AI’s Role in the Future of Supply Chains and We Want Your Input!
This week, we’re peeling back the layers — from unfiltered founder insights to AI’s next enterprise breakthrough. When we called "cut" on a recent Founded & Funded episode, the conversation between Contextual AI CEO Douwe Kiela and Madrona Partner Jon Turow kept going — and got even more candid. And we couldn't help but share it.
We’re also announcing our investment in Atomic, a new kind of AI-native supply chain platform founded by Tesla alumni. This is applied AI at its best — solving real enterprise pain with measurable results, and helping operators move from spreadsheets to agents.
And as we continue to evolve our work at Madrona, we’d love your input. Take two minutes to share your thoughts in our quick (anonymous) survey — it really helps. Plus: key portfolio milestones and more insight from across the ecosystem.
Let’s dive in.
Founded & Funded
What the Co-Creator of RAG Shared After His Podcast Interview Wrapped
Sometimes, the best insights can come after an interview ends.
That’s exactly what happened when Madrona Partner Jon Turow wrapped the official recording of our recent Founded & Funded episode with Douwe Kiela , co-founder and CEO of Contextual AI . The full conversation dove deep into the evolution of RAG, the rise of RAG agents, and how to evaluate real GenAI systems in production.But after we hit “cut,” Douwe and Jon kept talking — and this bonus conversation produced some of the most candid moments of the day.
In this quick 10-minute follow-up, Douwe and Jon cover:
And if you missed the full episode, start there.
Listen on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon | Watch on YouTube | Full Transcript on Madrona Site
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Madrona News
Madrona's Investment in Atomic — Supply Chain's AI Future, From Tesla Alums
AI is beginning to make a real impact in the enterprise — starting with the operational teams that keep businesses running.
Today’s supply chain and operations leaders are navigating significant complexity: volatile demand, shifting inputs, and capital tied up in inventory. And despite the scale of the challenge, many are still relying on spreadsheets.
That’s why we’re excited to invest in Atomic, a company founded by former Tesla leaders Michael Rossiter and Neal Suidan , who experienced these challenges firsthand. Atomic is bringing agentic AI to supply chain planning — delivering faster, more adaptive decision-making and measurable business results.
The platform is purpose-built for planners and operators, designed to integrate quickly with no lengthy implementation, and delivers a meaningful impact from day one. Early customers have seen 20–50% reductions in inventory costs, improved in-stock rates, and millions in freed-up working capital.
This is the kind of applied AI innovation we’re focused on at Madrona — practical, grounded in operational experience, and built to scale within the enterprise.
Congratulations to the Atomic team and our partners at DVx Ventures . We look forward to supporting the journey ahead. Read more in TechCrunch.
Perspective
What MCP’s Rise Really Shows: A Tale of Two Ecosystems
Forget the old playbook. MCP is proving, once again, that there's no “infrastructure phase” followed by an “application phase.”
MCP is exploding — but not all growth is equal. Thousands of MCP servers exist. Only a handful are meaningfully used.
That mismatch isn’t a bug. It’s your roadmap. Founders who focus on trust, usability, and real-world agent needs will define what “standard tools” even mean in this ecosystem.
If you’ve been waiting for a wedge to build the next indispensable tool, this is it.
Read the whole deep dive by Jon Turow & Baxter Black here: https://bit.ly/3YGVsmg
Madrona Partner Jon Turow At HumanX
There’s no shortage of funding options in AI right now — but not all capital is created equal.
At HumanX last month, Madrona Partner Jon Turow broke down what founders actually value at the earliest stage: conviction, real support, and a partner who speaks their language and shows up when things are messy — not just when growth graphs are clean.
In a sea of checks, it’s the trust and truth that stand out.
Content Editor Coral Ducken on The Weekly Seattle
Just slapping “.AI” on your company name doesn’t make you an AI company.
That’s what Coral Garnick Ducken told Rachel Horgan on the weekly seattle when she asked if founders are feeling pressure to add AI to their pitch decks just to catch a VC’s attention.
These two talk about what actually matters to investors: the founder, the problem they’re solving, and why now is the time to solve it. AI should be part of your story, not the whole story, but this is just a slice of their full convo, which covers:
Events
Call for Seattle Tech Week Events
📣 One month until the Seattle Tech Week 2025 event calendar goes live! 📣
If you’re thinking about hosting an event during Seattle Tech Week (July 28 – August 1), now’s the time to lock it in.
📆 Events submitted by May 14 will be featured in the official calendar reveal on May 15. 📆
Whether it’s a panel, happy hour, workshop, or walk-and-talk, Seattle Tech Week is all about showcasing the innovation and community that make this ecosystem so special. Founders, builders, operators, and tech enthusiasts — let’s build this week together.
✅ Find everything you need to know and the link to register your event here: https://bit.ly/42Qsn9w
❓ Have questions about hosting or how to add your event to the Luma calendar? The Seattle Tech Week Committee is hosting office hours on May 1 from 12–1 p.m. PST. --> https://lu.ma/2wk4o6n9
Registration to attend events will open on June 23 — mark your calendar, get ready to connect, and let’s build the future together!
Portfolio Roundup
Stackbliz and Runway were included in the 2025 Forbes IA50.
Statsig announced the rollout of Varience Control Using Regression Estimates — CURE — to enable faster experiments.
Clerk Founder Colin Sidoti joined The Peel podcast with Turner Novak.
Read AI was included in an AI roundup published in Dinamic Business.
Temporal Founders Maxim Fateev and Samar Abbas joined the Scailing DevTools podcast.
Runway unveiled a partnership with production company Fabula to bring Runway’s filmmaking tools to their global production pipeline and projects.
Echodyne was included in a Forbes Tech Council post on about the link between drones and signals.
Flexe co-founder Karl Siebrecht was featured in a Bloomberg News article.
Cohesity landed on the CRN Storage 100 list.
Terray appointed Dr. Elliot Levy to its Scientific Advisory Board.
Deepgram introduced Aura-2, its enterprise-grade text-to-speech model.
Spice AI released Spice v1.1.2, improving Data Lake Data Connector performance.
Direct Travel CEO was featured in an interview in The Beat.