The entrepreneurial journey is exceptionally difficult. Some of the best investors have learned this from firsthand experience and use that knowledge to help guide the founders they invest in.
Gaurav Gupta and Guru Chahal are two of those investors, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to Lightspeed.
Gaurav joins us after a decade long career in product leadership at Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK), one of the first big data companies (before “big data” was even a term), and Elastic (NYSE: ESTC), one of the biggest open-source success stories. As VP of Product at both companies, he helped them grow from early-stage startups to IPOs, now worth a combined $25B+.
Over the years, Gaurav has successfully shipped, marketed, and sold almost every variant of software ranging from commercial, open source, cloud, and across domains that span log analytics, metrics, security, APM, business analytics, machine learning, IoT and search. More recently, he’s been an advisor and angel investor to over a dozen startups including several in Lightspeed’s portfolio such as Exabeam, Blameless, Arceo and Impira. He saw founders struggling with existential questions around product-market fit — something he knows quite a bit about based on his experience at Splunk and Elastic — and is deeply passionate about helping them solve for it.
Gaurav has incredible instincts for what makes a great product, and a real appreciation of the depth of a technical founder. These are just a few of the reasons we are so excited to have Gaurav join us on the enterprise team. (See Gaurav’s post about why he joined Lightspeed here).
Guru recently returned to Lightspeed after a five-year operational role at Avi Networks, an industry-leading application network services platform (and a Lightspeed portfolio company). VMWare recently announced its intent to acquire Avi Networks, so needless to say, Guru has had an exciting few weeks.
This is Guru’s second stint at Lightspeed. He first joined the firm in early 2012, and at that time, he worked closely with the partnership on investments in Zscaler (most successful tech IPO of last year), Avere Systems (acquired by Microsoft) and Avi Networks. Coupled with an operational itch that he just couldn’t shake, Guru believed the core idea behind Avi Networks was so powerful that he joined the founding team as a co-founder. During his time there, he helped grow the business from an idea to a platform that serves over 20% of Fortune 50 businesses today.
Five years later, Guru has decided to scrub in again and apply the many lessons he’s learned to a long term career in venture capital focused on enterprise technologies. He’s got a rare combination of deep technical expertise, hands-on product management experience, and a leadership position at a rapidly growing and high profile startup, making him an incredible asset to founders.
We’re super excited about what Gaurav and Guru will bring to Lightspeed as we seek to partner with the next generation of founders and entrepreneurs who will build enduring and iconic enterprise companies. If you’re an enterprise founder building something special, drop Gaurav an email at gaurav@lsvp.com and Guru an email at guru@lsvp.com. They’re eager to get to work and would love to hear from you.
— Arif Janmohamed and Ravi Mhatre, Lightspeed
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