Team Profiles Archive

Daniel Li

Dan joined Madrona in 2015 and became a venture partner in 2021 when he co-founded Plus, a Madrona portfolio company that allows users to automate their reporting workflows using AI.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to joining Madrona, Dan worked at the Boston Consulting Group. At BCG, Daniel worked on strategy and technology projects, from developing go-to-market strategies for cloud vendors to deploying new technology systems to improve insurance claims processing.

Lessons learned

Being a founder is hard. No one really sees the day-to-day data or feels the ups and downs the same way you do, but great investors can be a sounding board to help you zoom out and focus on the things that matter the most.
Find the right environment to do great work. You’ll do your best work and be happiest when you work with people you enjoy working with, solve problems you are passionate about, and make sure you are always learning new things.
Don’t waste your time on decisions everyone else has already made. There are plenty of exceptions to the rules, especially in the startup world. But you’ll save a lot of time trying conventional wisdom first (e.g., ship early, spend more time talking to customers, picking SaaS tools) and then identifying the key areas where you want to be different.

While he’s not in the office…

Dan loves reading science fiction, trying new restaurants, and trying to stay fit on his bike. He is also active in the Seattle community and founded the Pacific Science Center’s Associate Board.

Noteworthy

Dan graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with majors in finance, psychology, and international studies.

Alexandra Marez

Alex joined the Madrona team in May of 2021 and supports Shannon Anderson, Hope Cochran, and John Torrey.

Journey to Madrona

Before joining Madrona, Alex was an executive assistant to the managing partners at Northwestern Mutual. While she wore many hats in her previous roles, she is most proud of managing the office event planning and creating a WomenConnect group, which offered support to all women in the office professionally and personally. Alex graduated from Seattle University.

When she’s not in the office…

Alex loves to host family and friends any chance she can get. She also loves binge-watching whatever is new on TV, is a True Crime fanatic, and loves exploring Seattle.

Noteworthy

In 2020, Alex was awarded Associate of the Year at Northwestern Mutual.

Alison McCulloch

Alison joined the Madrona team in November of 1999. She supports Matt McIlwain, Jeff Mills, and Paul Goodrich. As a longstanding member of the team, Alison also drives important corporate event planning and assists the communications and marketing team with social media, photo editing, and more.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to joining Madrona, Alison worked in the insurance industry at a small family-owned agency, followed by the transportation and logistics industry as an ocean import technician at FedEx, formerly Tower Group International, owning accounts for clients like Kawasaki Motors and Uwajimaya.

When she’s not in the office…

Alison enjoys hiking, gardening, home improvement projects, taking her pup to the dog park, coffee sipping, book reading, music listening and Peloton riding.

Noteworthy

Before moving to the Pacific Northwest, Alison attended university on the East Coast at SUNY Brockport, where she obtained a bachelor’s in psychology.

Jeff Mills

Jeff Mills joined Madrona in 2024 as investor relations partner. Jeff works with Madrona’s global investor base of foundations, family offices, and endowments.

Journey to Madrona

Jeff brings more than 25 years of experience in fundraising, marketing, client service, and management to the firm. He has held a variety of roles in the alternative investment market, including Gryphon Investors, Resource Capital Funds, Brooklands Capital Strategies (a division of TPG Capital). Ares Management, Oak Hill, and Probitas Partners.

Lessons learned

Slow down and keep it simple. Focus on delivering exceptional results and service to your investors. People and culture matter (and yes, culture eats strategy for breakfast!). Have fun along the way.

When he’s not in the office

Jeff enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons (and dog!) in any outdoor activity. In addition to his desire to ski more, he is an aspiring swimmer and cyclist as he transitions to lower-impact sports. He is an avid non-fiction reader and podcast listener, who is also a creative “leftover” connoisseur finding the deep recesses of the refrigerator and freezer on this quest. He is an enthusiastic supporter of all things Army West Point – GO ARMY, beat Navy!!

Noteworthy

Before his fundraising career, Jeff was an aviation officer in the U.S. Army, where he served as a helicopter pilot, including a stint as a company commander, for seven years throughout the U.S. and South Korea.

