Madrona’s commitment to early-stage company formation and investing in exceptional founders and ideas, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, is steadfast and is at the core of Madrona’s strategy these past 30 years. Our track record makes this clear: Madrona has invested in 20 formation stage or pre-seed companies in just the last 2 years, with a quarter of those coming out of Madrona Venture Labs (MVL.) Over the past decade, MVL has played an important role in Madrona’s approach to incubation and early company formation, and today, we are sharing that we are bringing this focus, and the current MVL projects and initiatives, directly into Madrona, consolidating this core strategy under one roof.
Madrona will integrate MVL’s company formation, incubation, and pre-seed investing activities into our overall incubation efforts. MVL has been a cornerstone of early-stage innovation, helping create transformative companies, working alongside exceptional founders, and fostering a team of talented individuals across all functions, both past and present. With Madrona announcing its latest early-stage fund, Fund X, the timing was good for this transition.
We want to take a moment to recognize and thank the incredible MVL team — past and present — for their dedication to founders, innovation, and company building. Their passion, creativity, and hard work have played a critical role in shaping the early-stage ecosystem and bringing dozens of companies to life. The impact of their efforts will continue to be felt for years to come.
Bringing these efforts fully into Madrona comes at an exciting time for company formation. As founders are able to build ever more quickly and broadly with AI, we are seeing a wealth of compelling, pre-seed startups come through Madrona’s doors. The progression of LLMs and automated agents means that small founding teams of just 2-3 people combined with incredible customer expertise, market understanding, and/or technical infrastructure experience are able to build applied AI solutions that address valuable and important customer pain points. These are just the kinds of companies that we are doubling down on with Fund X.
As the market has evolved in recent years, Madrona recognizes that its highest-leverage role lies in backing more founders directly with capital at the earliest stages, as well as partnering with and supporting other studios and accelerators across Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, and the West Coast. Madrona will continue its history of working with Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) to conceive, form, fund, and build companies. This practice dates back more than two decades and led to the formation of companies such as Read AI, Farecast, Z2Live, Placed, and Rover. In addition to the five recent MVL spin-out companies backed by Fund IX, Madrona founded and funded two companies directly with in-house EIRs in 2024 that we will announce in 2025. Madrona will continue to build on MVL best practices and programs to further scale our EIR activities, as well as continue investing in communities and organizations that are important to the ecosystem, such as the MVL Leap Community.
“Our focus on formation-stage incubation and early investing is a core of Madrona’s strategy and continues with this transition,” said Madrona Managing Director Hope Cochran. “We believe that supporting these efforts in-house aligns with our strategic goals and allows us to support more exceptional founders directly. The Pacific Northwest remains our top priority, and we’re excited about this next phase.”
As part of this evolution, MVL Managing Director Mike Fridgen has decided to take on a new role as COO at Rover, a former Madrona portfolio company. He will also continue as a part-time Madrona venture partner.
“I’m deeply grateful to Madrona for the past nine years at MVL and for their support during the 10+ years I spent as a founder,” Mike said. “I’m incredibly proud of what our team accomplished at MVL — the community we built, the founders we backed, and the dozens of companies we created that continue to drive value and make a meaningful impact. Now, it’s time for a new challenge, and I’m thrilled to embark on it at Rover, a company that began as a ‘day one’ incubation at Madrona.”
Madrona will remain closely involved with the companies created and spun out of MVL, continuing to provide support and guidance as they scale. As a Venture Partner, Mike will continue to serve on the board of prior MVL funds, along with Madrona Managing Directors Hope Cochran and Tim Porter, and advise portfolio companies.
MVL is proud to have spun out impactful companies such as Uplevel, Strike Graph, OutboundAI, Magnify, Pendulum, Codified, Chatitive, and more. These companies represent a legacy of innovation and opportunity that Madrona will continue to champion. Madrona is excited to continue to build on its successful history with MVL and continue our commitment to “day one for the long run” investing in the Pacific Northwest.
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