Team Profiles Archive

Sabrina Wu

Sabrina joined Madrona’s investment team in 2021 and focuses on sourcing and evaluating new investment opportunities from Seed through Series C across Madrona’s core investment themes. She also supports the growth and strategy of current portfolio companies. Sabrina is particularly interested in intelligent applications, enterprise software, and data/AI products.

Sabrina and Madrona Partner Vivek Ramaswami author the biweekly newsletter Aspiring for Intelligence where they share thoughts about the future of intelligent applications.

Journey to Madrona

Before joining Madrona, Sabrina was an Associate at Vector Capital, a technology-focused private equity firm in San Francisco. At Vector, Sabrina focused on sourcing and evaluating new investments across B2B software and supported portfolio companies with strategic M&A and growth initiatives. She worked with portfolio companies like Planful, Marigold, and WatchGuard Technologies.

Lessons learned

Building an enduring company requires unwavering commitment and deep passion for solving real customer problems. This drive sustains founders through the inevitable ups and downs, and having a committed partner along the journey can make all the difference!
Change and adaptation are fundamental to building a successful company. It’s important to constantly be listening to customers and market signals and then evolving your approach accordingly.

When she’s not in the office…

Outside of work, Sabrina can typically be found long-distance road and trail running, downhill skiing, and hiking. She also enjoys adventure travel and exploring new restaurants and coffee shops.

Noteworthy

Sabrina graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in political economics and a focus on development studies. While at Berkeley, Sabrina was a member of the lightweight crew team.

Loren Alhadeff

Loren joined Madrona in 2023 following more than 14 years of leading the sales organization at DocuSign. At Madrona, he helps evaluate new investments and works closely with portfolio companies on go-to-market strategy, building sales teams, and cultivating field leadership. Loren is passionate about building organizations that enable the entire team to realize their potential — and have fun doing it.

Journey to Madrona

Loren joined DocuSign as the 17^th employee and its first sales director. Fresh off seven years of rising through the ranks at Onvia, he dove in to help the fledging company convince customers that the complicated and time-consuming practice of document signing and management could be accomplished in moments in a digital-first world. During his time at DocuSign, the company expanded from a single product to multi-product, built deep vertical product and sales expertise, expanded from North America to EMEA, Latin America, and Asia, and along the way, changed the way the world manages business agreements. Under Loren’s leadership, sales grew from $2.5 million annual revenue to more than $2.5 billion.

Lessons learned:

Always hire the best people, especially when they are better than you. The team with the best people wins.
Plan big, bold, and long term. Small plans don’t stir the hearts, soul, and genius of a team.
You are never too old or experienced to learn; look to constantly refine and take special note of the practitioners with meaningful experiences to draw from.

When he’s not in the office…

Loren loves to travel and enjoy the many outdoor activities the PNW has to offer, most specifically fishing, boating, and the occasional and sometimes frustrating round of golf. He, his wife, Joelle, and three children live in Seattle.

Noteworthy

Loren is on the board of Seattle’s Children’s Hospital, one of the nation’s leading research and clinical treatment hospitals devoted to children regardless of need. He also serves on the board of the Bush School.

Tom Alberg

Tom Alberg left this world on August 5, 2022. You may read more about his extraordinary life here.

Tom Alberg co-founded Madrona in 1995 and actively worked in support of Madrona and its portfolio companies. Tom served on the boards of numerous public and private companies, including Amazon.com, on which he started serving before it went public in 1997. He was a former director for Impinj, a prior Madrona Portfolio Company that is now a public company. Immediately prior to founding Madrona, Tom served as president of public companies LIN Broadcasting Corporation and executive vice president of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. Previously, he was chair of the executive committee and partner in the Northwest’s largest law firm, Perkins Coie, where he was principal counsel for The Boeing Company, Alaska Airlines, and a number of early technology companies. Before that, he was an attorney with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York.

He was past chair of the Washington State Technology Alliance, the Discovery Institute, and the Pacific Science Center and past president of Intiman Theater in Seattle. He was co-chair of the capital campaign for the Computer Science and Engineering Department’s building at the University of Washington and of ACES Northwest Network, a coalition of businesses supporting the implementation of autonomous, connected, electric and shared vehicles in the region. He served on the boards of TechNet Northwest, the Pacific Science Center, and Challenge Seattle. He was formerly a member of President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He was also on the Investment Committee of the Seattle Foundation. He was also previously ranked number 12 of the 35 most influential business leaders in the Seattle area by Puget Sound Business Journal.

