Spotlight On

No founder's journey is a straight line. In the throes of ups and downs, having guidance from someone who understands your experience can be invaluable. In this special episode of Spotlight On, Accel’s Amit Kumar and Ivan Zhou discuss their shared founder journeys and transition into VC, and dive into how they worked together to steer Ivan’s startup, Mayhem, through its most challenging times. Mayhem (formerly Visor) was a social gaming platform that joined Accel Family in 2018 and was acquired by Niantic in 2021. In April, Ivan joined Accel as an early-stage partner, mirroring Amit’s founder-partner journey. Their discussion explores the resilience needed to navigate turbulent times, a central theme in their founder experiences. This episode unpacks some of the most critical qualities of early-stage founders and operators – the determination to solve real problems, the importance of establishing strong foundations, and the willingness to rethink strategies when things don’t go according to plan. Conversation highlights:  00:00 - Ivan’s background and first startup attempt 04:44 - Uncovering the problem and passion that would inspire Mayhem  07:25 - What Ivan and Amit were looking for in an early-stage VC partnership 11:40 - The importance of building a company around a problem, not a category 18:09 - Lessons learned in a pivotal moment when Mayhem nearly failed 21:16 - How adversity as a founder helped both Amit and Ivan become better partners 30:50 - Ivan’s discovery of his passion for supporting other founders 39:17 - The core verticals and traits Ivan is looking for in future founders Featured: Ivan Zhou and Amit Kumar, Partners at Accel

Since its inception in 2011, CrowdStrike has had a profound impact on the security landscape. Yet, despite their wildly successful 2019 IPO, there is no finish line for CEO and Co-Founder George Kurtz. With each passing year, the company grows larger, the market opportunities expand, and the need to prevent breaches becomes even more critical.  In this episode of Spotlight On, George and Accel’s Sameer Gandhi reflect on how their shared vision for a full suite of security solutions on a single platform, which kickstarted the partnership in 2013, has become a reality. As CrowdStrike approaches the 5th anniversary of its IPO, boasting a market cap of $72 billion, George reflects on the company’s enduring success. He shares his learnings as a second-time founder, detailing how he structures his investors and his board, and how his unwavering focus on solving the hard problems first continues to guide the company today.   Conversation highlights:  00:00 - Recounting the first meeting between George and Accel, which, against all odds, kickstarted a successful partnership  11:34 - How George held onto conviction for an unconventional approach to security  16:41 - Advice for founders operating in highly competitive landscapes 30:19 - Building an effective board of directors  33:00 - The importance of retaining the agility of a startup, even as a scaled business 38:01 - Parallels between racing and leading a business: time, data, team, and detail 44:40 - Considerations for the impact of AI and dark LLMs across the security landscape 51:05 - How George reinforced his commitment to customers post-IPO Featured: George Kurtz, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of CrowdStrike, and Sameer Gandhi, Partner at Accel

In 2018, Sysdig made two critical decisions: pivoting its focus entirely to cloud security and welcoming Suresh Vasudevan as its new CEO. In this episode of Spotlight On, Suresh shares insights from his journey and unveils the bold decisions that have transformed Sysdig into a leading cloud security company. Suresh has learned the key to a successful CEO transition is shared decision-making. Over the years, he built a highly collaborative and disciplined team, encouraging them to stay focused on their strategy and core areas of strength regardless of what their competitors are doing. It is all part of maintaining a "challenger mindset," and it has steered the company through periods of change and helped it thrive despite a fiercely competitive tech landscape. Conversation highlights:  00:00 – Intro to Sysdig and Suresh’s background 03:59 – How a new CEO can build trust through shared decision-making 07:48 – Sysdig's pivot from observability to security: risks & strategic decisions 11:49 – How to challenge competition effectively through customer validation 14:10 – Navigating common pitfalls when building an open-source community 17:53 – The importance of building a team strong enough to withstand executive change 22:26 – How AI will transform the cloud security user experience  Featured: Suresh Vasudevan, CEO of Sysdig, and Ping Li, Partner at Accel accel.com/spotlight-on/sysdig-suresh-vasudevan

