“You have to have machine learning in your story or you’re not sexy.”
Speaking of AI, last week Forbes released its list of the 50 most promising AI startups in the country, and there were five Seattle companies on the list. Here’s a quick look at each of the companies:
- 👯 DefinedCrowd - Quality-focused data platform that helps customers define standards and collect training data for AI applications
- 📷 Xnor.ai - On-device AI solutions that allow customers to run AI models in resource-constrained environments
- ⚙️ Algorithmia - AI platform to automate DevOps for ML and allow for rapid iteration of ML models
- ✍️ Textio - Augmented writing platform that helps companies write better emails and job descriptions based on historical outcomes
- 📝 Icertis - Enterprise contract management platform that can analyze documents to provide contextual reports and notifications
Some interesting takeaways:
- These companies operate at all levels of the “intelligent app stack” - from data collection and prep, to building block services, interfaces, and finished services
- The CEO of every company on this list is a former Microsoft employee (Daniela Braga, Jon Gelsey, Diego Oppenheimer, Kieran Snyder, Samir Bodas), and most were PMs
- AI is hot, but this hasn’t opened overnight. Most of these companies were founded over 5 years ago
Stay tuned for more content on Madrona’s intelligent applications investment theme from me coming out soon!