Team Profiles Archive

Tom Alberg

Tom Alberg left this world on August 5, 2022. You may read more about his extraordinary life here.

Tom Alberg co-founded Madrona in 1995 and actively worked in support of Madrona and its portfolio companies. Tom served on the boards of numerous public and private companies, including Amazon.com, on which he started serving before it went public in 1997. He was a former director for Impinj, a prior Madrona Portfolio Company that is now a public company. Immediately prior to founding Madrona, Tom served as president of public companies LIN Broadcasting Corporation and executive vice president of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. Previously, he was chair of the executive committee and partner in the Northwest’s largest law firm, Perkins Coie, where he was principal counsel for The Boeing Company, Alaska Airlines, and a number of early technology companies. Before that, he was an attorney with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York.

He was past chair of the Washington State Technology Alliance, the Discovery Institute, and the Pacific Science Center and past president of Intiman Theater in Seattle. He was co-chair of the capital campaign for the Computer Science and Engineering Department’s building at the University of Washington and of ACES Northwest Network, a coalition of businesses supporting the implementation of autonomous, connected, electric and shared vehicles in the region. He served on the boards of TechNet Northwest, the Pacific Science Center, and Challenge Seattle. He was formerly a member of President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He was also on the Investment Committee of the Seattle Foundation. He was also previously ranked number 12 of the 35 most influential business leaders in the Seattle area by Puget Sound Business Journal.

Tom was an avid sailor, and he joined forces with celebrated winemaker Mike Januik to build the Novelty Hill Januik winery in nearby Woodinville, Washington. He was also one of the principal participants in the development of the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seattle. He and his wife, Judi Beck, also founded Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center.

Tom was a graduate of Ballard High School in Seattle, and he attended Harvard College, where he graduated cum laude. He received his law degree from Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of the “Columbia Law Review.”

Anna Baird

Anna joined Madrona in 2022. As an operating partner, she leverages her deep go-to-market, finance, and operating expertise to help advise fast-growing and acceleration-stage companies in the Madrona portfolio. Anna also has a deep understanding of the sales technology capabilities in the marketplace, having worked as an executive in one of the companies pioneering this category. She also brings this knowledge of the go-to-market technology stack, landscape, and the challenges companies face to the Madrona teams she works with.

Journey to Madrona

Anna has worked in technology for over 30 years supporting public and private companies in a wide variety of executive and operational roles, including CFO, COO, and president.

Anna was most recently the CRO at Outreach, where she ran the go-to-market teams. As COO of Outreach, she helped the company raise over $200M in funding, achieving a $1B+ valuation. She was instrumental in helping the company grow from $25M to over $230M during her time at the company.

Anna started her career at KPMG, a global consulting company she left as a partner after seventeen years building the technology practice. At KPMG, she helped startups to multi-billion-dollar public companies with business process transformation and controls. Anna was the global lead partner on Google (pre-IPO and next 7 years), Intuit, and others. Anna was also an SVP at McAfee and worked closely with the board and leadership on global controls, enterprise risk management, and the acquisition by Intel.

Lessons learned

Be Customer Centric. They are the voice that matters in what you build, your strategy, and your vision. Solving their pain is the reason you exist.
Customer success is built by happy employees who are proud of their company and want to do the best they can for the customers you serve. So treat them as if they were your best marketers and the path to healthy, expanding customers — because they are.
Focus is key. You will not be known for the 20 things you started but for the 3 things you actually accomplished. Deciding what not to do is the hardest part.

When she’s not in the office…

Anna is an avid hiker, nature lover, and foodie. Travel is one of her passions — she has stood on the edge of Victoria Falls in Africa, jumped off the tallest building in New Zealand, and has been diving in Fiji, at the Great Barrier Reef, and in the Blue Hole in Belize. She has two amazing children who have been on many of these adventures and are now spending serious amounts of time “adulting.”