Tom was an avid sailor, and he joined forces with celebrated winemaker Mike Januik to build the Novelty Hill Januik winery in nearby Woodinville, Washington. He was also one of the principal participants in the development of the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seattle. He and his wife, Judi Beck, also founded Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center.

Tom was a graduate of Ballard High School in Seattle, and he attended Harvard College, where he graduated cum laude. He received his law degree from Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of the “Columbia Law Review.”

Shannon Anderson

Shannon and her team teach recruiting self-sufficiency to Madrona portfolio companies and introduce them to amazing people for their leadership teams. Shannon ensures that Madrona’s talent efforts align across our portfolio, executive search firm partnerships, and as contributors to the VC talent partner community. She authors many of Madrona’s talent playbooks, provides interviewer training and other workshops, and designs and executes Madrona’s Annual People Leader Summit.

Journey to Madrona

Shannon has always been a hands-on recruiter working with companies at all stages, starting in the “go-go” days of Microsoft in the 1990s, where she helped grow the company from 8,000 to 40,000 employees. Prior to joining Madrona in 2018, Shannon was a principal at Recruiting Toolbox, teaching interviewer training to high-growth companies. Shannon started in venture with Ignition Partners at the firm’s inception in 2000. While there and through her executive recruiting firm, Velocity Search Partners, she made her mark on many global companies with offices in the greater Seattle region, including Amazon, Google, DocuSign, Snowflake, Apptio, and Ai2.

Lessons learned

I’ve learned to “Always be Recruiting” and “Always be Closing.” You never know when or where you will meet an amazing person who could positively change the trajectory of your life, your company, or your customers.

When she’s not in the office…

Shannon strives to be a great role model for her two daughters. Her devoted husband of 35 years keeps her grounded, fed and watered, and she trains with free weights to build muscles somewhere other than between her ears.

Noteworthy

In 2014, Oren Etzioni received Geekwire’s “Hire of the Year” award, which is coveted in the Seattle tech community. He founded The Artificial Intelligence Institute (Ai2), which has since become the preeminent AI institute and spawned 10s and soon-to-be 100s of startups. Shannon’s search firm at the time, Velocity Search Partners, introduced Oren to Paul Allen.

The highest compliment Shannon has ever received came from a CTO who didn’t believe in her ability to find great candidates in the wild. Eventually, he discovered he was wrong, giving her the moniker “Lioness in the Jungle.” Please ask her about the story!

Audra Aulabaugh

Audra joined Madrona in 2022 to work with founders and early founding teams on all things recruiting. Because a high percentage of company-building success hinges on the ability to recruit the right leaders, the earlier in the journey founders learn and build solid talent practices, the better. Audra also works to ensure leaders contemplating a startup career will think of the Madrona ecosystem first. To make this a reality, she amplifies the talent brands and opportunities across the portfolio and supports the efforts of the team’s Hooked newsletter to elevate Madrona as a leader in the tech ecosystem.

Journey to Madrona

Audra has spent over two decades working as an operator in tech, successfully building the earliest stages of recruiting infrastructure through high-growth scale. Audra loves building from scratch, making her a great partner to founders on their first startup ride. She’s lived several early building journeys as the first talent leader, successfully scaling down to scale back up through company growth that led to three acquisitions. These experiences give her a unique lens into the complexity and challenges teams navigate as they build from scratch. Audra’s most recent building journeys with Heptio (acquired by VMware in 2018) and Polly landed her in the Madrona portfolio, opening the door for her to scale her experiences one-to-many.

Lessons learned

Hiring the right team is 100% the biggest challenge in building a company. As a founder, it’s easy to get distracted by 100 other to-dos at a startup, but the only way a founder and their business can scale is by hiring the right people to attack the next big milestone. Founder focus here is critical. Resist the urge to make recruiting someone else’s job.

When she’s not in the office…

Audra is a lifelong adventurer who loves exploring new places without an itinerary with her equally adventurous partner (and grown-up kids when they have time for it!)

