SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Madrona Venture Group today announced the hiring of Micah Baldwin as Executive Director of the soon-to-be-open innovation center. The venture firm announced earlier this year its intent to open a founder-focused space occupying the floor directly below the firm’s office in downtown Seattle. This new innovation center will support Pacific Northwest founders and the broader technology ecosystem with a carefully designed space that offers founders and their teams access to collaboration spaces, programming focused on growing their business, and the ability to connect with customers and partners.
Baldwin joins directly from Amazon, where he spent three-and-a-half years as a senior business development and product manager building and operating AWS Connections, a program designed to help startups grow through connections to large enterprises. In his 20+ year career, Baldwin has been a multi-time founder, active angel investor, fundraiser, and operator, having grown multiple businesses to millions in ARR. Baldwin has been an active and sought-after advisor for Tuesday Ventures, Techstars, Expa and other funds, accelerators and startups. He is passionate about startups and startup ecosystems, recently penning a piece on Medium that lays out the strengths of the greater Seattle region.
“Seattle is at an incredible inflection point. Startup activity is high, our talent is drawing all of the major technology companies to our region, and our universities and research institutions are turning out cutting-edge and commercially impactful research. There are more new venture funds in Seattle, both local and from outside the region, seeking out the best founders and company ideas; and we have a growing populace interested in angel investing with the means to do it,” commented Baldwin. “We have a clear recipe for an acceleration in startup formation and company-building in Seattle, and Madrona is the perfect partner to launch this space. The firm has been active in Seattle for more than two decades with a strong track record, both in helping to build some of the biggest successes in the region, and in supporting the technology ecosystem. I’m looking forward to creating a founder-focused space that provides opportunities to a broad set of companies and founders.”
“Micah brings an incredible enthusiasm, intellectual curiosity about what makes a startup succeed, and a record of building enduring relationships across venture, founders, corporate innovators and engineers,” said Scott Jacobson, managing director, Madrona Venture Group. “As the innovation center emerges from plans to reality, we are excited to partner with Micah to build a space that is unique and focused on helping more founders and technology companies in Seattle thrive and grow.”
The innovation center will open later this summer and is expected to house a mix of extraordinary founders and teams, with programming and opportunities open to members and the broader startup community. Founders, teams, and supporters of the Seattle startup community can learn more by emailing innovate@madrona.com.
About Madrona Venture Group
Madrona is an early stage venture capital firm in the Pacific Northwest. The firm invests in technology entrepreneurs and companies, and works with them to build their businesses. Madrona manages nearly $1.6 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon.com, Apptio, Smartsheet, Rover.com, and Redfin.