TC Sessions: SaaS 2021
October 27, 2021
Speakers
Casey Aylward
Partner Accel
Jyoti Bansal
CEO & Co-Founder Harness
Kathy Baxter
Principal Architect, Responsible AI & Tech Salesforce
Christina Cacioppo
Co-Founder and CEO Vanta
André Christ
Co-Founder & CEO LeanIX
Edna Conway
Vice President, Chief Security & Risk Officer, Azure Microsoft
Marcello Damiani
Chief Digital & Operational Excellence Officer Moderna
Daniel Dines
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer UiPath
Thomas C. Fountain
Operating Partner, IT & Digital Transformation One Rock Capital Partners
Kobie Fuller
Partner Upfront Ventures
Varun Ganapathi
Co-founder and CTO AKASA
Chris Gardner
Partner Underscore VC
Ali Ghodsi
CEO and Co-Founder Databricks
Ben Gotfredson
Global Startup Program Manager Snowflake
Adam Gross
Ex-CEO Heroku
Sarah Guo
Founder and Managing Partner Conviction
Nancee Halpin
Solutions Engineer Momentive.ai
Jon Hirschtick
Executive Vice President, PTC and Founder Onshape
Abby Kearns
CTO Puppet
Jenn Knight
Co-founder & CTO AgentSync
Jay Kreps
Co-founder & CEO Confluent
Augusto "Aghi" Marietti
CEO & Co-founder Kong Inc.
Nick Mehta
Chief Executive Officer Gainsight
Soumyadeb Mitra
Founder & CEO RudderStack
Barr Moses
CEO and Co-founder Monte Carlo
Wendy Nather
Cybersecurity Veteran
Deidre Paknad
Co-founder & CEO WorkBoard
Miruna Parchirie
Localization Manager KUDO
Greg Petraetis
Managing Director, Midmarket and Partner Ecosystem SAP North America
Kelsey Pfeffer
Head of Integrated Communications SAP
Stephanie Pye
Lead Product Marketing Manager Momentive.ai
Olivia Rose
CISO, VP of IT & Security Amplitude
Jamila Satani
Director, Marketing Analytics Tonal
Monica Sarbu
Founder & CEO Xata
Nashlie Sephus
Machine Learning Technology Evangelist, Amazon AI Amazon Web Services
Javier Soltero
VP & GM, Google Workspace Google
Jared Spataro
Corporate Vice President, Microsoft 365 Microsoft
Rene Stewart
Co-Head of the Endeavor Fund and Senior Managing Director Vista Equity Partners
Laela Sturdy
General Partner CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund
Stephen Taylor
Chief Information Officer Vast Bank
Jason Warner
Managing Director Redpoint Ventures
Max Wessel
EVP & Chief Learning Officer SAP
Dan Wright
CEO DataRobot
Dave Wright
Chief Innovation Officer ServiceNow
Fardad Zabetian
Co-Founder & CEO KUDO
Casey Aylward joined Accel in 2022 and focuses on early-stage investments in cloud-native infrastructure, open-source software, and security companies. Prior to joining Accel, Casey worked at Costanoa Ventures, an early-stage enterprise fund, where she led and incubated several investments in developer tools, data infrastructure, and security. Before investing, Casey was a software engineer at Pinterest where she worked on commerce, collaboration, and core products. Casey joined Pinterest via an acquisition of a former Accel portfolio company, URX, where she was also a software engineer. Casey graduated from Dartmouth College and is from Palm Beach, FL.
Casey's Sessions
Survival of the Fittest: Investing in Today’s SaaS Market
The venture capital world is faster, and more competitive than ever. For investors hoping to get into the hottest SaaS deal, things are even crazier. With more non-traditional money pouring into the sector, remote dealmaking now the norm, and an increasingly global market for software startups, venture capitalists are being forced to shake up their own operations, and expectations. TechCrunch sits down with three leading investors to discuss how they are fighting for allocation in hot deals, what they’ve changed in their own processes, and what today’s best founders are demanding.
