Spotlight On

Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password, shares insights from his journey leading the company from 20 to over 1,200 employees. He discusses the evolution of 1Password from a personal project to a comprehensive identity security solution, emphasizing the importance of product quality, customer feedback, and strategic funding. Shiner also dives into the challenges of monetizing AI in a competitive landscape and the significance of clear communication in remote operations, all while balancing the diverse needs of both B2B and B2C customers.

Corelight’s story is unlike that of any other successful growth-stage network detection company. Founded by academics, it now counts all six branches of the U.S. military, and some of the world’s largest banks and utilities companies as customers. And then there’s the fact that it started off as an open-source tool, a rarity in cybersecurity. All of this could have made stepping in as CEO a difficult job. But CEO Brian Dye has evolved and successfully scaled Corelight while thoughtfully maintaining the company culture that attracted him in the first place. In this episode of Spotlight On, Accel Partner Eric Wolford talks to him about how he did it and what he’s learned along the way. Their conversation covers: the questions to ask yourself when you’re considering if you should be a CEO, why a good segmentation strategy is essential to scale, how to structure a culture of experimentation, and how to scale yourself as a leader alongside your company.  

Merrill Lutsky, co-founder and CEO of Graphite, shares insights from his journey transitioning from developing a customer feedback tool to revolutionizing code review for the AI era. He discusses fostering trust through unique team-building practices like weekly dinners and co-founder therapy. The conversation highlights Graphite’s innovative AI-powered tool, Diamond, which enhances coding efficiency. Merrill also touches on New York's rise as a tech hub and the importance of maintaining work-life balance through pursuits like competitive running.

In the past two decades, the number of software tools the B2B buyer can shop between has exploded. While that abundance has made it more likely that a buyer can find a tool that solves their problem, it also complicates the buying journey. Discovering and vetting the right tools is a job in and of itself. Godard Abel founded G2 to simplify that process. He knew firsthand from his experience founding five previous startups that a “Yelp for software” was desperately needed. Building a company and brand as big as G2 hasn’t always been straightforward, though (just ask Godard about when they launched and had just three site visitors). In this episode of Spotlight On, Godard sits down with Accel’s Arun Mathew to share his journey to founding G2, what he’s learned about building brands and teams, and how AI is changing the buying journey completely. Conversation Highlights: 0:00 – How Godard’s journey as a six-time founder shaped his vision for G26:45 – Deciding to scale or aim for a strategic exit8:45 – Building the Amazon storefront for B2B software11:59 – The early days of G2: from no traffic to product-market fit19:00 – Building a brand by enriching the startup ecosystem 21:01 – Why you shouldn’t hire a sales team too early 24:35 – The advantages of building a Chicago-first startup 27:45 – How AI is changing the B2B buyer journey 

Think about how you learned your native language: trying out words, listening to your parents, speaking small fragments, until one day you were talking. Now, think about how you were taught languages in school – the grammar, the emphasis on writing and reading first – and it becomes clear why so few students achieve fluency in a second language. Enter Speak. The language learning app uses conversational AI to replicate the experience of practicing a new language with a native speaker. It’s an incredibly savvy application of AI achieving remarkable results: just this past year, over 10 million people downloaded the app and took lessons. This isn’t a fluke. On this episode of Spotlight On, Speak CEO Connor Zwick shares how an early start building apps – which all began with a chance airport encounter – and a 10-year-old thesis on the progression of intelligence inspired him to find the best application for the new technology systematically. He also shares many surprising ways he and his co-founder have chosen to build Speak, including why they launched first in Korea and how they plan to grow into the U.S.Conversational highlights: 0:00 – Connor’s founder career begins with a serendipitous encounter at the Milwaukee airport6:24 – How Connor and his co-founder developed a clear conviction that deep intelligence would be able to teach people a new language – in 201511:12 – The origins of Speak: from speech recognition to learning flywheel 16:39 – Why Connor and his co-founder decided to launch Speak in Korea first 19:12 – How to think strategically about geography when selecting a market 20:55 – Most people have good startup ideas; it’s conviction that matters22:45 – Lessons on getting to product-market fit 27:30 – Speak’s strategy for growing into new markets of both geographies and users32:37 – Connor on building successful consumer AI: “Productizing consumer AI is super hard.” 38:24 – How people actually learn languages vs the way we’re taught languages 41:10 – “You can’t outsource a core competency of your company.”

Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius and former builder of Yandex, discusses his pivot from leading 'the Google of Russia' to focusing on AI infrastructure. He explores the surprise NASDAQ re-listing of Nebius and how it leverages talent and capital in a competitive landscape. Volozh shares insights on team dynamics and crucial strategies for fostering innovation, emphasizing that a strong team is the foundation for success. He also highlights the company's diverse projects, including advancements in autonomous vehicles and cutting-edge AI technologies.

