Podcasts in Seattle
Shows
#27 Geoff Harris: Managing Partner Flying Fish VC
In this episode of Startup Project we spoke to Geoff Harris, Managing Partner Flying Fish VC. Flying Fish is a thesis driven fund focused on Al/ML. Geoff Harris spent 15 years at Microsoft in engineering leadership and executive leadership positions. His career at Microsoft began in digital media where he ran the Windows Media Player team. Full conversation includes: Developing Natural language processing at Microsoft Angel investing to raising a fund Core insight behind Flying Fish AI Use cases for future Web3 & Venture ----- Past guests of Startup Project podcast include Ali Moiz (stonks.com), Kirby Winfield (Ascend.vc), Eric Bahn…
GGeoff Harris
Founded & Funded
Stack Co-Founder and CEO Will Rush on Teen Crypto Investing
This week, Investor Aseem Datar is talking with Will Rush, co-founder and CEO of Stack, a teen crypto platform to educate a young crypto-curious generation — and their parents — about responsible investing. After working at a company, building a banking app for teens, Will took his decade-long experience in securities and finance and applied it to crypto and Web3. He saw the excitement and curiosity that teens had for crypto and knew he could apply his experience to create a world of responsible teen crypto investing. Stack has managed to balance education and access for both parents and their…
AAseem Datar
WWill Rush
Founded & Funded
Battlesnake Founder Brad Van Vugt on Creating Community Through Programming Competitions
This week, Investor Maria Gilfoyle talks to Brad Van Vugt, founder and CEO of Battlesnake, a multiplayer programming game for experienced web developers where your code is your controller. Battlesnake builds games for programmers that encourage self-directed learning and are challenging to master. In this episode, Maria and Brad dive into where the idea for the game came from, how they get the developer community so involved, and how they're able to combine aspects of gaming, eSports, and traditional sports to create an engaging experience not just for developers, but for anyone to watch and enjoy. You won't want to…
MMaria Gilfoyle
BBrad Van Vugt
Founded & Funded
IA40 Spotlight: Tesorio Co-founders Carlos Vega and Fabio Fleitas on Automating Accounts Receivable
In this IA40 spotlight episode, Managing Director Hope Cochran talks with Tesorio Co-founders Carlos Vega and Fabio Fleitas about getting finance teams out of the world of manual, error-prone and inefficient spreadsheets and equipping them with intelligent applications more common in other parts of a company. That's where Tesorio comes in — they offer automation solutions designed to help companies manage accounts receivable — in other words, they help companies turn their revenue into cash. The platform replaces that tedious and manual collections processes with accurate, real-time predictions, optimized workflows, and actionable insights based on behavioral trends. Tesorio raised a…
SSam Okafor
HHope Cochran
CCarlos Vega
FFabio Fleitas
#25 Todd Bishop: Co-Founder of Geekwire.com
In this week's episode of Startup Project we spoke to Todd Bishop, Co-Founder of Geekwire. He is a longtime business and technology journalist who reports on subjects including AI, cloud, startups, and health technology, plus Amazon and Microsoft, & hosts GeekWire's weekly podcast. Full conversation includes: Geekwire Story Business model of publishing Covering Big Tech Amazon's next big thing Doom Scrolling & a whole lot more. ----- Past guests of Startup Project podcast include Ali Moiz (stonks.com), Kirby Winfield (Ascend.vc), Eric Bahn (Hustle Fund), and many more. To stay up to date checkout thestartupproject.io & follow us on twitter: @natarajsindam
TTodd Bishop
Insights from the life of early Amazon investor and Seattle business leader Tom Alberg
Seattle investor and business leader Tom Alberg, who died last week at the age of 82, was a key figure in the e-commerce and wireless industries, and in the Seattle startup community, through his roles as an early Amazon investor and longtime board member, executive at McCaw Cellular, and co-founder of Madrona Venture group. On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, Todd Bishop and John Cook share their own insights from Alberg's life. See our earlier coverage for more on Alberg’s legacy; read tributes from his friends and colleagues; and see Madrona’s LinkedIn post for more remembrances from those who…
TTom Alberg
Founded & Funded
IA40 Spotlight: Cresta Co-founder and CEO Zayd Enam on Using AI to Empower People to be More Productive
We've all struggled with call center experiences. Madrona's Ishani Ummat talks with Cresta Co-founder and CEO Zayd Enam about the unique angle Cresta takes to leverage AI to drive a better customer experience in real time. The two dive into the important topic of how AI can be used to help empower people to be more productive. we hear the story of why Zayd dropped out of his Ph.D. program to pursue launching his own company based on what he explains as the "schlep blindness" of contact centers. He also discusses the unique way he landed his first customer, which…
The pioneering spirit and joyful life of late 'Cranium' creator Richard Tait
Tributes and memories have been pouring in from longtime friends and colleagues of Cranium creator Richard Tait since the Seattle entrepreneur's death on July 25 the age of 58 from complications due to COVID-19. A passionate and visionary entrepreneur known for being tough, Tait had a generous spirit, effusive personality, and rare ability to connect with people he encountered. This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we're listening back to a conversation that Tait recorded with Fuel Talent CEO and founder Shauna Swerland in 2018 for her podcast, What Fuels You. It's inspiring, insightful, and bittersweet, and we're grateful to Shauna…