Jyoti Bansal is a serial entrepreneur who believes passionately in software’s ability to change the world for the better. He co-founded Harness in 2017 to automate and simplify all software delivery processes, and serves as CEO. In 2018, he co-founded Traceable, the leading API security platform, and venture capital firm Unusual Ventures. In 2008, Jyoti founded application intelligence company AppDynamics, which he led to a $3.7B acquisition by Cisco in 2017. The recipient of multiple leadership awards, Jyoti has been named Forbes’ “Best Cloud Computing CEO to Work for,” San Francisco Business Times’ “Best CEO,” Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year™ for Northern California,” and more. Jyoti received his B.S. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Prior to founding AppDynamics, he worked at several Silicon Valley startups as a software engineer and architect. Jyoti is the lead inventor on over 20 U.S. patents.
Jyoti's Sessions
What Happens After Your Startup is Acquired
We’ll speak to three founders about the emotional upheaval of being acquired and what happens after the check clears and the sale closes. Our panel includes Jyoti Bansal who founded AppDynamics, Nick Mehta from GainSight and Monica Sarbu who founded Packetbeat that was acquired by Elastic.
As Principal Architect of Responsible AI & Tech at Salesforce, Kathy develops research-informed best practices to educate Salesforce employees, customers, and the industry on the development of responsible AI. She collaborates and partners with external AI and ethics experts to continuously evolve Salesforce policies, practices, and products. Kathy is a member of Singapore’s Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data and a Visiting AI Fellow at NIST contributing to the AI Risk Management Framework. She is on the Board of EqualAI and periodically co-hosts their podcast, “In AI We Trust?” Since 2018, she has been involved with the World Economic Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Prior to Salesforce, she worked at Google, eBay, and Oracle in User Experience Research. She is the co-author of “Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Research Methodologies.” She received her MS in Engineering Psychology and BS in Applied Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Kathy's Sessions
AI Ethics at Enterprise Scale
Keeping AI models fair and unbiased is a tough enough job in the lab or with a single product. How can it be accomplished at the scale of business being done by Amazon and Salesforce? Amazon AI Applied Science manager Nashlie Sephus and Principle Architect of AI Practice Kathy Baxter will discuss the responsibilities as opportunities of putting ethical practices to work in enterprise applications.
Christina Cacioppo is the CEO and co-founder of Vanta, a leading security and compliance trust management platform backed by Sequoia Capital, Craft Ventures, Goldman Sachs Ventures, J.P. Morgan Ventures, Y Combinator, and the venture arms of Atlassian, CrowdStrike, HubSpot, and Workday. Over 8,000 companies, including Intercom, Icelandair, Miro, and ZoomInfo rely on Vanta to build, maintain, and demonstrate their trust — all in a way that’s real-time and transparent. Prior to founding Vanta, Christina led product management for Dropbox Paper and was a member of the investment team for Union Square Ventures. Christina received her B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
Christina's Sessions
9 Security Tips For Startups
When startups are in the beginning stages of growth, it becomes harder to balance between taking necessary security measures and bringing the product to market. You don’t want to slow iteration speed, but you also know that there are security steps that need to happen in order to grow the business. How do you balance these competing objectives? Christina Cacioppo, Co-Founder and CEO of Vanta, shares nine practical tips for building your product with security in mind and how to engage in conversations around security expectations from the start.
André Christ is the CEO and Co-Founder of LeanIX, the Continuous Transformation Platform®, trusted by 500+ global market leaders. He works with a team of 400 people who have fundamentally changed how organizations create transparency and take action in IT. LeanIX, sometimes referred to as the “Google Maps for the IT”, is used for Enterprise Architecture Management, SaaS Management, and DevOps Management. Analysts have named LeanIX a “Leader”, “Strong Performer” and “Challenger”. The company received the Customer Choice distinction 2021 by Gartner and the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award in 2020. André has the goal to build a global technology company, that’s why he raised USD 120M funding from investors such as Goldman Sachs and Insight Partners. He was named a Top 40 under 40 in Germany by Capital. Before André started LeanIX, he gained extensive experience as a Management Consultant at the world’s largest logistics provider DHL. During his studies of Information Systems in Münster (Germany) and Montpellier (France), André has designed modern software architectures for startups and large enterprises. He is an ambitious athlete with a passion for tennis and running.
