A Conversation with Jack Naglieri, More Funding for AI Startups, and Great Leaders Change Company Trajectory

Partner Vivek Ramaswami hosted our latest IA40 Spotlight Episode of Founded & Funded, bringing on Panther Labs Founder Jack Naglieri. Madrona led the second fund for the AI2 Incubator, an important step on our journey together, which Matt McIlwain details in a new blog. We also co-led Visual Layer's Seed, which was announced today! Runway and Yoodli were featured in recent news articles. A new Startup Series entry from Madrona's talent team also landed.?And don't miss the roundup of other news from the portfolio, including an award for Nautilus Co-founder Parag Mallick and a new board member at Clozd.

Founded & Funded

Panther Labs Founder and CEO Jack Naglieri on Cloud-Native SIEM and Self-Growth

As?Jack Naglieri ?says, being a successful first-time?#founder ?is like going from being the waterboy to the coach in one year. The Panther founder?shares about that experience, his non-traditional founding story, and his personal growth and development on his journey in the latest?#IA40 ?spotlight episode of Founded & Funded with?Vivek Ramaswami . Listen here .

Startup Series

Great Leaders Change Company Trajectory

Great leaders are the key to your startup's success.?This story is a testament to the importance of building your team with the right leaders and best talent. Leaders like? Ryan Swanson will ultimately change the trajectory of your business and yield incredible results in the process. Don't miss Audra Aulabaugh 's latest Startup Series piece !

Madrona News

Our Investment in Visual Layer

Today, we are thrilled to announce Madrona’s investment in?Visual Layer , a?managed service?for curating large-scale image sets to produce higher-quality computer vision models. Visual Layer was founded by?Dr. Danny Bickson ,?Amir Alush , and?Carlos Guestrin . Danny and Carlos are second-time Madrona founders — they were part of Turi, which Apple acquired in 2016 — and we’re excited to welcome them back to the Madrona family and to welcome Amir! Madrona co-led the $7M Series Seed with our friends at?Insight Partners . Read about why we invested in our blog post here . And learn more in TechCrunch .

Madrona Leads Second AI2 Incubator Fund?

Ai2 Incubator announced its second fund, a $30 million fund, focused on supporting startups that spin out of the incubator.?Madrona has worked with AI2 since its inception.?We led the first fund?and have?also funded seven companies out of the organization.? Matt McIlwain writes about the history and why this is such an important institution not just to our region but to the broader technology industry. Read that piece here .?Great stories also ran in?TechCrunch ?and?Geekwire as well.

In the News

GeekWire: Tech Leaders Discuss Generative AI's Impact on Enterprise, Startups, and Society?

Madrona Partner Aseem Datar spoke at a lively panel about how generative AI will influence startups, enterprises, and society.?Check out GeekWire's piece to learn what worries Aseem and other business leaders about #generativeAI , how startups can compete with tech giants, and how #genAI will impact society. Read here.

Business Insider: How Runway's idea?went from a "crazy" concept to a Silicon Valley darling

From a 'crazy' concept to a $500M valuation!?In this Business Insider piece, Runway's CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela?explains?how the company's AI-powered image and video editing tools will make filmmaking more accessible. As a "full-stack applied AI research company,"?Runway builds its own foundational models, works to deploy them reliably and safely, and provides tools that individual creators and large film studios can use to edit images and videos. The startup's success is a testament to its founders' ambition and willingness to push the bounds of what's possible in AI and filmmaking. Read more about what Cris and the team are up to in this Business Insider piece — and don't miss?the podcast ?we did with him after he landed on the inaugural IA40 list. You can also read more about why we invested in Runway in this?blog post .

GeekWire: Yoodli releases AI tool that simulates difficult job interview conversations

Yoodli?recently announced the launch of its AI interview simulator (all powered by generative AI). Users can now practice mock interviews with Yoodli and get instant follow-up questions based on their answers. Yoodli will also provide users with suggestions to be more concise and analytics on their filler words, pacing, eye contact, body language, and more. Read more in GeekWire.

