Chris joined Madrona in 2017. As a partner on the investment team, Chris focuses on identifying, evaluating, and leading new investment opportunities and working closely with existing companies. Chris helps lead Madrona’s investments in companies innovating around the intersection of life and computer science through combining novel wet lab science with cutting-edge machine learning. He also helps lead investing activities in consumer technology and commerce, marketplaces, and Web3, focusing on how new technological innovations can create new consumer experiences and interactions with the digital world.
Journey to Madrona
Before joining Madrona, Chris led finance, business intelligence, and strategy for Rockets of Awesome, a kids’ clothing subscription box company focused on personalization at scale. At Rockets, Chris led several fundraising rounds and helped oversee significant growth in the first 18 months of operations. Chris was also on the investment team at Invus, where he focused on consumer and life science deals and supporting the earliest stage portfolio companies.
Chris started his career in Seattle as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, Chris worked on engagements across industries and functions, but he focused largely on digital user experience, biotech portfolio strategy, enterprise software strategy and long-term planning, and consumer product cost and design.
Lessons learned
- Focusing on the people is the most important and rewarding aspect of investing. We are in this together, and working with amazing people matters more than anything else.
- Building companies is all about focus. Working on fewer things faster is a recipe for success.
- Always prioritize the customer. From sales to strategy to product roadmap, solving customers’ pain points is the formula for an amazing company.
When he’s not in the office…
Chris serves on the board of Life Science Washington. He is an avid golfer and will play in any weather. He also enjoys tennis, skiing, and jazz saxophone, and he is a die-hard Seattle sports fan.
Noteworthy
Chris graduated cum laude from Williams College with majors in mathematics (honors) and English. At Williams, Chris wrote a statistics thesis examining time-dependent model-based clustering methods by looking at pitching data from Major League Baseball. Chris was also a member of the varsity swim team for four years.