André's Sessions
Optimizing SaaS Productivity: Why SaaS Sprawl prohibits growth?
SaaS represents an increasing share of the installed software estate – in cloud-born companies, often 100%. If not managed and optimized, an uncontrolled adoption leads to SaaS Sprawl, sometimes called “Shadow IT”. Sub-optimized usage of SaaS subscriptions, increased risk, and audit exposures will become a headache when scaling a business. This talk illustrates frequent pitfalls and proposes the needed processes, skills and capabilities of the emerging SaaS Management discipline for CEOs, CFOs and CIOs.
Edna Conway currently serves as Vice President, Chief Security & Risk Officer for Microsoft’s Azure Platform. She is responsible for the security, resiliency and governance of the cloud infrastructure and supply chain upon which Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business operates. Conway is also a member of the Executive Committee of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Task Force on Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Risk Management. She currently serves on the board of directors and the executive advisory boards of several companies. Prior to joining Microsoft, Conway served as Cisco’s Chief Security Officer, Global Value Chain. Before Cisco Conway was a partner in an international private legal practice and served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of New Hampshire. She holds an AB from Columbia University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
Edna's Sessions
SaaS Security, Today and Tomorrow
Enterprises face a constant stream of threats, from nation states to cybercriminals and corporate insiders. After a year where billions worked from home and the cloud reigned supreme, startups and corporations alike can’t afford to stay off the security pulse. Find out what SaaS startups need to know about security now, and in the future.
Marcello Damiani is the Chief Digital & Operational Excellence Officer at Moderna. In his current role, he developed a digitization and business process strategy, using cutting edge and state-of-theart technologies such as robotics, automation, cloud computing, IoT & Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. Prior to joining Moderna, Mr. Damiani was instrumental in conceiving and building technology solutions to help solve business challenges, first at Motorola and then at bioMérieux. Mr. Damiani possesses a Master of Science degree in Information and Communication Systems Architecture from the University of Toulouse in France, and an Executive MBA through TRIUM, an alliance of three of the world’s top business schools: the London School of Economics, New York University’s Stern School of Business, and the HEC School of Management in Paris.
Marcello's Sessions
How do High-Growth Companies use Technology to Inform Strategy and Drive Results?
Fast-growing companies are in a constant state of transition, as high performance and growth can lead to ever-changing business priorities and challenges. Hear from a couple of SAP’s hypergrowth customers about how they use technology to inform their strategy and ultimately drive business results. SAP Managing Director, Midmarket and Ecosystem Greg Petraetis will share how businesses grow from being innovators to disruptors to category leaders and how the technology they choose can impact the future of their business productivity.
Daniel Dines is the co-founder and CEO of UiPath, a leading provider of enterprise automation software. Dines started UiPath in 2005 with the goal of building a solution that could help humans reduce the time and stress that come from menial, administrative business tasks. Today, Dines’ vision is to make software robots, powered by computer vision and AI, as common as PCs in the workplace. Dines began his engineering career at Microsoft where he designed and developed the SQL Server Agent. Still a hacker at heart, he is active in driving the Company’s end-to-end automation platform and supporting the hundreds of thousands of developers who are building automations on the UiPath platform. Dines is recognized as an authority on driving business growth through company culture, employee empowerment, and innovation. In September 2019, Dines was featured as Boss of the Bots on the cover of Forbes magazine. He was also named by Comparably as one of the top 25 best CEOs of 2020, ranked by female employees, one of the best 50 CEOs of 2019, and one of the best CEOs of 2019 for minority workers. He also serves as a speaker on related topics at conferences including TechCrunch Disrupt, Techonomy, HowtoWeb, and VivaTech.
