Tim Porter
Tim Porter is Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group and serves as Director at NewDays, Inc. He has previously held leadership roles in finance and corporate development at Eagle River Investments, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Teledesic, and Integris Software Inc.
Yifan Zhang announces AI House Demo Day: 25 teams pitched in Seattle with 42 investors attending
AI House held its first AI House Demo Day in Seattle where 25 teams (half portfolio companies) presented to an audience that included 42 investors; founders, investors, and organizers connected through pitches, meetings, and events around the day.
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.
Impinj CEO Chris Diorio rings Nasdaq bell as RFID chipmaker marks 10th IPO anniversary after growing to $4.2B market cap
Impinj, maker of tiny battery-free RFID chips embedded in over 160 billion items, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its IPO as CEO Chris Diorio rang the Nasdaq bell; the Seattle company commands about two-thirds of its market, grew from a $250 million IPO valuation to a $4.2 billion market cap, but has reported only one profitable year and carries a $400 million accumulated deficit.
Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s Entire launches distributed Git network preview after $60M seed
Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s startup Entire launched a preview of a distributed Git network that mirrors repositories across active regions in the U.S., Europe, and Australia to reduce latency, rate limits, and outages from AI coding agents. Entire raised a $60 million seed round in February and lets developers mirror GitHub repos in one step while keeping code on the original platform.
Former Tableau Chief Product Officer Francois Ajenstat Launches Golden Analytics with $7M Seed to Create AI-Native BI Platform
Francois Ajenstat, former Tableau chief product officer, has launched Golden Analytics with $7 million in seed funding to build an AI-native business intelligence platform that emphasizes automated insights and user control. The Seattle-based startup aims to advance BI by integrating AI at its core rather than as an add-on.
Data Visualization Veterans Ellie Fields and Jeffrey Heer Launch Ridge AI with $2.6M Led by Madrona to Enhance SaaS Analytics
Data visualization experts Ellie Fields and Jeffrey Heer launched Ridge AI with $2.6M in pre-seed funding from Madrona and prominent angels to help SaaS companies embed interactive analytics and AI data agents quickly into their products. Ridge AI aims to fix persistent issues in web-based data presentation by enabling rapid creation of interactive dashboards and data agents sharing the same dataset.
Seattle’s AI2 Incubator Closes $80M Third Fund to Back 70 New AI Startups Over Four Years
AI2 Incubator, a Seattle-based startup incubator focused on AI and real-world applications, has closed an $80 million third fund to support about 70 new ventures over the next four years. The incubator has a successful track record with nearly 25% of its 50+ alumni acquired and 90% securing venture funding.
Seattle Startup Clarify Raises $15M to Challenge Salesforce with AI-Native Autonomous CRM
Seattle startup Clarify raised $15 million to grow its AI-native CRM platform that automates sales data entry by integrating email, calendar, and calls to help sales teams spend more time closing deals. Clarify targets early-stage startups and investors, competing with Salesforce and other CRM providers by building AI features at its core.
Seattle Has Fewer Than 20 Unicorn Startups Amid Top AI Talent and Tech Giants in 2025
Seattle hosts fewer than 20 unicorn startups, representing about 1.5% of global unicorns as of January 2025, despite having a dense tech talent pool and being a prime location for AI businesses. Industry leaders argue that the number of unicorns alone is a poor measure of regional tech success, pointing to Seattle's strengths in AI, cloud giants, and fast-growing startups.
Madrona Venture Group Marks 30 Years with $770M Raised for New Funds, Continuing Strong Seattle Investments
Madrona Venture Group, a Seattle-based venture capital firm celebrating its 30th anniversary, has invested in major startups like Amazon and recently raised $770 million for two new funds to support about 40 investments. While expanding beyond the Pacific Northwest with a Palo Alto office, Madrona continues to focus most of its investments locally.
Seattle Venture Capitalists Urge Founders to Prioritize Practical AI Over Pursuit of AGI
Seattle venture capitalists at a Plug and Play event encouraged tech founders to focus on building practical AI products for specific industries rather than chasing artificial general intelligence (AGI), which they believe is uncertain and not imminent.
Seattle’s Madrona Venture Firm Absorbs Madrona Venture Labs After 10 Years, Following $770M Fundraise
Seattle’s Madrona venture firm has absorbed its startup studio Madrona Venture Labs after over 10 years of independent operation and 30 incubated startups. This restructuring aligns with Madrona’s recent $770 million fundraise to consolidate efforts under one organization amid Seattle’s growing startup ecosystem.
Gaurav Oberoi’s Lexion Acquired by DocuSign for $165 Million, Marking Third Successful Exit for the Entrepreneur
Serial entrepreneur Gaurav Oberoi, co-founder of AI-based legal tech startup Lexion, will exit successfully as Lexion is acquired by DocuSign for $165 million. Oberoi, known for his customer-centric approach and expertise, has now had three startups acquired, earning strong respect in Seattle’s tech community.