Building an AI-powered startup today presents distinct challenges: a lingering hype cycle, steep competition, endless customer education, and rapidly evolving technical capabilities. In this episode of Spotlight On, Syrup’s James Theuerkauf shares advice for early-stage founders navigating this inflection point. He discusses building an AI product that cuts through the noise and adds value, the advantages of building a distributed, global team, and how to stay focused on what matters in a market full of distractions.  The episode also offers a look into the evolving retail landscape. Syrup's AI helps retail leaders like Faherty, Desigual, and Reformation optimize inventory, their most precious and expensive asset. Getting the right product, in the right location, at the right time is an age-old challenge, but today, it is precisely the type of problem AI can solve.  Conversation highlights: 00:00 – James’ background and Syrup’s founding story  01:44 – How technology can solve the complex merchandising problems brands face 06:57 – The environmental impact of wasted garments, how AI presents solutions 10:05 – Roadblocks to AI adoption among brands and common customer concerns 18:27 – Advice for startups building a global, distributed product and team 26:17 – How early-stage companies can cut through the noise and fundraise thoughtfully Featured: Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel and James Theuerkauf, CEO and Founder of Syrup

Vlad Magdalin, Co-founder of Webflow, shares insights on bootstrapping vs. raising capital, challenges faced, and lessons learned. He discusses aligning with investors, CEO role changes post-fundraising, and advice for founders. Also, he talks about Webflow's approach to training AI models and the evolution of visual development in the web market.

When Klaviyo became a public company in 2023, we celebrated a moment over a decade in the making. In this episode of Spotlight On, Andrew Bialecki shares learnings from Klaviyo’s unique growth story, from the diligence that came from bootstrapping to the 'unfair advantage' gained by scaling a startup outside a typical tech hub.  Klaviyo is an intelligent marketing automation platform. Under Andrew’s leadership, Klaviyo has grown to support over 143,000 brands. The discussion covers how a startup changes during various stages of growth and offers an open look into the evolving nature of the CEO role—from the earliest stages to operating as a public company.  Conversation highlights: 00:00 – Background and Klaviyo’s founding story 06:03 – Reflecting on the hustle it took to gain early customers 10:27 – Challenges & benefits of bootstrapping, what Andrew would do differently today 18:36 – Launching in Boston and learnings for startups building outside of a tech hub 22:47 – Building enduring partnerships like Klaviyo x Shopify 27:20 – How Klaviyo stays ahead by being a customer of their own products. 32:54 – Benchmarks Andrew looked for during the pre-IPO journey 35:53 – Klaviyo AI, and the impact Andrew sees from the technology in the future 41:00 – Advice for the challenges a founder faces as their roles change and evolve Featured: Andrew Bialecki, CEO and Co-Founder of Klaviyo and Ping Li, Partner at Accel Learn more: accel.com/spotlight-on/episodes/klaviyo-andrew-bialecki

Spotlight On examines the technology shaping our world through conversations with the people building it. This season, established and rising leaders across both private and public sectors discuss the challenges and opportunities of building companies in today’s rapidly changing technology landscape. Learn more at at Accel.com/SpotlightOn.

AI is considered to be one of today’s most significant inflection points — but is the enthusiasm warranted, or is it mere hype? In this episode of Spotlight On: AI, Accel partners delve into the state of the market and what comes next, drawing on the insights and predictions about artificial intelligence shared throughout this season. During the season, we interviewed 12 leaders applying AI in all parts of the ecosystem. They have enabled new industries and profoundly influenced productivity, creativity, and the global economy. Several founders of AI-native companies we spoke to, such as AssemblyAI, Ironclad, Scale and Synthesia, embarked on their AI journey years before the current cycle. They were the crazy ones, the early visionaries, the risk-takers, who patiently built early AI products. The Accel team reflects on their foresight and early approach and contrasts it with how new players navigate the space—listening to customer needs and meeting the moment quickly and creatively. “A world where I can just speak what I want to see and have it created feels so much closer than it ever has before.” – Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel Regardless of the approach, every company must rise to the challenges of adapting to a rapidly evolving landscape. As a firm in our 40th year, we’ve seen many transformative, market-defining technology companies. in this episode, Accel’s Sara Ittelson, Casey Aylward, and Vas Natarajan discuss what’s next. Conversation highlights: 00:00 - Intro and season recap 00:53 - Lessons from early AI founders 01:58 - Distinguishing "hype" vs. real AI impact and innovation 04:54 - Future changes in emerging AI tech and market impact 05:31 - Surprising pace in the AI ecosystem 08:55 - AI wave parallels with mobile and cloud waves 11:09 - Global enthusiasm about AI and its impact on discovery pace 17:15 - Criteria for successful AI companies is vision and team insight 22:06 - Shifts in startups and venture investing 24:43 - Season 2 preview – Spotlight On: Security Featured: Vas Natarajan, Partner at Accel, Casey Aylward, Partner at Accel, Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel Learn more: accel.com/spotlighton/ai-predictions-insights