Noteworthy

Anna is on the board of Semrush (SEMR) and SeatGeek, where she serves as the Audit Committee chair. She has a bachelor’s in business with an emphasis in accounting from CSU Fresno, and she has taken executive courses at Harvard and Wharton.

Hope Cochran

Hope became a venture partner after serving as managing director since early 2019. As a venture partner, she helps identify new investment opportunities and provides strategic and operational guidance to portfolio companies. She works closely with founders and leadership teams on growth, scaling, and strategic partnerships, drawing on deep experience operating and serving on public and private company boards.

Hope also spearheads Madrona’s leadership in the OnBoarding Women program, which provides business-first education for prospective women corporate board members. She currently serves on the boards of Ai2, Hasbro, MongoDB, and StackAdapt.

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.

Baxter Black

Baxter joined Madrona in 2025. He leverages AI and machine learning to identify promising founders, uncover early-stage companies, track emerging trends, and streamline Madrona’s data strategy.

Journey to Madrona

Before joining Madrona, Baxter was a senior data scientist at Amazon, where he most recently focused on real estate selection models and supply chain operations. During his Amazon tenure, Baxter developed a diverse technical skillset spanning the end-to-end data lifecycle — from data engineering and deploying cloud infrastructure with CDK to architecting neural nets and making decision trees explainable.

Lessons learned

Even if you believe you know the answer to a problem, engage with other people on the subject by asking a question. This process unveils new perspectives through active engagement that can grow into more questions. Our collective curiosity leads to innovative endeavors.

When he’s not in the office…

Baxter enjoys creating experiences that he can share with friends and family, whether it’s leading adventures in the PNW mountains, traveling to foreign countries, or experimenting with recipes for dinner parties.

Noteworthy

Baxter earned his bachelor’s degree from American University, where he gained early venture experience managing operations and risk for the student-managed investment fund at the Kogod School of Business — and he’s thrilled to return to the field.

Joanna Black

Joanna joined Madrona in 2022 and serves as the firm’s general counsel. In her role, Joanna manages the legal process for all Madrona investment events and provides legal guidance to portfolio companies. She also works to build a broader Pacific Northwest legal community, connecting in-house legal professionals at startup companies within and outside the portfolio.

Journey to Madrona

Joanna has worked with public and venture-backed companies in the software, technology, and biotechnology industries for the last 25 years. Her experience spans a broad range of legal matters, including corporate governance, contract drafting and review, strategic counseling, venture capital financing, risk mitigation, and intellectual property licensing. Joanna was most recently a partner at Adkins Black, LLP, where she represented and advised biotechnology companies, software companies, and startups on various legal matters. She was formerly vice president and general counsel of Xcyte Therapies, Inc., a public biotechnology company. Joanna started her career in venture, helping to build the Venture Law Group office in Seattle and serving as an attorney with Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto. She has advised and worked on numerous financings, IPOs, and M&A transactions throughout her career.

Lessons learned

Always be kinder than necessary and try to take a pause between your thoughts and reactions. Adding even a short pause provides an opportunity to ask questions, explore possibilities, adjust perspectives, and check your ego. That often makes all the difference.

When she’s not in the office…

In her personal time, Joanna enjoys reading murder mysteries, doing crossword and jigsaw puzzles, listening to podcasts, and spending time with her family. Her favorite podcasts include “Hidden Brain,” “Invest Like the Best,” and “Freakonomics Radio.”

Noteworthy

Joanna received her bachelor’s in economics and public policy from Stanford University. She earned her law degree from Columbia University School of Law.

Caleb Bushner

Caleb joined Madrona as Head of Marketing in 2025.

Journey to Madrona

A Bay Area native, Caleb built his first PC in middle school and was coding well before he could drive. He’s always felt at home in the fast-paced world of startups and has spent nearly 20 years on every side of the table. Notable stops along the way include: the founding marketer of martech startup Accomplice, the chief strategy officer of award-winning brand agency Free Range, and VP of digital strategy at Tech PR Agency of the Year, Mission North. Then, in 2020, he joined Unusual Ventures as VP of marketing.