He received his bachelor’s from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and his MBA, finance and strategy, from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mark Nelson

Mark brings decades of experience building products, teams, and businesses to his role with Madrona, having transitioned from his most recent role as CEO of Tableau in late 2022. In his time helping to build great products and teams, Mark has had the fortune of working on areas ranging from computational biophysics, large-scale database systems, middleware for enterprises, and cloud infrastructure to travel, expense solutions, and data analytics. At Madrona, he focuses on evaluating new investments and advising portfolio companies and their leaders. Mark is passionate about how software, particularly software’s ability to utilize data, will revolutionize and enhance every aspect of human endeavors in the years to come.

Journey to Madrona

Mark most recently served as president at CEO of Tableau. He joined Tableau as EVP of product development in May of 2018, about a year before Tableau’s acquisition by Salesforce. As EVP, he led the global engineering and product teams, and under his leadership, both teams helped the company broaden and deepen its industry-leading analytics platform to support customers globally while leading the company through the turbulent acquisition integration process during a pandemic.

Prior to Tableau, Mark was the chief technology officer at Concur for four and a half years, where he was responsible for all aspects of product development and for hosting operations for their SaaS services. After Concur’s acquisition by SAP, Mark also served as the CTO for SAP Cloud Business Group.

Mark spent 17 years as vice president and architect at Oracle, working primarily in the middleware product groups, which grew from a nascent business to a $6 billion business. Before Oracle, Mark worked at the database company Informix and helped to build E9-1-1 products for AT&T. Mark has also served as a board member at the data integration company Talend and has advised various startups throughout his career.

Lessons learned

Trust and empathy are what enable people to follow a leader. Conditions will change, and situations will get hard. People will follow leaders who they can trust and that understand what the team is up against in the challenges that come their way.
Make it safe to talk about what goes wrong. If you can’t talk about your challenges and failures as easily as you celebrate your successes, then you are incentivized not to bring up the topics that need attention to get fixed. Things will always go wrong — leadership is always finding a path forward no matter what goes wrong, not pretending like everything always goes to plan.
There are a million small steps in any long journey. If you look at any large task at the beginning, it will seem undoable. It’s always hard to imagine how you get to the top of the mountain from the base. But if you start putting one foot in front of the other, it’s amazing where you can get!

When he’s not in the office…

Mark loves to run, hike, and enjoy the magnificent outdoor life that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. His wife, Baochun, has also had a career in technology, working for Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft. Together they have two children, one in college and one about to start high school.

Noteworthy

Mark ran development for the two largest software acquisitions in the history of Seattle — the $8 billion acquisition of Concur by SAP in 2014 and the $16 billion acquisition of Tableau by Salesforce in 2019. Mark currently serves on the board of directors for CircleCI and Veezoo. Mark holds a bachelor’s in general engineering and a master’s in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Sandy Parker

Sandy Parker joined Madrona in January 2020. In her role, she supports Steve Singh.

Journey to Madrona

Immediately before joining Madrona, Sandy was an executive business partner with Docker in San Francisco. Before that, she spent 19 years as an executive business partner with the global leader of corporate travel and expense management, Bellevue-based Concur Technologies.

When she’s not in the office…

Sandy enjoys traveling, baking gluten-free treats, spending time with family and friends, running around Greenlake, and reading historical fiction. Being a transplant from the Midwest, Sandy finds the hustle of the Emerald City, set against the surrounding mountains and water, to be a perfect balance between progress and Mother Nature.

Noteworthy

Sandy holds a bachelor’s in liberal arts with a minor in environmental studies from Augustana College.

Sujal Patel

Sujal is the co-founder of Nautilus Biotechnology, a life sciences company working to create a platform technology for quantifying and unlocking the complexity of the proteome. Nautilus’ mission is to democratize access to the proteome and, in doing so, enable fundamental advancements across human health and medicine.

Journey to Madrona

Sujal founded Isilon Systems in 2001, a storage company built for the future of unstructured, file-based data, which (at that time) required a fundamentally new storage paradigm. In 2006, Isilon completed one of the most successful initial public offerings of the year. From 2007 to 2010, Sujal, as CEO, led Isilon during a period of rapid growth, improving operating margins from -37.5% to +20%.