RRichard Tait
SShauna Swerlin
Founded & Funded
CommerceIQ's Guru Hariharan on Pivoting When You're in the Wrong Market
In this episode of Founded and Funded, Managing Director Scott Jacobson is talking with CommerceIQ CEO Guru Hariharan. CommerceIQ is a retail e-commerce management platform that automates and unifies category analytics, retail media management, and sales and operations all under one roof. The company secured $115 million in funding in March and just made its first acquisition — e-fundamentals — to expand into digital shelf analytics. The acquisition actually brings the company around full circle in a sense. CommerceIQ was originally Boomerang Commerce, which was a dynamic pricing software for multi-brand retail companies to better compete with the likes of…
SScott Jacobson
GGuru Hariharan
#23 Chris DeVore: Managing Partner Founders Co-op (Remitly, Auth0 & Outreach)
In this Episode of Startup Project, Nataraj talked to Chris DeVore, Founding Managing Partner of Founders’ Co-op, Pacific Northwest's leading seed-stage venture fund. Chris led the seed rounds for Seattle's most recent successful IPO Remitly (NASDAQ:RELY) and $4B+ Outreach, was an early backer of Auth0 (acquired by Okta for $6.5B). Full conversation includes: Starting Patagonia's online store Bringing Risk Capital to Seattle Running TechStars Seattle Starting Founders Co-Op Thesis behind investing in Remitly New new thing & Web3 Investing takeaways from covid shocks Nataraj is a PM at Azure, partner at NVC & hosts thestartupproject.io podcast. Follow him on Twitter…
Founded & Funded
Top Tier's David York on Limited Partners, Market Conditions
In this episode of Founded and Funded, we stray a little from our typical format to answer some questions that often come up in discussions between founders and our investors. Madrona Managing Director Matt McILwain talks with one of our Limited Partners — or the partners of ours that are not the day-to-day investors — Top Tier Capital Partners Founder and Managing Director David York. They explore different kinds of funding mechanisms, the current market conditions, and a bit of a history between the two firms – more specifically, why this San Francisco-based firm decided to bet on Seattle and…
MMatt McIlwain
DDavid York
Founded & Funded
Sila Co-founder and CEO Shamir Karkal on Crypto and Web3
In this episode of Founded and Funded, Madrona Partner Chris Picardo dives into the world of crypto and Web3 with Sila Co-Founder and CEO Shamir Karkal. Sila is a FinTech platform that provides payment infrastructure as a service and sits at the intersection of crypto rails and traditional financial services infrastructure — because as much as some people want to get away from the traditional financial system, crypto still needs to be able to plug into it. Shamir and Chris dive into the importance of this infrastructure, the ups and downs of the crypto market, the trends driving FinTech and…
CChris Picardo
SShamir Karkal
Voyager Capital
This week on Finding PROOF, our hosts Jennifer Schretter and Thanasis Delistathis talk with James Newell, managing director at Voyager Capital, a regionally focused, early-stage venture capital fund investing out of the pacific northwest.
JJames Newell
Wild times for tech startups
What the heck is going on in the economy, and how will the current market gyrations and geopolitical uncertainty impact startups and venture capital? To help answer these questions we invited Tim Porter to join us this week on the GeekWire Podcast. He's a Madrona Venture Group managing director who has invested in early-stage technology startups at the Seattle-based venture capital firm for the past 15 years, in areas including cloud, AI and enterprise software companies. Follow along with our extended notes from the discussion. With GeekWire co-founder John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton; Theme Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell…
JJohn Cook
TTim Porter
Founded & Funded
Robotics Expert Sidd Srinivasa on Trends and What's Ripe for Innovation
In this episode of Founded and Funded Madrona Investors Aseem Datar and Sabrina Wu sit down with robotics expert and University of Washington Professor Sidd Srinivasa to talk about the technology and sociological trends that are leading to innovation in the robotics space, where Sidd sees opportunities for founders, and why now it is a time to pay attention to what's happening in the space. Sidd also shares why he is what he calls an "accidental roboticist" and some of the hard-learned lessons from throughout his extensive career.
AAseem Datar
SSabrina Wu
SSiddhartha Srinivasa
Matt Ehrlichman
Matt Ehrlichman is the CEO, Chairman, and founder of Porch Group, a Seattle-based vertical software platform for the home. Porch’s mission is to help home services companies grow and through these relationships to help make the home simple, from moving to maintenance and everything in between. Prior to founding Porch, Matt created his first technology startup, Thriva, in his dorm room at Stanford University, where he also received his Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Engineering and Master of Science in Management Science and Engineering. In 2007, he sold Thriva to Active Network for $60 million and went on to become…
MMatt Ehrlichman
Founded & Funded
IA40 Spotlight - Madrona and PitchBook Partner for IA40
Madrona investor, Ishani Ummat, speaks with PitchBook Data leader, Daniel Cook, about bringing machine intelligence to the IA40 list. Their new algorithm takes many data points and creates a company score to predict company outcome probability. They previewed this work by analyzing last year's IA40 list and found that late stage companies were 60% more likely to IPO. Listen as Ishani and Daniel talk numbers and what it means for companies building intelligent applications.
