Lightspeed Introduces “The Creators”

Celebrating the craft of entrepreneurship.

Recently, I sat down for some “real talk” with several pioneers of enterprise for Lightspeed’s new series, “The Creators,” celebrating the craft of entrepreneurship in conversation with the Founders, CEOs and executives compelled to invent, innovate, and build the future of business.

For our first season, I had the honor and pleasure of talking with John W. Thompson (Lead Independent Director and former Chairman of Microsoft), Mark Anderson (CEO of Alteryx), Christa Quarles (CEO of Corel), and Ariel Cohen (co-founder and CEO and TripActions), about each of their unique career journeys to date.

These were fun, personal conversations that touched on everything from running a travel company through the pandemic, to losing the top job to shifting a company’s business model and go to market strategy. We dived deep into timely topics like how to take enterprise products to market, how to scale company culture on a global basis and each individual’s “aha moment” on the path from individual contributor to chief executive.

I’m incredibly grateful to our guests for their transparency, candor, and personal insights. One takeaway that I’m left with after these conversations — resilient Founders find opportunities even during the most uncertain times.

Below are links to the full episodes of each of our sit-downs. Start with the series trailer and, then experience the full episodes and let us know what you learn.

Our hope with this series is that it will inspire other Founders — both within and outside the Lightspeed family — to continue to create and pursue their vision with the same determination and passion that John, Ariel, Christa and Mark exemplify.

We’re honored to share their stories with you, and excited to see where this series takes us when we sit down next year with the intrepid creators shaping consumer culture and creating high level impact in healthcare for patients. Stay tuned…