EMC (since acquired by Dell) acquired Isilon in December 2010 for $2.6 Billion, the largest acquisition in EMC’s history. Sujal served as the president of EMC’s Isilon Storage Division from the acquisition until November 2012, driving significant revenue growth, market expansion, and organizational scale.

Prior to EMC and Isilon, Sujal served in various engineering roles at RealNetworks, Inc., in part as the chief architect behind the company’s second-generation core media delivery system.

Lessons learned

Nothing ever goes according to plan. You have to be, to a fault, an eternal optimist and keep pounding away and persevering through every challenge in front of you. Everything can be solved — you just have to keep trying.
Founders should pay attention to their instincts when hiring. Unless the person is right, just wait. Making a wrong hire and then dealing with the fallout is ten times worse. So, just wait until you find the right person.

When he’s not in the office…

Sujal and his family lead a very active non-work life. Whether it’s piling into their sprinter van to head off to another National Park (their goal is to visit them all!), watching their three kids play in a weekend squash tournament, or pursuing their passion for snow sports, they try not to let any grass grow under their feet. Life is too short, so they try and squeeze as much in while still maintaining some family sanity!

Noteworthy

Sujal holds nineteen patents in the areas of storage, networking, and media delivery and five patents for innovations related to the development of Nautilus Biotechnology’s technology. He is a well-known speaker on entrepreneurship and has received a variety of industry awards. Currently, Sujal serves on the board of directors at Qumulo and Rainier Scholars and helps direct the philanthropic efforts of his family’s foundation. He graduated from the University of Maryland College Park in 1996 with a degree in computer science.

Cindy Petek

Cindy Petek joined the Madrona team in 2002. She’s spent 20 of her 38 years of administrative experience with Madrona. In her role, she supports Tim Porter, Scott Jacobson, and Len Jordan.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to joining the Madrona team, Cindy’s experiences ran the gamut — from shipping airplane parts at Sperry to supporting executives at GE Capital, Korn/Ferry and Heidrick and Struggles.

When she’s not in the office…

Cindy loves to work on various household projects, spend time with her husband at Birch Bay and keep up with her six grandchildren.

Noteworthy

Cindy attended the University of Hard Knocks, where she continues to learn every day.

James Phillips

James Phillips is an entrepreneur, executive, and 30-year software industry veteran. He currently serves on the board of directors for F5.

Journey to Madrona

In 2022 James retired from Microsoft after ten years with the company. From 2012 to 2022, his organization grew from 300 to over 15,000 team members spanning the globe and delivering over $20 billion in revenue annually. His teams built and operated a large portion of the Microsoft Cloud, including the Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Azure AI Platform, Azure Data Platform, Azure IoT Platform, and the Microsoft Cloud for <industry> product families.

During his decade at Microsoft, James drove the creation of many of the company’s most successful new products, including Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and the broader Power Platform, delivering billions of dollars of net new organic annual revenue. In addition to new product innovation, James led the turnaround of Microsoft’s business applications franchise, transforming a flat-lined, 4% growth, largely on-premises software business into the Dynamics 365 SaaS family, creating a multi-billion dollar, 30% annual revenue growth engine for the company.

Prior to Microsoft, Phillips was a serial entrepreneur, most recently as a founder and CEO of Akimbi Systems (acquired by VMware) and a co-founder at Couchbase (NASDAQ: BASE). He also held engineering, product management, corporate development, and marketing leadership roles at Intel, VMware, Progress, and Synopsys; and spent two years as a technology investment banker with UBS PaineWebber.

Lessons learned

Focus. Very few startups die of hunger, but the road is littered with the carcasses of startups that died from indigestion. Lack of focus is the number one killer of any new business.
Be decisive. The odds are very high that you will be wrong in some aspect of every decision. Deciding and moving forward will enable you to learn where you got it right and where you got it wrong. You won’t learn until you decide and move — and then you can adjust.
Move fast. Speed kills … the competition. The faster you get in market, the faster you iterate, the faster you adjust, the faster you build your competitive moat, and the more distance you put between you and those who will inevitably fail to keep up.

When he’s not in the office…

James is an aspiring age-group bike racer and can be found most days on his indoor trainer, road, gravel, or mountain bikes. You can also frequently find him with his hands in the dirt in his greenhouse and overly ambitious vegetable garden.