He joined Madrona to help extend the story of Madrona’s investors and founders in the new media era. And to do so with an AI-native lens, reimagining every marketing touchpoint and service we provide to help our founders win.

Lessons Learned

Audience first, always. It’s not about what you say, it’s what your audience hears. The best marketing starts with a clear-eyed view of who you’re talking to and what matters to them. Work backward from there, and you will find the common ground for a durable relationship.
Curiosity gets you everywhere. One of the best things about the fast-paced world of startups and technology is that there’s always more to learn. This is vital for the craft of marketing because strategic playbooks often grow stale over time, and the only way to keep winning is to keep challenging what you think you know.
Speed is a superpower. Related to the value of curiosity, the real world is the ultimate teacher, and the ability to ship quickly gives you more opportunities to learn what works. Speed propels feedback loops that expand your surface area for learning and thus success. The team that compresses time learns more, and the team that learns more wins.

When he’s not in the office…

Caleb is a former NCAA athlete and an avid cyclist and backpacker. Though he’s recently traded his carbon fiber racing bike for a kid-carrying cargo bike, he’s even more excited to go on adventures in nature these days, now with his wife and two young kids. Once they all go to sleep, he retreats to his workshop, where he finds new ways to make mistakes in building custom furniture in the Arts & Crafts and mid-century styles.

Noteworthy

Caleb once hacked his high school’s attendance database and, yes, deleted the records.

John Carpenter

John joined Madrona in 2000. He manages the internal technology infrastructure and consults with Madrona’s portfolio companies as they establish their infrastructure and security programs. Additionally, John participates in technical due diligence for potential investments and often works closely with entrepreneurs to test their technology and provide essential feedback during product development.

Journey to Madrona

John received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He was previously a technology consultant for Wright Runstad & Company, where he developed a leasing information system and managed the accounting systems. Before that, he was a security consultant and IT auditor for Honeywell, Inc.

Lessons learned

Reboot. It’s really the secret to nearly everything in our modern, electronically connected world. This even applies to our cars now!

When he’s not in the office…

John enjoys cruising the San Juan Islands and northern destinations with his family aboard their Ranger Tug powerboat. He is an avid skier and cyclist, commuting to the office daily on his bicycle.

Noteworthy

In 2017, John and his youngest daughter Olivia rode their tandem bicycle across the United States, raising money and awareness for the endangered resident orcas of the Salish Sea. Over 3,523 miles, they bonded over the shared experience of seeing the country from the saddle.

An Cayas

An joined the Madrona team in 2022 and supports Karan Mehandru in addition to managing and maintaining the California office.

Journey to Madrona

An has worked with Karan for many years. Prior to joining Madrona, she supported Karan as his executive assistant at Steadfast Capital Ventures (California office). Before that, she supported Karan and another general partner at Trinity Ventures.

When she’s not in the office…

An loves hanging out with her husband and son, doing home improvements, hosting and cooking for friends and family, and enjoying a nice cup of coffee and a good audiobook (when life allows with a 3-year-old!).

Noteworthy

An attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she obtained her bachelor’s in biology.

Jennifer Chambers

Jennifer joined Madrona in 1997 and oversees the day-to-day administration of all of Madrona’s active funds — from capital calls to distributions to quarterly reporting and annual meetings with Madrona’s limited partners. Jennifer also oversees an amazing team of back-office support that all play a key role in keeping the trains running on time. In addition, she manages Madrona’s core operations, such as benefits, facilities, and firm accounting. She also serves on the venture growth team, working closely with many of our earliest-stage portfolio companies, assisting them with startup and financial activities.

When she’s not in the office…

She spends a lot of time trying to keep up with her two active daughters, driving them to their events and cheering them on from the sidelines. She also loves new adventures with her family and cheering on the Sounders!