One thing we like about working with repeat founders is that they’re decisive about how they do and do not want to build their company. Take Avery Pennarun, CEO of Tailscale. Even before he knew what Tailscale would be, he knew he wanted to: build products as simply as possible, avoid selling software only at the enterprise level, focus on winning small segments before expanding, and not waste time “innovating” executive team structure. Clearly, it’s working: the company is redefining the network security category, and recently hit 10,000 paid customers after doubling its customer base in 10 months. Listening to Amit Kumar’s conversation with Avery is like taking a crash course on how to build a successful tech company – give it a listen and let us know if you agree.  Conversation highlights: 0:00 – Avery’s background and how Tailscale was born by solving a customer’s problem 5:50 – The decision to sell directly to developers versus at the enterprise level8:55 – “Listen to people, and give them what they want.”10:22 – Why Tailscale’s made building simply a guiding principle14:40 – Avery’s philosophy on failing quickly and cheaply 18:38 – How Tailscale’s adapting to the different ways customers use their products 21:46 – Building a growth strategy based on doing and winning at small things 26:00 – Winning the market with a bottoms-up approach 30:28 – Why it’s time to fix the internet  33:50 – What Avery’s learned about hiring the right executive team Related reading: How our free plan stays freeThe Future of Private Networks: Our Series A in TailscaleCrossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey A. Moore 

How do you win in a market where everyone’s building at the same time? According to Decagon Co-founder and CEO Jesse Zhang, it’s all about focus and pace. We’re willing to take his word for it: in just two years, he and his team have built a leader in the enterprise agentic AI market, with a valuation of $650 million and already trusted by customers like Notion, Webflow, Substack, and Duolingo. In this conversation with Accel partner (and Jesse’s former Niantic colleague) Ivan Zhou, Jesse shares how they’ve focused relentlessly on customer needs, the differences between B2B and B2C founders, and why he thinks general AI agents don’t work. Conversation highlights:  00:00 – Ivan loses a bet to Jesse03:20 – The difference between building a consumer and B2B company05:24 – How Jesse knew it was the time to jump and start Decagon8:30 – How to recognize signal during customer discovery to inform product direction14:30 – What Jesse’s learned about winning in a space as hot as AI-native enterprise applications 19:00 – How AI is transforming customer support into a strategy driver 24:20 – Why scaling frameworks – for teams and products – can be a distraction 31:28 – Demonstrating efficient, quantifiable time-to-value as a lever for enterprise sales 

If you’ve ever been to a Laracon, you’d be mistaken for thinking you’d just walked into a music festival, not a PHP framework conference. Taylor Otwell founded Laravel in his native Little Rock, Arkansas, and has spent most of the past 14 years bootstrapping a company known for building exceptional product experiences alongside a community of over 1 million people. On this episode of Spotlight On, Taylor joins Accel’s Miles Clements to discuss building outside of Silicon Valley, why software is an excellent vehicle for viral community growth, and why he ultimately decided to take on investment. Conversation Highlights: 00:00 – The beginnings of Laravel03:24 – On choosing to bootstrap and build a company outside of Silicon Valley7:59 – Navigating the tension between open source and commercialization 11:50 – How Taylor’s definition of “selling out his community” changed 14:27 – What’s changed since Taylor took on fundraising after 13 years of bootstrapping17:29 – What it takes to go from programmer to CEO 20:56 – Taylor’s secrets to scaling (and keeping a four-meeting week) 23:31 – How Laravel’s kept its DNA while doubling in a year  29:50 – How Taylor built a 1 million+ strong community around a PHP frameworkMentioned in this episode: Our Series A Investment in Laravel: The Future of ShippingHow Sentry's David Cramer Turned an Open Source Side Project into a $3B BusinessCheck out Taylor’s artifact: The Founder of Laravel on Centering Mission and Users During Growth Featured: Taylor Otwell, CEO and Founder of Laravel and Miles Clements, Partner at Accel 

Welcome back to Season 3 of Spotlight On! This season, we’re digging into the parts of founding and building companies that people don’t often see: the firsts, the crucible moments, and the key decision points that come after that initial founding phase. Great companies are built one decision at a time, so we’re asking the people doing the building: How do you make the decisions that matter? What are the tradeoffs? And would you do it the same way again? We start this season with Joel Flory, the co-founder and chairman of Visual Supply Company (VSCO). When Joel and his founders launched VSCO, no serious creators took mobile photography seriously. 14 years later, he’s steered the company through innumerable technology shifts to build VSCO into a generational business. In this episode, we talk about how the business of creativity online has changed, the make-or-break moment that happens as you start to scale (and how to navigate it), how to select investors and leadership teams, and how to treat your company as something bigger than you are. Conversation highlights: 00:00 – How VSCO emerged out of Joel’s own need as a wedding photographer 07:50 – When to adapt to customer feedback – and when to stay the course12:08 – How VSCO capitalized on the dawn of mobile photography 16:07 – The types of brands that stand the test of time16:24 – Joel’s three guiding principles for selecting an investor21:27 – Before you scale, you need to align on what your definitions of success are26:18 – How VSCO navigated the transition from startup to scale-up 32:40 – How to hire a leadership team that’s ready to scale36:24 – Creating a generational business means being able to walk away43:29 – What Gen AI changes about the business of creativity, and what it doesn’t Featured: Joel Flory, Co-Founder and Chairman of VSCO and Vas Natarajan, Partner at Accel