Noteworthy

James began his career as a self-taught programmer and co-founded Fifth Generation Systems (acquired by Symantec) at age 17. He holds a bachelor’s in mathematics from Louisiana State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Bill Richter

Bill is the CEO of Qumulo. As a venture partner with Madrona, Bill helps identify new investments and provides strategic and operational advice to Madrona portfolio companies.

Past lives

Bill brings over 20 years of leadership experience in the technology industry to his role at Madrona. Bill transitioned to venture partner role after officing with Madrona for more than a year, where he shared his operational and strategic expertise with the investing team and portfolio companies. Previously, Bill was the president of the Isilon Storage Division of EMC, where he grew the business to $1.5 billion in annual revenue in 2014. Prior to his role as president of Isilon, Bill served as COO of EMC’s $4 billion Midrange Storage business. Bill was Isilon’s public company CFO from 2007 through its $2.5B sale to EMC in 2010. Before joining Isilon, Bill was a director in the finance department of Amazon.com, where he focused on scaling global accounting operations for the rapidly expanding business. Bill started his career and spent eight years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He focused on the technology industry and was based in Seattle and later London, where he joined the Transaction Services group advising clients on IPO’s, mergers, and divestitures.

Extracurricular

Bill serves on the board of Global Partnerships, an impact-first investment organization focused on bringing opportunity to people living in poverty. He’s an avid traveler and a committed (but mediocre) bridge, squash, and golf player. He and his wife, Gimena, have two young daughters that keep them both busy.

Education

Bill graduated from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington with a bachelor’s in business administration.

Nicole Roze

Nicole joined the Madrona team in July 2024 and supports Soma Somasegar, Ted Kummert, and Loren Alhadeff.

Journey to the Office

Before joining Madrona, Nicole worked at Suttell & Hammer in Bellevue, where she advanced from a legal assistant to practicing as a paralegal under the head of attorneys. She transitioned from her role as a paralegal to working as an executive assistant for a real estate development group, where she applied her organizational expertise and attention to detail in a new industry.

When not in the office…

Nicole loves spending time with her partner, friends, and family. In her time off, she explores the world with her family. She has a passion for event planning, interior design, and fashion. Additionally, she enjoys playing soccer and practicing yoga.

Noteworthy

Nicole received bachelor’s degrees in sociology and communications from Western Washington University.

William D. Ruckelshaus

William (Bill) Ruckelshaus left this world on November 27th 2019. You may read more about his extraordinary life here.

Bill’s distinguished career has spanned corporate boardrooms, government agencies, and major non-profits. He was chairman and CEO of Browning-Ferris Industries from 1988 to 1995 and served as chairman from 1995 to 1999. Bill was also senior vice president of law and corporate affairs for the Weyerhaeuser Company and joined Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie from 1985 to 1988. Bill was administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, serving as the agency’s first administrator when it was formed in 1970 and again as its fifth Administrator in 1983. He was later appointed acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then served as deputy attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2015, Bill was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., recognizing his service to the country.

In 2004 he became chairman of The William D. Ruckelshaus Center, a joint center of the University of Washington and Washington State University. He was also a board member of the Bullitt Foundation, The Energy Foundation, The Meridian Institute, and Long Live the Kings.

In 2001 Bill was appointed board member of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. In 2003 he was appointed to serve on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Science Advisory Board. In 2005 he was appointed by Governor Gregoire to co-chair the Puget Sound Partnership to organize the cleanup of Puget Sound.

Bill was also a former board member of Weyerhaeuser Company, Nordstrom, Cummins Engine Company, Solutia, Pharmacia Corporation, and Monsanto. He was also a former chairman of the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C., the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for the State of Washington, and the Seattle Aquarium Society.

Bill was a graduate, cum laude, of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Sid Shenai

Sid joined Madrona as a venture partner in early 2019.

He is co-founder and CEO of Proof Diagnostics, a Broad Institute spin-out that is developing a smart, portable system for the detection of COVID-19 and other diseases to bring the power of cutting-edge molecular technologies directly to individuals where they are and empower them to make timely and effective personal health decisions.