Lassen Peak Raises $6M from Madrona to Advance Handheld Terahertz Weapon Detection Device
Lassen Peak, a Bellevue-based startup developing a handheld terahertz radar device for concealed weapon detection, raised $6 million from Madrona Venture Group, bringing its total funding to $32 million. The device aims to improve public safety by enabling law enforcement and others to detect weapons at a distance without physical pat-downs.
Outbound AI raises $16M seed to expand AI virtual agents for healthcare revenue-cycle administration
Seattle-based Outbound AI raised $16 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered virtual agents that handle healthcare revenue-cycle administrative tasks like eligibility verification, claims status, and prior authorization.
Seattle Startup Groundlight Raises $10M Seed to Revolutionize Warehouse Monitoring with AI and Natural Language Computer Vision
Seattle startup Groundlight, co-founded by former Amazon and Picobrew execs Leo Dirac and Avi Geiger, emerged from stealth with a $10 million seed fund to simplify warehouse monitoring using AI-powered computer vision. Their platform enables businesses to query real-time video feeds through natural language prompts for instant, customizable insights.
Tom Alberg Remembered as Influential Mentor and Venture Capitalist Who Empowered Seattle Entrepreneurs
Tom Alberg was a deeply curious, humble, generous, and kind mentor who profoundly influenced the Seattle tech community and venture capital world. He empowered young entrepreneurs with trust and wisdom, helping build Madrona and Perkins Coie LLP into industry leaders while delighting in others' successes.
Madrona Venture Group Raises $345M for 8th Fund and $161M for 2nd Later-Stage Fund in Largest Ever $500M Capital Raise
Madrona Venture Group raised over $500 million for its largest fundraise ever, including $345 million for an eighth early-stage fund targeting 35-40 Pacific Northwest startups and $161 million for a second later-stage Acceleration Fund. The firm continues to focus on supporting the Pacific Northwest tech ecosystem while also backing later-stage companies across North America.
Madrona Ventures Announces Investment in Rec Room, Citing 10M Players and 1M Creators
Madrona announced its investment in Rec Room, an online social gaming universe with over 10 million players and 1 million creators that offers easy cross-platform play and low-code content creation tools. The firm praised Rec Room’s founders, community-first approach, and alignment with trends in online communities and maker-focused development.
Voodle raises $6M from Madrona and Vulcan to sell TikTok-style workplace video for remote teams
Seattle startup Voodle raised $6 million in a round led by Madrona Venture Group and Vulcan Capital to offer a TikTok-like, bite-sized video communication app for workplaces aimed at reducing Zoom fatigue and Slack overload. The app — launched earlier in 2020 by former Pixvana execs and available on iOS, Android and web — includes searchable clips with transcriptions and integrations with workplace tools.
WhyLabs, AI2 Spinout Led by Ex-Amazon Engineers, Raises $4M from Madrona, Bezos Expeditions and Others
WhyLabs, an AI monitoring startup spun out of the Allen Institute for AI, emerged from stealth after raising $4 million from investors including Madrona, Defy Partners, Bezos Expeditions and Ascend VC to commercialize a platform for monitoring ML data and models. The company is led by CEO Alessya Visnjic, joined by former Amazon ML engineers Andy Dang and Sam Gracie plus ex-Madrona principal Maria Karaivanova.
Anu Sharma leaves AWS to join Madrona Venture Group as investor after eight years at Amazon
Anu Sharma left an eight-year product management role at Amazon/AWS to join Madrona Venture Group’s investment team, turning a long-standing personal interest in investing into a full-time career where she plans to apply engineering rigor to evaluating and growing startups.
U.S. VC Investments Total $34.2B in Q1 2020 as COVID-19 Threatens Decade-Long Growth
U.S. venture capitalists invested $34.2 billion across 2,298 deals in Q1 2020, slightly down from the prior year, but analysts expect investment pace and valuations to slow as COVID-19 disrupts the startup ecosystem and deal pipelines.
Lexion Raises $4.2M Series Seed Led by Madrona to Apply AI/NLP for Contract Management
Lexion, an AI/NLP contract-management startup spun from AI2 technology, announced a $4.2 million Series Seed round led by Madrona to help mid-market businesses extract and track key details from complex documents.
Madrona promotes Troy Cichos to COO and Partner; Jennifer Chambers named Administrative Partner; Tasha Tieu joins as Controller; Ted Kummert becomes Chief Product Officer in Residence
Madrona announced administrative team changes: Troy Cichos promoted to COO and Partner, Jennifer Chambers promoted to Administrative Partner, Tasha Tieu hired as Controller, Ted Kummert’s role expanded to Chief Product Officer in Residence, and Hope Cochran named Managing Director. The moves support operations as Madrona manages nearly $1.6 billion across five active funds with a 35-person staff.
Organizations
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Education
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Stanford University Graduate School of Business MBA · 2001–2003
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology BS, Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Economics · 1992–1996
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Racine Lutheran High School 1988–1992