Noteworthy

Audra received a full-ride basketball scholarship to Big Bend Community College, where she earned her associate degree. She has also been an ongoing advocate for diversity in tech and represented all women as a panelist at AnitaB.Org.

Anna Baird

Anna joined Madrona in 2022. As an operating partner, she leverages her deep go-to-market, finance, and operating expertise to help advise fast-growing and acceleration-stage companies in the Madrona portfolio. Anna also has a deep understanding of the sales technology capabilities in the marketplace, having worked as an executive in one of the companies pioneering this category. She also brings this knowledge of the go-to-market technology stack, landscape, and the challenges companies face to the Madrona teams she works with.

Journey to Madrona

Anna has worked in technology for over 30 years supporting public and private companies in a wide variety of executive and operational roles, including CFO, COO, and president.

Anna was most recently the CRO at Outreach, where she ran the go-to-market teams. As COO of Outreach, she helped the company raise over $200M in funding, achieving a $1B+ valuation. She was instrumental in helping the company grow from $25M to over $230M during her time at the company.

Anna started her career at KPMG, a global consulting company she left as a partner after seventeen years building the technology practice. At KPMG, she helped startups to multi-billion-dollar public companies with business process transformation and controls. Anna was the global lead partner on Google (pre-IPO and next 7 years), Intuit, and others. Anna was also an SVP at McAfee and worked closely with the board and leadership on global controls, enterprise risk management, and the acquisition by Intel.

Lessons learned

Be Customer Centric. They are the voice that matters in what you build, your strategy, and your vision. Solving their pain is the reason you exist.
Customer success is built by happy employees who are proud of their company and want to do the best they can for the customers you serve. So treat them as if they were your best marketers and the path to healthy, expanding customers — because they are.
Focus is key. You will not be known for the 20 things you started but for the 3 things you actually accomplished. Deciding what not to do is the hardest part.

When she’s not in the office…

Anna is an avid hiker, nature lover, and foodie. Travel is one of her passions — she has stood on the edge of Victoria Falls in Africa, jumped off the tallest building in New Zealand, and has been diving in Fiji, at the Great Barrier Reef, and in the Blue Hole in Belize. She has two amazing children who have been on many of these adventures and are now spending serious amounts of time “adulting.”

Noteworthy

Anna is on the board of Semrush (SEMR) and SeatGeek, where she serves as the Audit Committee chair. She has a bachelor’s in business with an emphasis in accounting from CSU Fresno, and she has taken executive courses at Harvard and Wharton.

Joanna Black

Joanna joined Madrona in 2022 and serves as the firm’s general counsel. In her role, Joanna manages the legal process for all Madrona investment events and provides legal guidance to portfolio companies. She also works to build a broader Pacific Northwest legal community, connecting in-house legal professionals at startup companies within and outside the portfolio.

Journey to Madrona

Joanna has worked with public and venture-backed companies in the software, technology, and biotechnology industries for the last 25 years. Her experience spans a broad range of legal matters, including corporate governance, contract drafting and review, strategic counseling, venture capital financing, risk mitigation, and intellectual property licensing. Joanna was most recently a partner at Adkins Black, LLP, where she represented and advised biotechnology companies, software companies, and startups on various legal matters. She was formerly vice president and general counsel of Xcyte Therapies, Inc., a public biotechnology company. Joanna started her career in venture, helping to build the Venture Law Group office in Seattle and serving as an attorney with Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto. She has advised and worked on numerous financings, IPOs, and M&A transactions throughout her career.

Lessons learned

Always be kinder than necessary and try to take a pause between your thoughts and reactions. Adding even a short pause provides an opportunity to ask questions, explore possibilities, adjust perspectives, and check your ego. That often makes all the difference.

When she’s not in the office…

In her personal time, Joanna enjoys reading murder mysteries, doing crossword and jigsaw puzzles, listening to podcasts, and spending time with her family. Her favorite podcasts include “Hidden Brain,” “Invest Like the Best,” and “Freakonomics Radio.”

Noteworthy

Joanna received her bachelor’s in economics and public policy from Stanford University. She earned her law degree from Columbia University School of Law.

