Unfiltered: AMA with Tim Porter of Madrona

​We're sitting down with Tim Porter, managing director at Madrona Venture Group, for a candid, off-the-record conversation about how early-stage investment decisions actually get made.

​Tim works closely with founders building in software, cloud infrastructure, and emerging technologies, so he has a front-row seat to how investor conviction forms — and where it quietly falls apart. We'll also dig into how AI is changing what it takes to build a company — including how Tim thinks about moats and founder-market fit differently for AI startups than he did even six months ago — and how that's reshaping what investors actually look for.

​Our own managing director, Yifan Zhang, will lead the conversation and ask the questions founders don't usually get to hear answered in public. Expect an investor-to-investor conversation with straight talk on what actually drives decisions, what gets missed, and real examples of when things go wrong.

​Agenda:

​3pm to 330pm: Networking

​330pm to 430pm: AMA with Tim + Q&A

​430pm to 5pm: Networking