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Listen to our 2026 Annual Investment Outlook Panel with four top VCs. Get their perspective on the investment climate in 2026 and their plans to invest specifically in AI based startups. See how they did with their 2025 forecast and what their big predictions are for 2026.

Tim Porter, Managing Director, Madrona Ventures
Tim joined Madrona in 2006 and invests in B2B software companies in the Pacific Northwest. He is currently interested in intelligent applications and SaaS, cloud-native software infrastructure, the modern data stack, machine learning, DevOps, and cybersecurity. He is also a board member of numerous Madrona portfolio companies.

Sudip Chakrabarti, Partner, Pruven Capital
Sudip is a partner at Pruven Capital where he works with companies that are transforming the enterprise, cloud and infrastructure markets. Sudip's past investments include Exabeam, Heptio, Serverless.com, Datacoral, Spotnana, Temporal, Tesorio and Polly. He had also been a board observer at Databricks, Digital Ocean, Actifio, Mesosphere and Samsara.

Kellan Carter, Founding Partner, FUSE Ventures
Kellan Carter is a founding partner of FUSE where he focuses on early-stage investments in intelligent software in both horizontal and vertical categories. He currently sits on the Boards of Zuper, Pictory, Avante, Owl, Xemelgo and PDM Automotive.

Joaquín Gallardo, Senior Vice President, Tech Banking at Silicon Valley Bank
Joaquín is a Senior Vice President at SVB, a division of First Citizens Bank, in our Seattle/PNW market focusing on enterprise clients. In his role we helps Series A and beyond clients to scale their finance stack with venture lending alongside global treasury and liquidity solutions. Before joining SVB Seattle, he lived in San Francisco, learned to code at UC Berkeley, and helped to co-found a pre-seed company. Joaquín holds a bachelor's degree in economics from George Mason University. He lives in Ballard, Seattle with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he gets to think about how he wishes he had more spare time.

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Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain

At JPMorgan Private Bank, wealth is understood to be more than just numbers. It's about creating a legacy, achieving dreams, and securing a family's future. Clients benefit from a personalized approach, working closely with experts in philanthropy, family office management, fiduciary services, and special advisory services. The mission is to make the financial journey as seamless as possible from the initial meet to ongoing management of assets. For more, visit privatebank.jpmorgan.com.

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast

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We’re excited to feature Yifan Zhang, Managing Director at AI2 Incubator, one of the most successful AI incubators in the world, born out of the Allen Institute for AI and backed by a newly announced $80M Fund III.

Yifan is a 2x founder and CEO, Entrepreneur “50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs” honoree, and Forbes 30 Under 30 alum. Her journey spans building and exiting venture-backed startups, navigating extreme founder adversity, and now helping the next generation of AI founders go from idea to impact.

In this episode of From Startup to Exit, Yifan shares:

• How AI2 Incubator works differently from studios, accelerators, and traditional VCs
• What they look for in founders, and why ideas matter less than resilience and execution
• Why vertical, agentic AI applications are winning right now
• How AI startups are shifting from per-seat SaaS pricing to per-task, outcome-based models
• What it really takes to survive the founder “trough of adversity” and come out stronger
• Why Seattle may be the most underappreciated AI startup hub in the world

This conversation is a must-listen for AI founders, operators, investors, and anyone building in the agentic AI era.

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast

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Join us for a dynamic highlight reel featuring short segments from the 2025 season of From Startup to Exit, TiE Seattle’s flagship podcast showcasing world-class entrepreneurs, innovators, and industry leaders sharing candid insights from their journeys. Each mini-segment brings you the essence of these remarkable conversations — from foundational lessons in product and leadership to reflections on how technology shapes markets and culture.

We kick things off with Paul Maritz, discussing his pivotal role in Microsoft’s product strategy during the Windows and server era and how a deep commitment to innovation shaped a career spanning multiple iconic tech companies. Next, Jeff Raikes reflects on building transformative software platforms like Microsoft Office and his later work in global philanthropy focused on equity and systems-level impact. Robbie Bach takes you inside the historic launch of Xbox, offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at driving innovation within a legacy tech giant. Meanwhile Steve Wood shares foundational memories from Microsoft’s early days as the sixth employee, emphasizing the importance of grit and experimentation in startup culture.

