S. “Soma” Somasegar, a fixture in the Seattle tech community who led Microsoft’s Developer Division as part of his 27-year tenure at the company before supporting a generation of cloud and AI startups as an investor, board member and advisor, has passed away.
The news was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by Microsoft and Madrona, the Seattle-based venture capital firm where Somasegar had been a key figure for the past 11 years.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who first met Somasegar at Microsoft in the early 1990s, remembered him in a statement as “a remarkable leader who helped grow and shape Microsoft’s developer ecosystem, and a dear friend and colleague that I valued greatly.”
“He brought depth, humility, and a real commitment to empowering developers everywhere and his impact on Microsoft and the broader technology community will live on!” Nadella said.
Somasegar was 59. No cause of death was given. He is survived by his wife, Akila, and two daughters.
“Soma was beloved by so many people in all aspects of his life, and he had such a generous spirit for helping others,” said Matt McIlwain, Madrona managing director. “We are deeply saddened by this loss, most importantly for his wife and his two beloved daughters.”
McIlwain added, “We are focusing on supporting his family, the Madrona team and all those who knew and loved Soma, including the broader Microsoft community.”
On a personal level, Nadella and his wife, Anu, formed a close friendship with Soma and Akila over the decades. Nadella and Somasegar were among a group of tech leaders who co-own the Seattle Orcas, a professional cricket team based in the region.
“For Anu and me, this loss is very personal,” Nadella said. “Soma was there for us during some of the toughest moments in our lives, always with quiet strength, kindness, and a sense of steadiness we depended on. We will miss him very much.”
From Puducherry to Seattle
Born Aug. 13, 1966, in the southern Indian coastal town of Puducherry, Sivaramakrishnan Somasegar — known throughout his life by the nickname “Soma” — grew up in a household where education came before everything else, according to a 2008 profile in Mint, the Indian business newspaper. His father worked as a technician at a hospital, his mother stayed home, and neither had attended college.
“Food was a secondary priority in our house because education was a first priority,” Somasegar recalled in a 2024 oral history conducted for the Microsoft Alumni Network. “Whatever little I’ve done so far, it’s a direct result of that.”
He arrived in the U.S. in 1987 to pursue a master’s in computer engineering at Louisiana State University, having mistaken the “LA” in his admission letter for Los Angeles. He realized his mistake only as the plane was landing in New Orleans, he recounted in the oral history.
After 18 months at LSU, Somasegar enrolled in a PhD program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He left after a single harsh winter semester to join Microsoft, arriving in Redmond on Jan. 23, 1989 — a date he remembered precisely decades later.
He joined the OS/2 team as a software design engineer in test, working on memory management and file systems. Within six months, Microsoft’s relationship with IBM on the joint OS/2 project was fraying, and Somasegar was drafted in March 1990 onto what would become one of the most consequential projects in the company’s history: Windows NT.
Somasegar spent his first decade at Microsoft on the NT team, ultimately contributing to eight releases of the Windows operating system, as recounted in a 2015 GeekWire “Geek of the Week” profile. He rose from software design engineer to test lead to test manager.
During the NT years, Somasegar designed the team’s overnight stress test program and ran the daily reliability check himself, arriving around 5:30 a.m. to walk the halls, leave yellow sticky notes on crashed machines, and report findings at the 9 a.m. bug meeting.
He also founded Microsoft’s India Development Center in Hyderabad in 1998, which has grown into one of the company’s largest engineering operations outside the United States. Especially given his roots, he often called the India effort one of his proudest contributions to Microsoft.
By the time Windows Server 2003 shipped, Somasegar had risen to vice president. In December 2003, Microsoft’s then-server and tools chief Eric Rudder asked him to take over the Developer Division — the group responsible for Visual Studio, .NET, and the tools used by millions of software developers.
Somasegar held the role for the next 12 years, eventually as senior vice president. Under his leadership, the division extended its reach from Windows into mobile and the cloud.
In 2014, Somasegar was an internal advocate and leader for Microsoft’s decision to open-source the .NET core server runtime and framework, a surprise move that marked a significant shift in the company’s approach toward the broader developer world.
Shifting to startups at Madrona
Somasegar announced his departure from Microsoft in October 2015, and within weeks had joined Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group as a venture partner. He was promoted to managing director in January 2017.
At Madrona, Somasegar focused on early-stage investments in cloud infrastructure, developer tools, AI, and what the firm calls intelligent applications.
He led or played a key role in Madrona’s investments in Snowflake, UiPath, Pulumi, Statsig, Common Room, Rhythms, and RelationalAI, among others. Several became multibillion-dollar companies. Statsig was acquired by OpenAI for $1.1 billion in 2025.
Somasegar also served on the boards of UiPath and other portfolio companies.
He remained an active writer and commentator on the industry, including a February 2024 GeekWire guest post reflecting on Satya Nadella’s decade as Microsoft CEO and their friendship that began at Microsoft in 1992. He conducted interviews and served as the primary on-stage host of Madrona’s IA Summit in downtown Seattle last fall.
Just this week, Somasegar was named to Business Insider’s Seed 100 list of the best early-stage investors of 2026.
Beyond venture capital, startups and technology, Somasegar was deeply involved in Seattle’s sports and cultural community. In addition to co-owning the Seattle Orcas, he was part of the ownership group of the Seattle Sounders FC.
Ed Lazowska, the longtime University of Washington computer science professor and a fixture in Seattle’s tech community, said Somasegar’s spirit fit a tradition going back to Madrona’s earliest days.
“Soma was a wonderful human being, in the tradition of the four Madrona co-founders,” Lazowska said, referencing Tom Alberg, Jerry Grinstein, Bill Ruckelshaus, and Paul Goodrich.
In one of his last extended conversations with GeekWire, recorded earlier this year at Madrona’s 30th anniversary celebration, Somasegar reflected on the venture firm’s role in the region and its philosophy of being a “trusted partner” to founders from day one.
He spoke about being part of an early Madrona-led effort during the pandemic that helped raise more than $25 million for the All In Seattle campaign to support those impacted by homelessness and other community needs.
“We have a day job. We want to be the best venture capital guys,” he said. “But we are also all about the community. We are about embracing the community.”
Nadella said he will remember Somasegar’s “warmth, his thoughtful advice, and the integrity he brought to everything he did.”
“Our thoughts are with Akila and his daughters, and with everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” he said. “He will be deeply missed and remembered for all he did and contributed to our industry and our community.”
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