Kirby Winfield
Kirby Winfield is Investor in Residence at AI2 Incubator and the Founder and Founding General Partner at Ascend. He founded Ascend and Ascend.vc, both funds, and remains active in both.
Seattle Tech Week 2026 Draws ~250 Events Over Five Days, Showcasing City’s Tech Talent and Innovation
Seattle Tech Week 2026 ran five days with roughly 250 events across diverse venues, celebrating Seattle’s dense tech talent and community connections while highlighting themes from founders, investors, and academics. Organizers view the event as a community-led showcase that reinforced Seattle’s historic and ongoing contributions to cloud, AI, and other innovations.
Elizabeth Liu celebrates an electric SeattleTechWeek, spotlights Crowd Cow customer Randa Minkarah and event highlights
Elizabeth Liu celebrates SeattleTechWeek, praising the region's fast-moving startup ecosystem, sharing event highlights (Madrona/J.P. Morgan pickleball, AI House BBQ, rave) and a chance meeting with early Crowd Cow customer Randa Minkarah.
GeekWire reports: Seattle Tech Week 2026 — AI dominates 250+ events as investors and job-seekers flock to Seattle
GeekWire's Todd Bishop reports from Seattle Tech Week 2026, where AI dominated conversations across more than 250 events and drew significant Bay Area investor interest and job-seeking attendees. Panels and speakers from OpenAI, Mistral AI, Ascend, Oumi and others highlighted debates about foundation models, enterprise data access, and the rush to build on third-party AI.
Jacob Colker announces Seattle startup gathering at Showbox Market thanking J.P. Morgan, Google, Fenwick & West and Pilot.com
Jacob Colker thanks sponsors, Seattle founders, and the AI House team after a gathering at the historic Showbox Market, expressing enthusiasm for the local startup community.
Nikesh Parekh: VC Has Split — AI Winners Capture Record Capital While Most Founders Struggle; Explore Alternatives
Seattle investor Nikesh Parekh argues venture capital has bifurcated: outsized AI-focused winners capture record funding while most founders face tougher fundraising. He recommends founders consider alternatives — angel rounds, venture debt, revenue-based financing, and bootstrapping — to reach profitability.
Seattle AI2 Incubator Director Jacob Colker Challenges Tech Exodus Narrative Amid Washington Tax Debate
Jacob Colker, managing director at AI2 Incubator, pushed back against negative narratives about Seattle's tech industry decline, arguing that recent tax proposals won't outweigh the region's strong innovation ecosystem. His message sparked varied reactions from local tech leaders about Seattle's future amid potential tax changes.
Nate Bek and Kirby Winfield invest in AZX’s $6M pre-Seed round to scale vertical AI for critical infrastructure
Nate Bek and Kirby Winfield announce a $6 million pre-Seed investment in AZX, a 2024-founded vertical AI platform for critical infrastructure serving utilities and energy operators, citing 10x revenue growth, customers like Puget Sound Energy and CBRE, and a team led by CEO Aaron Goldfeder.
Ascend Ventures backs Govstream.ai with $3.6M Seed led by 47th Street Partners to modernize municipal permitting
Ascend Ventures invested in Govstream.ai, a startup building AI-native permitting tools to shorten municipal permitting timelines; the $3.6 million Seed round was led by 47th Street Partners with Nellore Capital participating, and Govstream plans to expand its six-person team and hire engineers, AI, and product roles.
Ascend joins SNR Capital in $2M seed for Limelight to automate personality-led B2B marketing
Ascend invested in Limelight’s $2 million seed round alongside lead investor SNR Capital; Limelight provides an AI platform that automates creator discovery, activation, and ROI measurement to scale personality-led B2B marketing. The company plans to expand into an autonomous AI-driven B2B marketing workforce, and founders David Walsh and Youngjae Ji bring deep go-to-market and technical experience.
Unlock Ventures leads $5M seed in Hyphen AI to automate multi-cloud deployments without hand-written infrastructure code
Unlock Ventures led a $5 million seed round in Hyphen AI, which offers Deploy, an AI-driven platform that translates developer intent into production-grade, multi-cloud infrastructure without hand-written IaC to speed secure deployments and enforce policy.
USVP and Madrona co-lead $15M Series A in Clarify to build an autonomous AI-native CRM
USVP and Madrona co-led a $15 million Series A in Clarify, an AI-native autonomous CRM founded by Patrick Thompson that automates call briefs, transcriptions, action items, follow-ups and pipeline maintenance. Clarify, seeded in Q1 2024, now serves 100+ customers, has ~20 employees, uses usage-based pricing with unlimited users, and aims to replace legacy CRM workflows dominated by Salesforce and HubSpot.
Co-founder Steps Down After 11 Years Leading Dolly, Now Part of Taskrabbit
After 11 years co-founding and leading Dolly, the author is stepping away from the company now part of Taskrabbit, expressing deep gratitude to teammates, investors, mentors, customers, and helpers. They reflect on the meaningful journey and look forward to Dolly's bright future while personally taking time to recharge and explore new directions.
Neotribe-led $13.7M Series A in Yoodli to Expand AI Roleplay Enterprise Platform Serving Google, Databricks and More
Neotribe Ventures led a $13.7 million Series A in Yoodli, an AI roleplay enterprise platform that helps users rehearse high-stakes conversations with real-time feedback; existing investors including Madrona, Cercano, AI2 and Neotribe (who previously invested) highlighted Yoodli’s enterprise traction with customers like Google, Databricks, RingCentral, Snowflake and BDO. The funding will expand sales, customer success, and engineering while improving personalization and realism in roleplays to address communication training gaps at scale.