Newsletters

Hooked: Recruiting is a Team Sport

Do you have a culture of recruiting?

In this week's Hooked, Audra Aulabaugh explains how it's all about looking around the room — virtual or not — to unlock all the power of all the recruiters on your team. Recruiting isn't a transactional process that only happens when you open a role — it's everything and should be constant. It's having curiosity about the business and problems, connecting with people to build, and meeting for a coffee to seek perspective. It's being a friend and building community. It's now, and it's later — a concept SeekOut CEO?Anoop Gupta shared with Audra for this week's edition. And he knows a thing or two about creating powerful cultures. Read and subscribe here.

Aspiring for Intelligence: A Conversation With Alex Banks

In their latest post, Vivek Ramaswami and?Sabrina Wu ?sat down with Alex Banks , creator of The Signal and co-founder of the AI startup Aloy, a "second brain" for knowledge workers. They talk about everything from how Alex started writing with no formal background in AI to his journey in co-founding a startup to what he's most excited about in the space today. Read and subscribe here.

Portfolio Roundup

OctoML ?Co-founder and CEO Luis Ceze was quoted in The Information talking about the need for incumbents to find their?unique competitive edge, or they'll be steamrolled by every other text-based interface that integrates LLMs.

Nautilus ?Co-founder Parag Mallick received the Washington University McKelvey School of Engineering's Engineering Entrepreneurship award!

Clozd ?announced a new member of the board — Libby Duane Adams, the co-founder and chief advocacy officer of Alteryx.

Go1 ?announced its acquisition of Blinkest. Do you want to speed-read all those business books on your bedside table or desk? Go try it out!??

ReadAI ?announced that Meeting Playback and Highlights are available for Google Meet.

Tangibly ?brought Large Language Model technology to the hard task of protecting trade secrets.?

Strike Graph ?Co-founder and CEO Justin Beals was recently featured on the Security Unfiltered podcast.

Clari ?CEO Andy Byrne introduced a newsletter — Rise Up.

Observe ?is now officially part of the Amazon Marketplace, and CEO Jeremy Burton?joined The Cube ?to share his latest insights on AI, market shifts, and emerging tech.

Route ?was recently featured in Built in LA, explaining how the company has adjusted its tactics to meet?shifting market conditions.

Deepgram Announced its?Next-Gen Speaker Diarization?and Language Detection Models. Ralphette Murphy English was shortlisted as a Customer Success Leader of the Year by Consumer Success Excellence.

Plus ?released Plus AI to help build presentations.

WhyLabs ?released?LangKit?— its LLM monitoring solution that offers secure observability at scale.?

Outbound AI released?GPT-enabled virtual agents?to help lower administrative costs for medical professionals.??

Lexion ?Founder Gaurav Oberoi joined the LawNext podcast to discuss the company's recent $20M raise and how AI?will help their team get deals done faster.

Eclypsium ?was featured in a piece on Dark Reading about firmware looming as the next frontier for cybersecurity.

Ovation ?CEO Curt Medeiros and Chief Strategy Officer Barry Wark joined?the AWS Health Innovation Podcast to discuss genomic data's importance in advancing precision medicine.

Echodyne ?announced that ANRA Technologies integrated its?radar data into its Single Integrated Operating Picture platform.

SeekOut ?was recognized as the Top Rated Recruiting Software by TrustRadius.

TaskHuman ?was named one of the 2023 Top Emerging Startups by Tracxn.

Seekout, RecRoom, Runway, and Coda?were all named to?I nc Magazine's Top Workplaces of 2023 list!?

Seekout, Tigera, Observe, TaskHuman, RecRoom, Outreach, Sila, OctoML, Amperity, and Verishop?were all recognized by Forbes in its?Best Startup Employers of 2023 .