Daniel's Sessions
Automation's Moment Is Now
One thing we learned during the pandemic is the importance of automation, and that’s only likely to be more pronounced as we move forward. We’ll be talking to UiPath CEO Daniel Dines, Laela Sturdy, an investor at CapitalG and Dave Wright from ServiceNow about why this is automation’s moment.
Thomas C. Fountain is an Operating Partner focused on driving value creating through the deployment of technology-based solutions and IT excellence for One Rock and its portfolio companies. Mr. Fountain brings over 30 years of technology and leadership experience having served in CIO roles in GE, Honeywell and Bunge Ltd. In addition to large multi-national leadership positions, Mr. Fountain has also held CTO and CEO roles at software start-ups and emerging growth companies with a focus on innovative product design and new product introduction. Earlier in his career, Mr. Fountain held Design Engineer, Product Management, and Intelligence Officer positions with Martin Marietta Aerospace, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Fountain graduated from MIT with a degree in electrical engineering and later received his M.S. in electrical engineering and M.B.A. from Duke University.
Thomas C.'s Sessions
How do High-Growth Companies use Technology to Inform Strategy and Drive Results?
Fast-growing companies are in a constant state of transition, as high performance and growth can lead to ever-changing business priorities and challenges. Hear from a couple of SAP’s hypergrowth customers about how they use technology to inform their strategy and ultimately drive business results. SAP Managing Director, Midmarket and Ecosystem Greg Petraetis will share how businesses grow from being innovators to disruptors to category leaders and how the technology they choose can impact the future of their business productivity.
Kobie has been a partner at Upfront since 2016, with a core investing focus in SaaS, marketing technology, and emerging technologies including VR and AR. His notable Upfront investments include Bevy, Wave, Cordial and MetaCX.
While at Upfront, Kobie also founded and incubated Valence, a platform to unlock economic opportunity, investment and community for Black professionals; he is also on the Advisory Board for PledgeLA, an organization working to increase diversity and equity in tech.
Prior to Upfront, Kobie was an investor at Accel, helped found OpenView Venture Partners, and was an investor at Insight Venture Partners, with early investments including Exact Target and Oculus. He was also the Chief Marketing Officer at LA-based REVOLVE, one of the largest global fashion e-commerce players. Kobie graduated from Harvard College.
Kobie's Sessions
Survival of the Fittest: Investing in Today’s SaaS Market
The venture capital world is faster, and more competitive than ever. For investors hoping to get into the hottest SaaS deal, things are even crazier. With more non-traditional money pouring into the sector, remote dealmaking now the norm, and an increasingly global market for software startups, venture capitalists are being forced to shake up their own operations, and expectations. TechCrunch sits down with three leading investors to discuss how they are fighting for allocation in hot deals, what they’ve changed in their own processes, and what today’s best founders are demanding.
Varun Ganapathi, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of AKASA has a rich history in working at companies and creating new technologies that use a SaaS delivery model. Varun holds an undergraduate degree in physics, a Masters’s in computer science, and a Doctorate in Artificial Intelligence – all from Stanford University. Varun has co-founded multiple computer-vision and AI-focused companies including Numovis acquired by Google, EyeApps and Terminal.com acquired by Udacity. Varun served as an early advisor and investor to the driverless car company, Zoox.
Varun's Sessions
Future Forward: How Machine Learning and Human-in-the-Loop Approaches Are Expanding the Capabilities of Automation
Digital transformation efforts in a number of industries have driven massive adoption of robotic process automation (RPA) over the past decade. The hard truth is that RPA is a decades-old technology that is brittle with real limits to its capabilities. It will always have some value in automating work that is simple, discrete, and linear. However, the reason automation efforts often fall short of their aspirations is because so much of life is complex and constantly evolving – too much work falls outside of the capabilities of RPA. In this talk, Varun Ganapathi, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of AKASA will discuss how exceptions and outliers can actually make automation stronger and how emerging machine-learning-based technology platforms combined with human-in-the-loop approaches are already expanding what it is possible to automate across a number of industries.
