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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesSteve Singh joined Madrona Venture Group as a managing director in January 2020, bringing a thesis centered on intelligent enterprise software: applications that use data, machine learning and cloud infrastructure to help businesses make decisions and act. He had previously worked with the firm as a strategic director. His comments describe the investment ideas he expressed at the time, rather than a complete account of his current mandate or proof that those predictions came to pass.
Why Singh joined Madrona
Singh, formerly Concur’s chairman, CEO and co-founder, said he wanted to help entrepreneurs build software companies and pass along the mentoring and advice he had received. In his announcement, he described the chance to contribute to a new generation of companies as a major reason for joining. GeekWire reported the appointment on January 15, 2020; Singh’s announcement appeared the same day.
Singh had helped build Concur before its sale to SAP in 2014 for $8.3 billion, as reported by GeekWire. He brought that operating experience to a venture role focused on backing other businesses, not simply on repeating Concur’s path.
What Singh said he wanted to invest in
Singh highlighted “intelligent applications”: business software that incorporates machine learning and AI across the software stack, learns from data in real time and can take actions on a user’s behalf. In the 2020 interview, he described a new generation of enterprise applications built with microservices and machine learning. He pointed to functions such as procurement, budgeting and customer management.
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Applications alongside or instead of legacy systems
These products did not necessarily need to replace a company’s core software. Singh said new applications could sit on top of platforms such as SAP or Salesforce, while some could replace parts of those systems. That distinction matters: his thesis allowed for both tools that extend an established system and products that compete with it.
Clari as an example
Singh cited Clari as an example of a revenue-operations application that applies machine learning to sales activity and deal prediction. The example illustrated the kind of software he was discussing; it is not evidence that all enterprise applications would use the same approach or that the wider thesis has since been validated.
Rank #2
An SEC-filed company document separately characterized Singh’s focus as next-generation B2B and enterprise startups, particularly in machine learning and AI, intelligent applications, and next-generation cloud infrastructure. That filing is a dated biographical description, not a current strategy update.
Why he saw opportunity in Seattle
Singh’s case for the Pacific Northwest rested on a combination of experienced technical, product and go-to-market talent; established technology companies that could produce founders and executives; access to local capital; and what he considered a supportive environment for calculated risk. He argued that startup ecosystems deepen as people leave mature companies to build or lead new ones. This was his assessment in the interview, not a comparative study of regional ecosystems.
He told GeekWire, “In the next ten years, there’s no reason why you can’t have another 5-to-10 companies like Concur and Tableau being built in the Pacific Northwest.” That was an expression of optimism, not a measured forecast or a promise about investment outcomes.
His advice to founders: know the economics of growth
Singh urged founders to understand their unit economics and the capital required to scale while staying capital efficient. He clarified that this did not mean he expected portfolio companies to become profitable immediately. The emphasis was on knowing the economics of the business and how much funding growth would require—not treating near-term profitability as the only measure of progress.
Rank #4
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What the appointment and thesis do—and do not—show
The appointment put Singh’s experience as a software-company builder into a venture-capital role. His 2020 comments outline a broad interest in enterprise applications, AI and machine learning, cloud infrastructure, and the Seattle startup ecosystem. They do not provide a ranked list of investment priorities, a portfolio performance comparison or a complete account of his current investing mandate. Madrona’s team page lists Singh as a managing director; that current listing does not establish that every detail of his 2020 thesis remains his full mandate.
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Best Value
- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
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