John Carpenter

John joined Madrona in 2000. He manages the internal technology infrastructure and consults with Madrona’s portfolio companies as they establish their infrastructure and security programs. Additionally, John participates in technical due diligence for potential investments and often works closely with entrepreneurs to test their technology and provide essential feedback during product development.

Journey to Madrona

John received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He was previously a technology consultant for Wright Runstad & Company, where he developed a leasing information system and managed the accounting systems. Before that, he was a security consultant and IT auditor for Honeywell, Inc.

Lessons learned

Reboot. It’s really the secret to nearly everything in our modern, electronically connected world. This even applies to our cars now!

When he’s not in the office…

John enjoys cruising the San Juan Islands and northern destinations with his family aboard their Ranger Tug powerboat. He is an avid skier and cyclist, commuting to the office daily on his bicycle.

Noteworthy

In 2017, John and his youngest daughter Olivia rode their tandem bicycle across the United States, raising money and awareness for the endangered resident orcas of the Salish Sea. Over 3,523 miles, they bonded over the shared experience of seeing the country from the saddle.

An Cayas

An joined the Madrona team in 2022 and supports Karan Mehandru in addition to managing and maintaining the California office.

Journey to Madrona

An has worked with Karan for many years. Prior to joining Madrona, she supported Karan as his executive assistant at Steadfast Capital Ventures (California office). Before that, she supported Karan and another general partner at Trinity Ventures.

When she’s not in the office…

An loves hanging out with her husband and son, doing home improvements, hosting and cooking for friends and family, and enjoying a nice cup of coffee and a good audiobook (when life allows with a 3-year-old!).

Noteworthy

An attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she obtained her bachelor’s in biology.

Jennifer Chambers

Jennifer joined Madrona in 1997 and oversees the day-to-day administration of all of Madrona’s active funds — from capital calls to distributions to quarterly reporting and annual meetings with Madrona’s limited partners. Jennifer also oversees an amazing team of back-office support that all play a key role in keeping the trains running on time. In addition, she manages Madrona’s core operations, such as benefits, facilities, and firm accounting. She also serves on the venture growth team, working closely with many of our earliest-stage portfolio companies, assisting them with startup and financial activities.

When she’s not in the office…

She spends a lot of time trying to keep up with her two active daughters, driving them to their events and cheering them on from the sidelines. She also loves new adventures with her family and cheering on the Sounders!

Noteworthy

Jennifer earned her bachelor’s, cum laude, from Seattle University and her MBA from the Albers School of Business at Seattle University.

Katie Chiupka

Katie joined Madrona in 2021. She works to drive business growth and identify partnership opportunities for Madrona portfolio companies.

Journey to Madrona

Katie came to Madrona from Slalom Consulting. While at Slalom, Katie was responsible for developing and implementing strategic business and technology programs for various Seattle-based companies. Katie built a reputation as a trusted adviser by understanding clients’ individual business needs, managing through effective communication, and delivering results.

Katie started her career at a local Seattle startup delivering a business strategy to bring in-person design experiences online. She also expanded her digital retail experience working for Microsoft and Zulily. Katie has a diverse background, including business consulting, digital enablement, business development, program/product management, and marketing.

Lessons learned

Throughout Katie’s career, she has been fortunate to work across different business organizations, industries, and backgrounds. She has learned the common thread across all success lies with building a strong relationship, open communication, and trust with the team you are working with – and always following through.

When she’s not in the office…

Outside of work, Katie enjoys golfing when the weather permits and skiing in the winter when the conditions are right. She also loves traveling to new and familiar places to see family and friends. Her favorite way to start her day is a morning walk with coffee and a Pilates class at her favorite studio — it sets the tone for a successful day to have a successful morning.

Noteworthy

Katie is from the Seattle area and graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s in society, ethics, and human behaviors.

Troy Cichos

Troy joined Madrona in 1999 and serves as the firm’s chief operating officer and partner. In his role, Troy oversees the operations, finance, and administration of Madrona and the venture funds under Madrona’s management. He leads the teams working directly with Madrona companies on recruiting, HR, communications, business development, and marketing. For Madrona, Troy manages legal, HR, IR, tax, and audit, as well as the growing family of Madrona-related organizations such as Create33 and Madrona Venture Labs.

Journey to Madrona

Troy was formerly with Deloitte & Touche in Seattle, where he served six years as an associate and then tax manager. He also worked for three years as a manager at ITT Financial.