Chris Gardner is a partner at Underscore VC focusing on FinTech. Prior to joining the firm, he had spent the last 25 years as an operator in Product and Marketing roles resulting in 5 exits in a row. Most recently, he was the co-founder of Paydiant which was acquired by PayPal in 2015. He then led P2P, SMB, and retail payments teams at PayPal prior to joining Underscore in October 2020.
Chris's Sessions
Disrupting Product Innovation
Innovation is a business imperative in today’s global economy. In fact, 84% of executives say innovation is key to their growth strategy, according to a McKinsey report. While companies need to innovate at scale to stay competitive, engineers need the right tools to avoid the many challenges associated with the product development process. In this session, hear Jon Hirschtick’s entrepreneurial journey and how cloud and SaaSification of the industry can accelerate product innovation as well as tips on scaling businesses into multi-million-dollar companies.
Ali Ghodsi is the President, CEO and co-founder of Databricks, the Data and AI company. Under Ali’s leadership, Databricks has pioneered the Data Intelligence Platform built on a Lakehouse architecture to simplify and scale analytics and AI for thousands of global organizations. Ali’s experience as a data and AI leader spans more than 20 years, with deep roots in AI research and open source software. He was one of the creators of open source project, Apache Spark. Ideas from his academic research in the areas of resource management and scheduling and data caching have been applied to Apache Mesos and Apache Hadoop. Before being named CEO in 2016, he served as the VP of Engineering and Product Management. Ali also sits on the Databricks Board of Directors. In addition to his role at Databricks, Ali continues to be involved in academia. He is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he focuses on research in the areas of computer systems and AI, and is on the board of UC Berkeley’s RiseLab. Originally from Iran and Sweden, Ali resides in Berkeley, CA with his family. Ali received his MBA from Mid-Sweden University in 2003 and PhD from KTH/Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden in 2006 in the area of Distributed Computing.
Ali's Sessions
Data, Data Everywhere
As companies struggle to manage and share increasingly large amounts of data, it’s no wonder that Databricks, whose primary product is a data lakehouse, was valued at a whopping $38 billion for its most recent funding round. We’re going to talk to CEO Ali Ghodsi about why his startup is so hot and what comes next.
Partners with top venture capital firms and startups to accelerate growth through Snowflake products, resources, and expertise.
Ben's Sessions
Data warehouse: the foundation of the modern data stack
The modern data stack is changing rapidly, with new technology emerging everyday. Increasingly, though, architectures are being built around the data warehouse. In this panel discussion, experts will discuss why this new architecture has emerged, what specific technologies are driving the trend and what the data stack of the future looks like.
Adam was the co-founder of Personify and Cloudconnect, as well as the former CEO of Heroku.
Adam's Sessions
Data warehouse: the foundation of the modern data stack
The modern data stack is changing rapidly, with new technology emerging everyday. Increasingly, though, architectures are being built around the data warehouse. In this panel discussion, experts will discuss why this new architecture has emerged, what specific technologies are driving the trend and what the data stack of the future looks like.
Sarah Guo is the Founder and Managing Partner at Conviction, a venture capital firm founded in 2022 to invest in intelligent software, or “Software 3.0.” Prior, she spent a decade as a General Partner at Greylock Partners. She has been an early investor or advisor to 40+ companies in software, fintech, security, infrastructure, fundamental research, and AI-native applications. Sarah is from Wisconsin, has four degrees from University of Pennsylvania, and lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two daughters. She co-hosts the AI podcast “No Priors” with Elad Gil
Sarah's Sessions
Survival of the Fittest: Investing in Today’s SaaS Market
The venture capital world is faster, and more competitive than ever. For investors hoping to get into the hottest SaaS deal, things are even crazier. With more non-traditional money pouring into the sector, remote dealmaking now the norm, and an increasingly global market for software startups, venture capitalists are being forced to shake up their own operations, and expectations. TechCrunch sits down with three leading investors to discuss how they are fighting for allocation in hot deals, what they’ve changed in their own processes, and what today’s best founders are demanding.