Seattle VC Firm Ascend Raises Third Fund to Back Early-Stage AI Startups After $25M Second Fund in 2023
Seattle venture capital firm Ascend is raising its third fund to invest in early-stage tech startups focused on vertical AI and infrastructure, following a $25 million second fund in 2023. Founder Kirby Winfield launched Ascend in 2019 and the firm primarily supports Seattle-area founders with investments ranging from $250,000 to $750,000.
Fuse leads $10M Seed in Avante to build AI-powered infrastructure for employer healthcare benefits
Fuse led a $10 million Seed round, joined by HighSage Ventures, in Avante—an infrastructure platform that centralizes benefits data and uses AI to help employers manage employee healthcare more efficiently. Avante, led by CEO Rohan D’Souza and co-founder Carly Eckert, plans to expand its team and hire five roles as it scales its platform to reduce administrative burden and improve benefits outcomes.
Ascend founding partner Kirby Winfield says Seattle is the U.S. ’s No.2 AI hub as startups, talent and investors converge
Seattle has quietly become a major AI hub—home to numerous startups, deep talent pools, cloud providers, and research centers—driving investor interest and practical applications across sectors while facing questions about sustainability and competition.
Seattle Tech Founder Adam Doppelt Launches Fireball.xyz to Guide Consumers on Smoke Detectors and False Alarm Solutions
Adam Doppelt, a Seattle tech founder, created Fireball.xyz, a comprehensive online guide to smoke detectors aimed at reducing consumer frustration with false alarms and providing safety information. The site offers reviews, installation tips, and purchase links, inspired by Doppelt’s personal experiences with malfunctioning detectors.
'Seattle Freeze' Social Dynamic Criticized and Debated at WTIA FullConTech; Industry Leaders Call for Action in Seattle Startup Scene
Discussion about the 'Seattle Freeze' social dynamic resurfaced at the WTIA FullConTech conference, highlighting challenges for startup founders in Seattle. Industry leaders debated the issue, with some urging focus on actionable solutions over complaints.
Seattle's AI2 Incubator to Open 'AI House' Downtown with $800K State Support to Boost AI Startup Ecosystem
Seattle's AI2 Incubator is launching the 'AI House,' a new downtown hub for AI startups and entrepreneurs, supported by $800,000 in state funding and city leadership. The space aims to foster AI collaboration and help revitalize Seattle's downtown economy.
Seattle Venture Capitalists Say Founder Support, Not Local Money, Is Key Missing Piece in Startup Ecosystem
Seattle's startup ecosystem is often criticized for a lack of local venture capital firms, but experts highlight that the true opportunity lies in fostering greater founder-to-founder investment and community support to strengthen the scene. Panelists at the Seattle AI Investor Summit emphasized that being a net importer of investment capital is positive, and more connectivity among founders could boost the city's startup success.
Jen Haller Named Partner at Ascend VC to Enhance Founder Support and Community Engagement
Jen Haller has been promoted to partner at Seattle-based pre-seed VC firm Ascend, expanding her role in operational guidance and community engagement for founders. The firm has over 80 portfolio companies, mostly in the Seattle area, and Haller is recognized for significantly enhancing Ascend's early-stage support offerings.
Ascend.vc’s Kirby Winfield Highlights AI Investing Strategy and Pacific Northwest Startup Growth on Shift AI Podcast
Kirby Winfield, founding general partner at Ascend.vc, discusses his shift from entrepreneur to Seattle-based AI-focused venture capitalist and shares insights on AI investing, emphasizing use cases solving real problems efficiently. Ascend.vc positions itself as a prolific pre-seed investor in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on applied AI as a next-generation vertical software.
Seattle Startups Report 12% Down Rounds in 2023, Lower Than Bay Area's 17% and NYC's 24%, Reflecting Revenue Focus
Seattle startups experienced fewer down rounds in funding during the first nine months of 2023 compared to Bay Area and New York City, with 12% versus 17% and 24% respectively. This is attributed to Seattle founders' focus on revenue and profitability, which aligns better with current investor preferences amid broader tech market challenges.
Seattle’s Founders Bash 2023 Highlights AI’s Role as Transformational Yet Nuanced Tech Wave
At Founders Bash 2023 in Seattle, over 1,000 entrepreneurs and investors gathered to celebrate the tech innovation sector, with many discussing the impact of AI. Attendees like Charlotte Massey and Saurabh Jain viewed AI as both a useful creative tool and a transformational wave with significant potential to automate inefficiencies.
Madrona Leads Inaugural Seattle Tech Week July 31-August 4 Featuring AI-Focused Panels and Networking
Seattle venture firm Madrona, along with other local firms and tech leaders, is launching the inaugural Seattle Tech Week from July 31 to August 4 to connect the city's tech ecosystem through various events focused on AI and innovation.
Organizations
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Endurance Energy First Check 2025–present · current
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Overland AI First Check 2023–present · current
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Ascend Founder and Founding General Partner 2019–present · current
Education
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Seattle University School of Law Coursework towards JD · 2002–2003
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Middlebury College BA, English · 1992–1996
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Seattle Preparatory School 1988–1992
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Assumption School 1986–1988
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Seattle Country Day School 1980–1986