IIshani Ummat
DDaniel Cook
Startup turnaround specialist Matt Hulett on unlocking growth, competing with giants, and surviving turbulent times
Our guest this week is Matt Hulett, a veteran of the Seattle tech community and the author of the new book, Unlock: 5 Questions to Unleash Your Company’s Hidden Power, published by Page Two Books. A former executive with companies including Expedia, Mpire, Rosetta Stone and RealNetworks, Hulett is now the CEO and president of PetMed Express, a publicly traded, Florida-based online pet pharmacy. We talk about finding the right market segment to pursue, how startups and investors should approach the potential of an economic downturn, tips for competing with tech giants, the role that private capital can play in…
Founded & Funded
IA40 Spotlight: SeekOut CEO Anoop Gupta and VP of People Jenny Armstrong-Owen on AI-powered talent solutions, developing talent, and maintaining culture
This week on Founded and Funded, we spotlight our next IA40 winner – SeekOut. Investor Ishani Ummat talks to SeekOut Co-founder and CEO Anoop Gupta and VP of People Jenny Armstrong-Owen about their AI-powered intelligence platform, the importance of not only finding and recruiting new hires but also developing and retaining employees within a company, and maintaining SeekOut's own culture while seeing significant growth over the last year.
SSam Okafor
IIshani Ummat
AAnoop Gupta
JJenny Armstrong-Owen
#20 Mike Fridgen: Seattle based Startup Incubator Madrona Venture Labs
In this Episode of Startup Project, Nataraj talked to Mike Fridgen, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Labs a Seattle based tech startup incubator. Some of the companies incubated include Style Genome (Acq by Wayfair), Chatitive (Acq by MailChimp), Message Yes (Acq by Nordstrom) & more. Before joining Madrona Venture Labs Mike was part of founding teams at Farecast (Acq by Microsoft) & Decide (Acq by Ebay) where he led product and growth strategies. Full Conversation includes: Farecast.com (Predicting prices) - Acquired by Microsoft Decide.com (next gen consumer reports) - Acquired by Ebay Through line across being part of multiple acquisitions…
MMike Fridgen
Startups, superheroes, and the economy at a crossroads: Voices from Seattle's tech community
After holding the GeekWire Awards virtually for the past two years, there was a feeling of real catharsis Thursday evening as hundreds of people streamed through the doors of the Showbox Sodo in Seattle for our annual celebration of the Pacific Northwest's top tech startups, leaders, and innovations. For the finalists in the 2022 GeekWire Awards, recognition at the superhero-themed show came with the added bonus of knowing that their companies made it through a period of unprecedented challenge and change. But the week also brought a new sense of uncertainty about what's to come. [Related Post: 2022 GeekWire Awards…
RRobert Mcferson
TTodd Bishop
XXiao Wang
MMaria Karaivanova
VVarun Puri
LLisa Gurry
DDave Cotter
Erin Quick
Erin Quick is the Co-founder and CEO of PairTree. With more than 20 years of global brand marketing experience, and more importantly, as a two-time adoptive mother, Erin is a leader in the movement to modernize adoption in the U.S. Previously, Erin co-founded Stoke Strategy, a Seattle-based brand strategy firm, which she led for 12 years. She began her marketing career at Addison in San Francisco and New York, where she worked on global branding for Domino’s Pizza, Merrill Lynch and The Make-a-Wish Foundation. Erin is a recipient of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40-Under-40 award and most recently, PairTree, under…
EErin Quick
Omri Gazitt
Omri Gazitt is the co-founder and CEO of Aserto, an authorization startup and his third entrepreneurial venture. He’s spent the majority of his 30-year career working on developer and infrastructure technology, most recently as the CPO of Puppet. Previously, he was the VP and GM of HP’s Cloud Native Platform, and General Manager at Microsoft with responsibilities for Azure, SQL Server, Application Server, and the .NET Framework. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
OOmri Gazitt
Words with AI: Language and the future of work, with Textio CEO Kieran Snyder
What's the impact of the words we use? Augmented writing platform Textio uses machine learning and natural language processing to take the guesswork out of business communication, offering predictive analytics designed to help companies recruit a diverse workforce and build an inclusive culture. The 120-person Seattle-based tech company, led by CEO Kieran Snyder, has been going through a transformation of its own during the past two years, expanding its product lineup while taking its own workforce fully remote, and recruiting more people outside the Seattle area. In the process, the company built its own in-house online tool for participatory time-boxed…
TTodd Bishop
JJohn Cook
KKieran Snyder
