Tech Entrepreneur, Product and Business Leader James Phillips Joins Madrona Venture Group as Chief Strategic Officer

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Madrona Venture Group is pleased to announce that James Phillips is joining the company as Chief Strategic Officer. As Chief Strategic Officer, Phillips will work with the founders and leaders of Madrona’s portfolio companies, sharing his knowledge and operating experiences and collaborating with the investment team as they help build businesses early on. first day.

Phillips is president of Microsoft’s Digital Transformation Platform Group, a product development group covering Microsoft’s business applications and services. Responsible for the strategic direction, development and delivery of results from a large group of products including Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Azure AI Platform, Azure Data Platform, Azure IoT Platform and Microsoft Cloud for specific solutions industry, Phillips works in depth on accelerating digital transformation for businesses and enterprises – from the technology stack to customer satisfaction to team management.

“James is a one-of-a-kind talent – he’s been both a successful serial entrepreneur working on early-stage start-ups to build the product, find a suitable product market and build a business with successful exits via M&A or IPO, as well as leading large companies and managing world-class teams at leading global companies.Having had the opportunity to work with James for several years at Microsoft, I have witnessed his passion for solving customer problems and building new businesses from the ground up and scaling them effectively.Having his extensive operating experience and passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs here at Madrona, working directly with our businesses, from early founders to our growth-stage businesses, will be of immeasurable value,” said S. Somasegar, Managing Director of Madrona Risk Group .

Phillips added, “I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work more closely with the Madrona team and with the founders and builders of world-class businesses supported by Madrona. I have known Madrona’s partners for many years – in one case for over three decades. I have deep respect for their high-integrity approach to venture capital investing and the impact they have on their businesses. This is arguably the best time in history to build a technology company and I look forward to supporting Madrona’s entrepreneurs as they pursue their vision. »

Prior to joining Microsoft, Phillips was a serial entrepreneur, most recently as founder and CEO of Akimbi Systems (acquired by VMware) and co-founder of Couchbase (NASDAQ:BASE); held leadership positions in engineering, product management, business development, and marketing at Intel, VMware, and Synopsys; and spent two years as a technology investment banker at UBS PaineWebber. He began his career as a self-taught software developer and co-founded Fifth Generation Systems (acquired by Symantec) at age 17. He is also an angel investor and actively mentors start-up CEOs.

Phillips joins a growing group of experienced traders who join the firm to help portfolio companies and assist the investment team. Recent strategic directors include Apptio Founder and CEO Sunny Gupta, Tableau President and CEO Mark Nelson, and Senior Director of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at Nanostring, Charlotte Hubbert. Over the past 12 months, Madrona has raised $620 million to fund the strategy of collaborating with founders from the early days through the long term of the company’s journey.

About Madrona

Madrona (www.madrona.com) is a venture capital firm based in Seattle, WA. With more than 25 years of investing in early-stage technology companies, the company has worked with founders from day one to help them build their business for the long term. Madrona primarily invests in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum and recently raised two acceleration stage funds for early stage investments in Series B, C and beyond. Madrona manages over $2 billion and was an early investor in companies including Amazon, Smartsheet, Isilon, Redfin and Snowflake.