Matt McIlwain at Madrona Ventures has backed AI startups for several years

Karan Singh for BI; Madrona

Operating in Seattle, in the shadow of Amazon and Microsoft headquarters, McIlwain's Madrona Ventures was an early investor in AI companies such as Xnor.ai, which Apple acquired in 2020. The firm likes to say no investment is too early, as it prefers to be there as early as formation. Madrona also hosts the annual Intelligent Applications Summit, with this year's event featuring Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, and Arvind Jain, the CEO and cofounder of Glean. McIlwain says companies should focus more on their business model than on an AI model. "It doesn't work to just repackage other people's technology if you're not providing clear, differentiated value and building a sustainable moat," McIlwain wrote in a blog post.