When he’s not in the office…

Troy serves on the advisory board for the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the Michael G. Foster School of Business, which promotes entrepreneurial learning and discovery to students — from undergraduates to Ph.D. candidates — across the University of Washington. In addition, Troy is a mentor to the startups of the Jones + Foster Accelerator program that the Buerk Center runs. Troy is also a Managing Director of the W Fund.

Noteworthy

Troy received his bachelor’s in finance from the University of Utah. He earned his law degree from Seattle University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and was an editor of the Seattle University Law Review.

Emily Crandall

Emily joined the Madrona team in May 2023 and supports Jon Turow and Erika Shaffer.

Journey to Madrona

Emily received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Wayne State University and joined Madrona after short stints in tech and healthcare at Acrisure Cyber Services and Meridian Health Plan.

When not in the office…

Emily enjoys reading and writing fiction and exploring local parks in the PNW. As a native Michigander, she enjoys watching Detroit sports teams. She also enjoys finding trendy coffee shops and listening to technology-focused podcasts.

Noteworthy

Emily is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Jack Creighton

John (Jack) Creighton Jr. passed away on January 29th, 2020. You may read more about his extraordinary life here.

Jack was formerly president and CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company and interim chairman and CEO of UAL Corporation (United Airlines) immediately following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He was also vice-chairman and director of Unocal Corporation. Jack joined Madrona as a strategic director in 1998.

Among nonprofit and government agencies, Jack Creighton was the national president of the Boy Scouts of America, chairman of Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, president of the Washington State University Foundation, a member of The Ohio State University Foundation Board, chair of the American Forest and Paper Association, trustee of William D. Ruckelshaus Center and co-chair of the World Trade Center of Seattle.

The recipient of numerous awards, including the Prime Minister of Japan’s Letter of Commendation for International Trade and the Distinguished Volunteer Service Award from Washington State University Foundation. He is the former civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army for the state of Washington.

Jack received his undergraduate and law degrees from The Ohio State University and his MBA from the University of Miami (Florida). He was also a CPA.

Patrick Ennis

Patrick joined Madrona Venture Group in 2019 following many years as an investor, scientist, and inventor.

Journey to Madrona

Prior to Madrona, Patrick was at Intellectual Ventures for more than a decade, running startup incubation and technology commercialization with a focus on Asian markets. His investments included Evolv Technology (Nasdaq: EVLV), of which he was a founding board member. Patrick was also the founding CTO of Xinova, a startup that pioneered an international open-innovation market network.

Previously Patrick was a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners, where he funded and built early-stage startups for ten years. His investments included Impinj (Nasdaq: PI), Innovalight (acquired by DuPont), and Kotura (acquired by Mellanox/NVIDIA).

Before joining the venture capital industry as a Kauffman Fellow in 1998, Patrick worked at AT&T and Bell Labs, leading engineering projects in software development, speech recognition, and network design. He also worked as a product manager in optical networking and a marketing manager for consumer telecom services.

Before joining Bell Labs, Patrick researched nuclear physics at government labs in North America and Europe. During this time, he published many articles in scientific journals, including The Physical Review, Zeitschrift für Physik, and Nuclear Instruments and Methods.

Lessons learned

Integrity matters most, followed by work ethic. Both are more important than intelligence and experience.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem is characterized by relationships and trust, not transactions.
Learning never stops. One must be on a mission to seek out new ideas by learning from everyone.

When he’s not in the office…

Patrick loves to do anything with his three sons, including skiing, rock climbing, basketball, chess, or reading “The Hardy Boys” canon.

Noteworthy

Patrick has served on the board of directors of more than 20 companies. His current board seats include Yoodli, Wipro Ltd, the University of Helsinki Commercialization Board, and the Cybereason Advisory Board. Additionally, he is a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute. Patrick is an inventor on several patents, has written about innovation, and is a frequent speaker at conferences.

In the last decade, Patrick has spent more than 1,000 days abroad conducting business in 31 countries and developing relationships with technology, corporate, and academic leaders.

Patrick holds a Ph.D., MS, and MPhil in physics from Yale, an MBA from Wharton, and a bachelor’s in mathematics and physics from the College of William and Mary, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.