We also spotlight Brad Chase on the launch of Windows 95 and the strategic decisions that made it a defining moment in personal computing; Laura Jennings on shaping MSN into a major internet portal; and modern voices like Sabrina Wu, who breaks down the future of intelligent applications and the role of AI in venture investing. Yash Wagh delivers insights from his startup journey with Gone.com and building sustainable commerce models. Ece Kamar closes with a forward-looking conversation on responsible AI, sharing how human-centered frameworks will guide the next phase of technological growth. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, technologist, or curious learner, this highlights compilation is packed with actionable wisdom from leaders who’ve navigated the path from startup to exit.

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast

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Join us as Team Kymavi, the TYE Global winner, discusses their groundbreaking solution addressing environmental challenges through biodegradable bags, and Team Key Beauty, creators of an AI-driven makeup matching platform for women of color, shares their journey in redefining inclusivity in beauty.

The teams dive into their experiences with market research, customer validation, and developing sustainable business models, highlighting how mentorship and the TYE program helped them refine their ideas, build essential entrepreneurial skills, and prepare for global success.

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast

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In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Ece Kamar, Director of the AI Frontiers Lab at Microsoft Research, and one of the leading voices in Responsible AI.

With over 15 years at Microsoft, Ece has played a pivotal role in shaping how AI systems are designed to collaborate with humans safely and effectively. She shares her journey from earning a PhD at Harvard University, where she researched how AI agents can become human partners, to leading responsible AI efforts at Microsoft and tackling challenges like fairness, reliability, safety, and hallucinations in large-scale models such as GPT-4.

In this insightful conversation, Ece talks about:
- How early research in human-AI collaboration laid the foundation for today’s AI agents
- The evolution of AI through scalable data, deep learning, and generative models
- Her pioneering work on Responsible AI frameworks at Microsoft
- The emerging challenges and opportunities in the era of generative AI

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, technologist, or researcher, this episode offers an inspiring look into how responsible innovation will define the next generation of AI systems. Tune in to learn how human-centered AI is shaping the future - responsibly.

To ensure you don't miss other episodes like this, subscribe to our podcast!

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecekamar/
Sponsored by: JPMC Private Banking

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast

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Yashovardhan Wagh is the co-founder & CEO of Gone.com, a Seattle-based circular commerce company giving quality goods a second life through local supply chains. He previously built supply chains for Amazon and other Fortune 100 companies. His mission: to build a national circular economy so future generations can thrive on a healthy planet.

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast

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In this episode, we talk to Sabrina Wu who is an Investor at the famed VC firm Madrona Ventures. Sabrina shares her thoughts about closed source vs open source, agentic applications and the emergence of multi modal applications.

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.

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast

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In the final installment of the Microsoft@50 series, we interview Laura Jennings, who was the Vice President in charge of MSN and one of the senior most female executives at Microsoft in her time. Laura was the Microsoft executive who shifted MSN's strategy as a proprietary online service to becoming one of the top portal's on the internet. I worked for Laura and together we bought Hotmail and got into the search business in partnership with Inktomi. In 1999, Laura Jennings launched a new version of MSN with personalization, integrated web email and search which went on to become a top 3 portal on the Internet.

At JPMorgan Private Bank, wealth is understood to be more than just numbers. It's about creating a legacy, achieving dreams, and securing a family's future. Clients benefit from a personalized approach, working closely with experts in philanthropy, family office management, fiduciary services, and special advisory services. The mission is to make the financial journey as seamless as possible from the initial meet to ongoing management of assets. For more, visit privatebank.jpmorgan.com.

Brought to you by TiE Seattle
Hosts: Shirish Nadkarni and Gowri Shankar
Producers: Minee Verma and Eesha Jain
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@fromstartuptoexitpodcast