Nancee is a Solutions Engineer at Momentive.ai, with experience leading market research studies for Kantar, Fuel Cycle, Business Insider, and more. Nancee is based in New York, NY.
Nancee's Sessions
Accelerate your growth using agile market research throughout the product lifecycle
Conducting market research at each stage of your product lifecycle is a critical component to a successful product launch and sustained growth in an increasingly competitive market. While traditional market research can be costly and require a specialized team, agile market research software makes it possible for anyone on your team to get the insights you need fast. Join Momentive.ai to learn how to conduct your own market research to identify what kinds of products and features users value most, get insight into the competitive landscape, and track your brand’s awareness and shifting perceptions over time.
A technology pioneer and entrepreneur, Jon Hirschtick is passionate about empowering innovators so they can design products that positively impact society and the planet. He understands the challenges engineers face as they build products for the modern era, as well as the design platforms required to accelerate product innovation in today’s connected world. This insight and market knowledge have allowed Hirschtick to successfully build and sell three companies. He is now executive vice president (EVP) at PTC and general manager (GM) of its Onshape and Atlas divisions — responsible for driving strategy and growth, while empowering global businesses to shape the future. In 2012, Hirschtick launched Onshape — the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product development platform. It’s the only product development platform that’s architected for the cloud, enables engineers to design products on-demand, and lets them collaborate in real time — without being tethered to a machine or device. Onshape was acquired in 2019 by PTC for $470 million. Previously, Hirschtick created SOLIDWORKS, the first desktop 3D CAD (computer-aided design) solution that made 3D design technology accessible to the masses. SOLIDWORKS was acquired by Dassault Systèmes in 1997 for $310 million. When he is not building companies, Hirschtick entertains customers and peers with magic tricks. In fact, he was a member of the famed MIT Blackjack team, featured in the movies “21” and “The Last Casino.” In his spare time, Hirschtick enjoys playing golf and practicing yoga. Hirschtick holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT.
Jon's Sessions
Disrupting Product Innovation
Innovation is a business imperative in today’s global economy. In fact, 84% of executives say innovation is key to their growth strategy, according to a McKinsey report. While companies need to innovate at scale to stay competitive, engineers need the right tools to avoid the many challenges associated with the product development process. In this session, hear Jon Hirschtick’s entrepreneurial journey and how cloud and SaaSification of the industry can accelerate product innovation as well as tips on scaling businesses into multi-million-dollar companies.
Abby Kearns, chief technology officer at Puppet, has more than 20 years of experience scaling growth for numerous Fortune 500 and startup companies.
Abby's Sessions
The Future is Wide Open
Many startups today have an open source component, and it’s no wonder. It builds an audience and helps drive sales. We’ll talk with Abby Kearns from Puppet, Augusto “Aghi” Marietti from Kong and Jason Warner an investor at Redpoint about why open source is such a popular way to build a business.
Jenn Knight is Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of AgentSync, where she leads the product and engineering teams. AgentSync is an insurtech developing a frictionless, modern solution to some of the biggest pain points associated with producer management including broker onboarding, contracting, and compliance management. Jenn and her co-founder and husband, Niji Sabharwal, believe that using technology to solve back-office bottlenecks will empower scaled innovation across the massive, fragmented insurance industry. As one of the industry’s leading Salesforce developers, Jenn has helped solve back-office problems for LinkedIn, Stripe, and Dropbox.
Jenn's Sessions
How Startups are Turning Data into Software Gold
The era of big data is behind us. Today’s leading SaaS startups are working with data, instead of merely fighting to help customers collect information. We’ve collected three leaders from three data-focused startups that are forging new markets to get their insight on how today’s SaaS companies are leveraging data to build new companies, attack new problems, and, of course, scale like mad.
Jay Kreps is CEO and co-founder of Confluent. Prior to Confluent he was the lead architect for data and infrastructure at LinkedIn. He is the initial developer of several open source projects, including Apache Kafka.