Noteworthy

Jennifer earned her bachelor’s, cum laude, from Seattle University and her MBA from the Albers School of Business at Seattle University.

Katie Chiupka

Katie joined Madrona in 2021. She works to drive business growth and identify partnership opportunities for Madrona portfolio companies.

Journey to Madrona

Katie came to Madrona from Slalom Consulting. While at Slalom, Katie was responsible for developing and implementing strategic business and technology programs for various Seattle-based companies. Katie built a reputation as a trusted adviser by understanding clients’ individual business needs, managing through effective communication, and delivering results.

Katie started her career at a local Seattle startup delivering a business strategy to bring in-person design experiences online. She also expanded her digital retail experience working for Microsoft and Zulily. Katie has a diverse background, including business consulting, digital enablement, business development, program/product management, and marketing.

Lessons learned

Throughout Katie’s career, she has been fortunate to work across different business organizations, industries, and backgrounds. She has learned the common thread across all success lies with building a strong relationship, open communication, and trust with the team you are working with – and always following through.

When she’s not in the office…

Outside of work, Katie enjoys golfing when the weather permits and skiing in the winter when the conditions are right. She also loves traveling to new and familiar places to see family and friends. Her favorite way to start her day is a morning walk with coffee and a Pilates class at her favorite studio — it sets the tone for a successful day to have a successful morning.

Noteworthy

Katie is from the Seattle area and graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s in society, ethics, and human behaviors.

Troy Cichos

Troy joined Madrona in 1999 and serves as the firm’s chief operating officer and partner. In his role, Troy oversees the operations, finance, and administration of Madrona and the venture funds under Madrona’s management. He leads the teams working directly with Madrona companies on recruiting, HR, communications, business development, and marketing. For Madrona, Troy manages legal, HR, IR, tax, and audit, as well as the growing family of Madrona-related organizations such as Create33 and Madrona Venture Labs.

Journey to Madrona

Troy was formerly with Deloitte & Touche in Seattle, where he served six years as an associate and then tax manager. He also worked for three years as a manager at ITT Financial.

When he’s not in the office…

Troy serves on the advisory board for the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the Michael G. Foster School of Business, which promotes entrepreneurial learning and discovery to students — from undergraduates to Ph.D. candidates — across the University of Washington. In addition, Troy is a mentor to the startups of the Jones + Foster Accelerator program that the Buerk Center runs. Troy is also a Managing Director of the W Fund.

Noteworthy

Troy received his bachelor’s in finance from the University of Utah. He earned his law degree from Seattle University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and was an editor of the Seattle University Law Review.

Emily Crandall

Emily joined the Madrona team in May 2023 and supports Jon Turow, Patrick Ennis and Erika Shaffer.

Journey to Madrona

Emily received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Wayne State University and joined Madrona after short stints in tech and healthcare at Acrisure Cyber Services and Meridian Health Plan.

When not in the office…

Emily enjoys reading and writing fiction and exploring local parks in the PNW. As a native Michigander, she enjoys watching Detroit sports teams. She also enjoys finding trendy coffee shops and listening to technology-focused podcasts.

Noteworthy

Emily is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Jack Creighton

John (Jack) Creighton Jr. passed away on January 29th, 2020. You may read more about his extraordinary life here.

Jack was formerly president and CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company and interim chairman and CEO of UAL Corporation (United Airlines) immediately following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He was also vice-chairman and director of Unocal Corporation. Jack joined Madrona as a strategic director in 1998.

Among nonprofit and government agencies, Jack Creighton was the national president of the Boy Scouts of America, chairman of Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, president of the Washington State University Foundation, a member of The Ohio State University Foundation Board, chair of the American Forest and Paper Association, trustee of William D. Ruckelshaus Center and co-chair of the World Trade Center of Seattle.

The recipient of numerous awards, including the Prime Minister of Japan’s Letter of Commendation for International Trade and the Distinguished Volunteer Service Award from Washington State University Foundation. He is the former civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army for the state of Washington.

