Madrona Venture Group scores again: The Seattle venture firm today is announcing that it has landed former aQuantive Chief Executive Brian McAndrews as a managing director.

McAndrews was at the helm of one of the most successful Seattle startup exits in recent history.

He led aQuantive through the last downturn and built it up through a series of 15 acquisitions before selling it to Microsoft for $6 billion in August 2007. He then spent two years as senior vice president of Microsoft's Advertising and Publisher Solutions group before leaving in January.

McAndrews had offers to run other companies but opted to stay in Seattle and join Madrona, where he's been friends with managing director Matt McIlwain for a decade and close to a number of executives at Madrona-funded companies.

"I'm just really excited about the idea of staying in the entrepreneurial world ... in a role helping other people," he said.

McIlwain said Madrona and the companies it invests in will benefit from McAndrews' experience running companies and cultivating talent, as well as his background in digital media and onlin advertising.

"It's hard to find all of that in one package," he said.

McAndrews, 50, joined aQuantive from ABC Sports, where he was executive vice president and general manager. He also serves on the boards of Clearwire, Fisher Communications, WhitePages.com and United Way of King County.

Madrona, which focuses on early-stage companies in the Northwest, raised $250 million for its fourth investment fund and in the coming weeks plans to announce new investments and additional funding for companies that it's already backing, McIlwain said.