Pirasenna Thiyagarajan has recently joined the Seattle warehousing logistics and shipping startup Flexe as its chief technology and product officer. He previously held multiple CTO roles at Bay Area startups and worked at Amazon Lab216. Flexe recently reached “unicorn” status with a $1 billion valuation but has experienced multiple rounds of layoffs, with the most recent being in January 2023 when David Glick, the former CTO, left his role.
Gaelle Mercenne has taken on the role of head of biology at Talus Bioscience in Seattle. Talus Bioscience recently received $11.2 million in funding to advance its drug discovery program for hard-to-treat diseases. Mercenne has experience at Sumitomo Pharma America and Recursion Pharmaceuticals and will oversee preclinical development and lead pre-market studies for potential drug targets for various diseases.
David McGrath has been appointed as the new vice president of sales at Vouched, a Seattle startup that provides AI-powered identity verification for healthcare, banking, and financial services. McGrath previously worked at Human API and will help lead Vouched’s sales efforts. Vouched recently named Peter Horadan as CEO.
Microsoft veteran David Willis is now the chairman of the board of directors for Zensai, an AI-powered employee engagement and performance management platform. Zensai has a tight integration with Microsoft 365 and Teams, and Willis will oversee the company’s growth as it aims to revolutionize human resources. Willis brings nearly 30 years of experience from his time at Microsoft.
Mark Nelson, a venture partner with Madrona, has joined the board of directors of Spotnana, a New York City startup that offers a platform for booking and planning business travel. Nelson previously served as president and CEO at Tableau and CTO at Concur. He is excited to be back in the details and leveraging his software-building experience in the travel industry to help Spotnana grow.
Soma Somasegar, a managing director at Madrona and former Microsoft corporate vice president, has joined the board of directors at Observe, a San Mateo, Calif., startup focused on machine-generated data storage, management, and analysis. Matt Medlin has also taken on a role as a lecturer at the University of Washington’s Master of Science Entrepreneurship program. Additionally, the Washington Research Foundation announced its seventh cohort of WRF Venture Analysts who will assist with grant making and investment activities.
