Salesforce Ventures’ former Managing Partner is the latest addition to our enterprise team.
By Arif Janmohamed and Ravi Mhatre
Adding a member to Lightspeed’s team is a considered process.
Lightspeed has a deep history of investing in startups that rewrite the rules of enterprise technology. We’ve learned over time that it takes a special kind of investor, with a unique set of skills, to identify new opportunities, and support and partner with founders to achieve their true potential.
That’s why we, as investors, treat growing our investing team with the same care and diligence we give to leading Lightspeed’s investments; so that we can approach those relationships with the support and conviction both our colleagues and our portfolio companies deserve.
It’s a process of building trust, and of getting to know each other. And this is just what we did as we considered expanding our enterprise team to add a member who would focus on leading SaaS investments. When we first met Alex Kayyal, we knew we wanted to spend more time with him.
And the more we got to know him, the more we appreciated what an exceptional, unique talent he is, and how lucky we would be to have him as a partner at Lightspeed on our enterprise team. He’s got a thoughtful, empathetic charisma about him, and he knows his stuff.
Alex already has an incredible track record as an investor, most recently as Managing Partner of Salesforce Ventures, where he led investments in Algolia, Atlan, Gong, Snyk, Salto, Darwinbox, Contentful, Hopin, Front, Miro and Monday, among many others. As a student of the business of technology, he truly understands the evolving enterprise software space, with a strong appreciation for the fact that today, innovation is global.
What also struck us about Alex was his values and his humanity. His high ethics, including his work ethic, of course, but also his magnetic personality, his decency, and how much the founders he has supported over the years consistently like and respect him.
It’s said that your reputation is what others think of you, so add Lightspeed’s team to the long list of those who Alex has impressed, not by showing off, but due to his consistent, warm, candid demeanor, and long track record of integrity and success.
We are confident that any founder building a SaaS company, whether at an early or late stage, would want a person like Alex at their side. Alex is a former founder himself, and has a builder mentality, which gives him exactly the kind of understanding and empathy founders need most.
“Building successful companies in this space is insanely difficult,” Alex says. “Being mission driven and having clear values are two pillars that make these journeys possible. I love backing founders who take a values-first approach to leadership, while bringing to bear all the experiences and resources I can to support them along the way.”
We know Alex’s deep experience in SaaS and the network he brings to Lightspeed will be not just an asset, but a model for Lightspeed’s future growth. Alex is also a global citizen in the best way, given his background as the child of immigrants in Geneva, and his experience managing Salesforce Ventures in London, before managing that firm’s global operations. Indeed, Alex has already had an impact on Lightspeed, having once hired our own Julie Kainz in her prior role at Salesforce Ventures.
We look forward to his continued impact, and to his reinforcing Lightspeed’s global mission, since we believe that great innovators, now more than ever, can and do come from all over the world. Please join us in welcoming Alex to Lightspeed. And if you’re building a company that has the potential to become iconic, with the kind of values and mission that align with ours at Lightspeed, we’d love to hear from you.
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About Lightspeed: Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Affirm, Carta, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Faire, Forty Seven, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Netskope, Nutanix, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, Navan, Udaan, Ultima Genomics and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $18B across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Asia, Europe, India, and Israel. www.lsvp.com
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