Jay's Sessions
Setting Data in Motion
Confluent, the streaming platform built on top of Apache Kafka, was born out of a project at LinkedIn and rode that from startup to IPO. We’ll speak to co-founder and CEO Jay Kreps to learn about what that journey was like.
Augusto “Aghi” Marietti is an inventor, technology entrepreneur and angel investor. As the CEO and co-founder of Kong, the cloud connectivity company on a mission to power connections to build a reliable digital world, he drives the company’s vision, strategy and long-term growth. Prior to Kong, he was the CEO and co-founder of Mashape, the largest API marketplace, which was acquired by RapidAPI in 2017. Before that, he founded MemboxX, the first European cloud service for storing documents and sensitive personal data. Augusto holds a B.S. in Economics from the Catholic University of Milan and studied briefly at UC Berkeley. He is the lead inventor on five U.S. patents and an angel investor in more than 10 startups.
Augusto "Aghi"'s Sessions
The Future is Wide Open
Many startups today have an open source component, and it’s no wonder. It builds an audience and helps drive sales. We’ll talk with Abby Kearns from Puppet, Augusto “Aghi” Marietti from Kong and Jason Warner an investor at Redpoint about why open source is such a popular way to build a business.
Nick Mehta (he/him), is the CEO of Gainsight, The Customer Success Company—a five time Forbes Cloud 100 recipient. He works with a team of nearly 700 people who together have created the customer success category that’s currently taking over the SaaS business model worldwide. Nick has been named one of the Top SaaS CEOs by the Software Report three years in a row, one of the Top CEOs of 2018 by Comparably, and was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020 Northern California Award winner. On top of all that, he was recently rated the #1 CEO in the world (the award committee was just his mom, but the details are irrelevant). He is a member of the Board of Directors at F5 and has also co-authored two books on the customer success field, Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue, and The Customer Success Economy: Why Every Aspect of Your Business Model Needs A Paradigm Shift. He is passionate about family, football, philosophy, physics, fashion, feminism, and SaaS customer success. People told him it’s impossible to combine all of those interests, but Nick has made it his life’s mission to try.
Nick's Sessions
What Happens After Your Startup is Acquired
We’ll speak to three founders about the emotional upheaval of being acquired and what happens after the check clears and the sale closes. Our panel includes Jyoti Bansal who founded AppDynamics, Nick Mehta from GainSight and Monica Sarbu who founded Packetbeat that was acquired by Elastic.
Founder of RudderStack, building a warehouse-first CDP that enables companies to create value with data, no matter the source or destination in their stack.
Soumyadeb's Sessions
Data warehouse: the foundation of the modern data stack
The modern data stack is changing rapidly, with new technology emerging everyday. Increasingly, though, architectures are being built around the data warehouse. In this panel discussion, experts will discuss why this new architecture has emerged, what specific technologies are driving the trend and what the data stack of the future looks like.
Barr Moses is CEO and co-founder of Monte Carlo, the leading data and AI observability platform. Under Barr’s leadership, Monte Carlo has pioneered the data and AI observability category, partnering with the world’s most data-driven and agentic organizations to reduce data and AI downtime and improve reliability at scale. The company is backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, including Accel, GGV Capital, ICONIQ Growth, and Redpoint Ventures. Moses has been named a Top 25 Data Management and Analytics Executive of 2025, a 2024 top Woman in AI by VentureBeat, and a 2023 Datanami Person to Watch.
Barr's Sessions
How Startups are Turning Data into Software Gold
The era of big data is behind us. Today’s leading SaaS startups are working with data, instead of merely fighting to help customers collect information. We’ve collected three leaders from three data-focused startups that are forging new markets to get their insight on how today’s SaaS companies are leveraging data to build new companies, attack new problems, and, of course, scale like mad.