Arm has been a force in the technology ecosystem since 1990. Their unique model allows them to ride the waves of innovation without being tied to just one moment in time. As a result, they’ve powered them all: smartphones, cloud software, edge computing, and now, AI. For most of this period, Rene Haas, Arm’s CEO, has been working in the semiconductor industry. On this episode of Spotlight On: AI, Rene will reflect on the remarkable innovation he’s seen in the cutting-edge technology, and how Arm is building the brain of artificial intelligence. Arm was first born from a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple, and VLSI Technology. At the time, their goal was to create a Central Processing Unit (CPU) for the Newton Device, which, well, didn’t do too well. Years later, when smartphones came into the market with a clear need for CPUs, it changed everything. Arm became the brain of the mobile ecosystem. Today Arm extends far beyond mobile. 70% of the world uses a product powered by an Arm based semiconductor chip. The past few years have only pushed their name further into the spotlight. During COVID, pressure on supply chains shed light on a global chip shortage. More recently, the dramatic computing pressure from LLMs has been another clear signal. Everything that is powered by AI, needs to be powered by semiconductors. Every complex computing problem needs Arm. “It sounds like a sci-fi movie, but it's not far away. That’s the scary and cool thing about AI. It's the type of thing we’ve thought about but didn’t think we’d need to think about in our lifetime. Now we do.”  – Rene Haas With over three decades of experience in semiconductors, Rene Haas is uniquely versed in the history of global technology. In conversation with Accel’s Ping Li, he will reflect on past technology cycles, as well as the enduring importance of CPU technology as machine learning and AI transforms the future, Arm’s complementary partnership with NVIDIA and why the AI race isn’t a zero-sum game, his journey on taking the company public in one of the most anticipated IPOs of 2023 and much more. Conversation Highlights: 00:00 - Introduction to Arm and Rene's early semiconductor experiences 03:45 - Semiconductor industry history and major changes in recent decades 05:00 - Arm's inception and its journey to powering 70% of the digital universe 08:00 - Driving forces behind Arm's 2023 IPO and Rene's advice for teams going public 16:20 - Balancing profitability and growth, emphasizing a clear path to profitability 18:00 - Overlooked areas in AI innovation, such as energy consumption, and Arm's role 21:00 - Most powerful applications built on the Arm platform 23:00 - Arm's complimentary partnership with NVIDIA, AI innovation bottlenecks, the importance of human override, and fail-safe mechanisms 30:00 - Government's role in semiconductor supply chain issues 32:00 - Predictions on future breakthroughs and the enduring role of human creativity 33:40 - Rene's advice on building a strong team through skillset pairing, and what can be learned from the parallels of some of his favorite sports teams (Lakers & Raiders!) 40:00 - Closing thoughts on the captivating technology and regulatory challenges ahead Host: Ping Li, Partner at Accel Guest: Rene Haas, CEO of Arm Learn More: www.accel.com/spotlighton/arm-rene-haas

Recent developments in artificial intelligence have sparked an outcry for control over personal data. While regulators, politicians, and the business community have been thinking about how to improve data privacy, there is still much more work to do. Kate Parker, Transcend’s COO, will discuss the progress in data governance, how companies can adopt and build secure AI services, and why it is critical to give power back to the user. Questions around data and privacy will only become more important and complex as AI evolves. Since 2017, Transcend’s privacy platform has been used by major enterprises like Robinhood and Patreon to answer questions about their data: What data do we have? Where is it going? Who has access to it? With user demand for control rising, it isn’t just about ticking a compliance box—it’s the key to a company’s survival in the future. “Personal data within most companies goes off like a confetti gun. It gets into every SaaS system, every data warehouse. You have to pull the confetti back together and hand it back to the user. ” – Kate Parker Efforts in Europe, such as GDPR and the AI Act, along with California’s CCPA, represent tangible steps toward putting guardrails in place. On this episode of Spotlight On: AI, Kate Parker, and Vas Natarajan will discuss the latest in data governance, and share how to enhance your company’s privacy posture to keep user data safe in our AI-driven world. Conversation highlights: 00:00 - Overview of today's data governance landscape 02:10 - The founding story behind Transcend’s privacy platform 04:57 - Exploring the link between customer privacy and brand value 06:36 - What privacy issues and threats arise from an unstructured approach to personal data in the AI landscape 10:30 - Common pain points enterprises face in meeting privacy standards and governing the output of LLMs 14:24 - What can be learned from Fortune 100 companies navigating safety personal data in AI vs the proactive approach new startups are taking 24:20 - Current AI regulations and signals for future changes 32:56 - Transcend’s internal AI deployment across sales, operations, and content 36:30 - Anticipating the future of personal data usage Host: Vas Natarajan, Partner at Accel Featuring: Kate Parker, Chief Operating Officer at Transcend Learn more: www.accel.com/spotlighton/transcend-kate-parker