Prior to Proof and Madrona, Sid was a portfolio manager and the head of developed market rates at Bracebridge Capital. While there, he designed, built, and oversaw the firm’s interest rates business as the sole portfolio manager, implementing relative value strategies broadly across cash, futures, and OTC derivatives. Sid also co-led the development of Bracebridge’s capabilities and strategies in FX derivatives, as well as in Western European sovereign credit, including sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt and derivatives, and securitizations, both public and private.

Before starting his graduate education, Sid was a consultant at McKinsey & Company and worked in Swaziland and Ghana with TechnoServe (strategy consulting for local governments and entrepreneurs in the developing world). He also advised on financial markets and fiscal policy at the National Economic Council (White House).

Education

Sid graduated from the joint JD/MBA program at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. While in graduate school, he conducted academic research in behavioral finance. He also graduated with the highest honors from Harvard University with AB and AM degrees in Physics, with a research focus on quantum information and high energy theory.

Extracurricular

Sid has been a long-time angel investor, with a particular focus on the life sciences. He is also a translational research adviser at the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. Sid is a member of the New York State Bar Association and serves or has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the Center for Excellence in Education, IDinsight, and Even Ground.

Alli Sherwin

Alli joined Madrona in 2019 and served as Madrona’s office coordinator for over 3 years. In her new back-office role, she supports Chris Picardo and Joanna Black and oversees the day-to-day operations of Create33, an office space occupied by several Madrona portfolio companies. In addition, she helps coordinate corporate events and assists Madrona’s administrative team.

Journey to Madrona

Alli has worked in the customer service and office administration space since 2015. She discovered her passion for administrative work during her time as a data-input specialist at a distribution center in Sumner, WA. She enjoyed the fast-paced office environment and the opportunity to create more efficient workflows.

Lessons learned

So much value can come from a passing conversation, whether it’s with a Madrona team member, a portfolio company executive, or an excited entrepreneur.

When she’s not in the office…

As a Pacific Northwest native, Alli loves living close to the beautiful beaches while also being just a short drive away from the mountains and snow. As she always says, it’s the best of both worlds! Alli enjoys running, hiking, yoga, and spending time with her family.

Noteworthy

Alli graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor’s in business administration with an emphasis in Marketing. She was on her sorority’s executive committee as VP of Panhellenic Affairs.

John Torrey

John joined Madrona as a Venture Partner in 2021, and his investments include TaxBit, Route, Clozd, and TaskHuman.

Journey to Madrona

Most recently, John was chief ecosystem officer at Qualtrics, where he helped the company define and create an ecosystem of services, consulting, and technology partners for the experience management category, launch the Qualtrics Developer Platform, execute acquisitions in the SMB and industry thought leadership domains, and negotiate the largest sale of a private software company in history.

Before Qualtrics, John was chief corporate development officer at SAP SE, where he was responsible for M&A and strategic business development. He was also the chief strategy officer of the business network & applications group, which housed several of the company’s public cloud acquisitions, including Concur, Ariba, and Fieldglass. John joined SAP when the company acquired Concur.

At Concur, John was EVP of corporate strategy, a broad role focused on extending the footprint of Concur across multiple dimensions. John founded and managed the Concur Perfect Trip Fund, which invested in businesses in and around the travel industry. He also helped extend the company’s operations in India, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan and instigated numerous acquisitions, including TripIt and the small business expense management portfolio of ADP. The work he did building the company helped lead to the sale of Concur to SAP for what was, at the time, the largest cloud software acquisition to date.

Lessons learned

Be transparent: Share information openly with everyone.
Empower people: Encourage informed decision-making; practice forgiveness, not permission.
Be accountable: Own decisions and their consequences as a team.
Speak truth courageously: Give and seek constructive, honest feedback throughout every step of your journey.

When he’s not in the office…

John is an avid runner and sports fan. He and his wife, Juliette, live in Fort Worth, Texas, and are the proud parents of two.

Noteworthy

John has served on numerous corporate boards, and he also serves as a fellow at Sapphire Ventures. He currently serves on the Board of Regents of Santa Clara University, where he is an advisor to SCU’s Black Corporate Board Readiness Program. He was president of the Alumni Association in 2017-18 and a mentor in the Global Social Benefit Institute at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship in 2018. John graduated cum laude from the honors program at Santa Clara University, where he majored in accounting, minored in music, and played on the rugby team.