Company News and Culture / May 29, 2014 / By Erin Martin

The Mix – Madrona Venture Capitalist Matt McIlwain

This month Matt McIlwain, the Managing Director of Madrona Venture Capital and Mixpo board member joined us at the Mix. Our CEO Jeff Lanctot asked Matt questions from how he got involved with Mixpo, traits of successful entrepreneurs, trends in venture capital, to the state economic climate and Matt’s involvement in national political campaigns.

At Madrona, McIlwain focuses on a broad range of software-driven companies and has been on the board of many acquired companies including Isilon Systems (acquired by EMC for $2.4 billion), Farecast (acquired by Microsoft), and PayScale (acquired by Warburg Pincus). Before joining Madrona in 2000, Matt was vice president of business process for the Genuine Parts Company. He also was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company and prior to that worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse. Matt co-teaches a course on venture capital in the University of Washington Technology MBA Program and is a board member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), and Washington Policy Center. In 2011, he received the Washington Policy Center’s Champion of Freedom Award. He was also named to the Forbes Midas List in 2008, 2009 & 2011. Matt is a graduate of Dartmouth College, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Highlights from the interview with Matt:
00:21  Introduction to Matt McIlwain
01:35  What initially excited you about Mixpo, what’s kept you interested and why you’re bullish on Mixpo?
05:38  When you look at successful companies in the Madrona portfolio with nice exits, what are the traits that made those companies successful?
10:00  Can you talk about Isilon’s journey to their exit and share about their bumpy road to success?
13:25  As you think about successful companies, what are the traits of successful employees that stand out?
17:22  What’s your perspective on the differences between Seattle and Silicon Valley?
23:28  How has the business of venture capital changed in the last five years?
30:00  What was it that you saw early about cloud computing that was so interesting? What is next that is getting you excited in terms of a sector of investment?
37:08  How do you assess the current business client in Seattle and in Washington?
43:24  What do you think would be the effects of a state income tax?
43:44  What did you learn from working on the Mitt Romney campaign? Will you be active in 2016?
47:02  Would you ever consider running for office?
48:40  From a venture capitalist perspective, how do you know when it is time to cut your losses and how does that process work?
51:57  How do you decide what’s real and what to pass on?
58:15  What are your thoughts on delivering a software product versus delivering a service?