Jack received his undergraduate and law degrees from The Ohio State University and his MBA from the University of Miami (Florida). He was also a CPA.

Patrick Ennis

Patrick joined Madrona Venture Group in 2019 following many years as an investor, scientist, and inventor.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to Madrona, Patrick was at Intellectual Ventures for more than a decade, running startup incubation and technology commercialization with a focus on Asian markets. His investments included Evolv Technology (Nasdaq: EVLV), of which he was a founding board member. Patrick was also the founding CTO of Xinova, a startup that pioneered an international open-innovation market network.

Previously Patrick was a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners, where he funded and built early-stage startups for ten years. His investments included Impinj (Nasdaq: PI), Innovalight (acquired by DuPont), and Kotura (acquired by Mellanox/NVIDIA).

Before joining the venture capital industry as a Kauffman Fellow in 1998, Patrick worked at AT&T and Bell Labs, leading engineering projects in software development, speech recognition, and network design. He also worked as a product manager in optical networking and a marketing manager for consumer telecom services.

Before joining Bell Labs, Patrick researched nuclear physics at government labs in North America and Europe. During this time, he published many articles in scientific journals, including The Physical Review, Zeitschrift für Physik, and Nuclear Instruments and Methods.

Lessons learned

Integrity matters most, followed by work ethic. Both are more important than intelligence and experience.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem is characterized by relationships and trust, not transactions.
Learning never stops. One must be on a mission to seek out new ideas by learning from everyone.

When he’s not in the office…

Patrick loves to do anything with his three sons, including skiing, rock climbing, basketball, chess, or reading “The Hardy Boys” canon.

Noteworthy

Patrick has served on the board of directors of more than 25 companies. His current board seats include Yoodli, Tangibly, and Wipro Ltd. Patrick is a member of the Lockheed Martin Technical Advisory Group, a strategic advisor to the National University of Singapore, and a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute. Patrick is an inventor on several patents, has written about innovation, and is a frequent speaker at conferences.

In the last two decades, Patrick has spent more than 1,500 days abroad conducting business in 31 countries and developing relationships with technology, corporate, and academic leaders.

Patrick holds a Ph.D., MS, and MPhil in physics from Yale, an MBA from Wharton, and a bachelor’s in mathematics and physics from the College of William and Mary, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

Oren Etzioni

Oren Etzioni joined Madrona as a venture partner in 2000. He is an adviser and board member for The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the technical director of the AI2 Incubator. He is also a professor emeritus at the University of Washington Allen School. Oren is an acknowledged expert on not just the technology of building with AI but the societal impacts. He is quoted widely in popular science and business publications, from Wired to the New York Times, and he speaks often on this topic in public forums.

Journey to Madrona

Oren was the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, building the organization for over nine years before stepping down in 2022. While at AI2, Etzioni built the AI2 incubator and worked with Madrona, Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, and Two Sigma to set up the AI2 fund. During his tenure, more than 20 companies spun out, including xnor.ai (funded by Madrona and acquired by Apple).

Oren has founded and co-founded several companies, including Farecast (sold to Microsoft in 2008) and Decide (sold to eBay in 2013), and he is the author of over 200 technical papers that have garnered roughly 50,000 citations.

Lessons learned

Life is too short to work on a project you’re not incredibly excited about.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it (Alan Kay).
An ounce of data is worth a pound of my intuition.

When he’s not in the office…

He plays basketball and bughouse (a four-person variant of Chess).

Noteworthy

Oren received his bachelor’s from Harvard in 1986 and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991. He has received several awards, including the ACL’s 10-year Test-of-Time Paper Award for two separate papers published in 2012 (2022), GeekWire’s Hire of the Year (2014), Seattle’s Geek of the Year (2013), the Robert Engelmore Memorial Award (2007), the IJCAI Distinguished Paper Award (2005), AAAI Fellow (2003), and a National Young Investigator Award (1993).