and was most recently the senior vice president of the developer division. Under Soma’s leadership, the Microsoft Developer Division, which supports over 6 million .NET developers worldwide, expanded its mission to deliver developer tools and services for mobile development and cloud development across a variety of platforms and programming technologies through the Visual Studio and .NET family of products. Additionally, Soma was the executive sponsor for global development at Microsoft and oversaw Microsoft’s Global Development Centers in China, India, and Israel. Soma has been a long-time angel investor with investments across a wide array of technology areas both in the U.S. and internationally. For more on Soma’s path to Madrona, listen to this episode of “Leading Smart.”

Lessons learned

1. Take a long-term view — whether it is investing in an early stage company and partnering with the founder/founding team for the next decade or more, whether it is making a decision that balances the long-term vision with the short-term requirements, whether it is building a professional relationship with a smart, passionate individual, whether it is about building a castle while putting together the building blocks one at a time — I think taking a long-term view and optimizing for that while balancing the short- and medium-term requirements is what works best.
2. Work on an important problem that you are very passionate about solving – if it is not an important problem, you’re not sure why you are spending time on it, and if you are not very passionate about spending all of your time, energy and effort in solving that – you aren’t going to be putting in your best effort anyway.

When he’s not in the office…

Soma is passionate about empowering and educating girls around the world. Having two daughters, he and his wife strongly believe in the great opportunity that exists globally in supporting women’s education and empowerment initiatives. Soma and his wife are also part owners of Sounders FC in Seattle.

Noteworthy

Soma holds a master’s in computer engineering from Louisiana State University and a bachelor’s in electronics and communication engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Anna University in Chennai, India. Soma also has an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Anna University.

Chris joined Madrona in 2017. As a partner on the investment team, Chris focuses on identifying, evaluating, and leading new investment opportunities and working closely with existing companies. Chris helps lead Madrona’s investments in companies innovating around the intersection of life and computer science through combining novel wet lab science with cutting-edge machine learning. He also helps lead investing activities in consumer technology and commerce, marketplaces, and Web3, focusing on how new technological innovations can create new consumer experiences and interactions with the digital world.

Journey to Madrona

Before joining Madrona, Chris led finance, business intelligence, and strategy for Rockets of Awesome, a kids’ clothing subscription box company focused on personalization at scale. At Rockets, Chris led several fundraising rounds and helped oversee significant growth in the first 18 months of operations. Chris was also on the investment team at Invus, where he focused on consumer and life science deals and supporting the earliest stage portfolio companies.

Chris started his career in Seattle as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, Chris worked on engagements across industries and functions, but he focused largely on digital user experience, biotech portfolio strategy, enterprise software strategy and long-term planning, and consumer product cost and design.

Lessons learned

1. Focusing on the people is the most important and rewarding aspect of investing. We are in this together, and working with amazing people matters more than anything else.
2. Building companies is all about focus. Working on fewer things faster is a recipe for success.
3. Always prioritize the customer. From sales to strategy to product roadmap, solving customers’ pain points is the formula for an amazing company.

When he’s not in the office…

Chris serves on the board of Life Science Washington. He is an avid golfer and will play in any weather. He also enjoys tennis, skiing, and jazz saxophone, and he is a die-hard Seattle sports fan.

Noteworthy

Chris graduated cum laude from Williams College with majors in mathematics (honors) and English. At Williams, Chris wrote a statistics thesis examining time-dependent model-based clustering methods by looking at pitching data from Major League Baseball. Chris was also a member of the varsity swim team for four years.