Wendy Nather has been in tech for over 40 years. She was previously the Senior Research Initiatives Director at 1Password, Director of Advisory CISOs at Duo Security, Research Director at the Retail ISAC, and Research Director of the Information Security Practice at 451 Research. Wendy led IT security for the EMEA region of the investment banking division of Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS), and served as CISO of the Texas Education Agency. She was inducted into the Infosecurity Europe Hall of Fame in 2021. Wendy serves on the board of directors for Sightline Security, is on the steering committee for the IST Ransomware Task Force, and is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative.
Wendy's Sessions
SaaS Security, Today and Tomorrow
Enterprises face a constant stream of threats, from nation states to cybercriminals and corporate insiders. After a year where billions worked from home and the cloud reigned supreme, startups and corporations alike can’t afford to stay off the security pulse. Find out what SaaS startups need to know about security now, and in the future.
Deidre Paknad is the CEO and co-founder of WorkBoard, the leading Strategy Execution Platform powering the digital operating rhythm for companies around the globe. Deidre has founded and led three tech companies, a high-growth business as an executive at IBM, and has 17 patents granted/pending in her name. She has been twice recognized with the Computer World Smithsonian Award. At WorkBoard, Deidre works with senior leadership at some of the world’s largest companies, including AstraZeneca, Ford, Humana, Walmart, and Zendesk to clarify, align, and drive strategic priorities with greater speed and agility. WorkBoard ranked No.162 on the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ list and number 6 on the list of companies led by female CEOs.
Deidre's Sessions
Building a Hypergrowth SaaS Startup in a Remote World
It’s hard to stand out in today’s startup market, given the sheer number of companies building, launching, and fundraising. But despite all the busyness, Workboard has made waves. Competing in a crowded niche, Deidre Paknad’s upstart tech company has posted huge growth despite COVID-19’s disruptions. We’ll sit down with the CEO to dig into how she managed to scale her company in both revenue, and human terms, despite the global pandemic. Founders, expect to learn something!
At KUDO, Miruna has the exciting task of building the company’s first Localization Program meant to help KUDO scale globally. Her background is in Fintech Localization and her main area of interest is UX (User Experience). Putting the user first, understanding their needs and providing them with an experience that will not only delight but is high on the usability scale is what she thinks is Localization all about.
Miruna's Sessions
Three Easy Steps to Capture Global Opportunities
As our economy becomes increasingly global, is your business prepared to succeed? KUDO Co-Founder and CEO Fardad Zabetian shares his insights on how to capture global opportunities.
As head of Midmarket and Partner Ecosystem for SAP North America, Greg Petraetis is responsible for all facets of the organization’s operations. Along with accountability for sales and field project execution, Greg manages value-added resellers, third-party and OEM partners, distribution, inside sales, and managed cloud as a service (MCaaS). Underpinning these responsibilities is his unwavering commitment to ensure customers in this midmarket segment in the region have the strategic support they need to digitally transform, innovate, and grow.
Greg's Sessions
How do High-Growth Companies use Technology to Inform Strategy and Drive Results?
Fast-growing companies are in a constant state of transition, as high performance and growth can lead to ever-changing business priorities and challenges. Hear from a couple of SAP’s hypergrowth customers about how they use technology to inform their strategy and ultimately drive business results. SAP Managing Director, Midmarket and Ecosystem Greg Petraetis will share how businesses grow from being innovators to disruptors to category leaders and how the technology they choose can impact the future of their business productivity.
Kelsey Pfeffer is the Head of Integrated Communications for SAP, leading communications in the West region and Midmarket in North America. She previously led communications for SAP’s Chief Innovation Officer and the SAP.iO Venture Studio. She has been working in communications for a decade with a strong focus on building brand narratives and media relations. Previously a journalist for NASCAR and the Arizona Republic, she has a keen eye for media and has ideated and executed media campaigns that have appeared in The New York Times, WSJ and USA Today. Before SAP, she managed Public Relations for Opendoor, a real estate technology startup and GoDaddy, a cloud platform for small businesses.
Kelsey's Sessions
How do High-Growth Companies use Technology to Inform Strategy and Drive Results?
Fast-growing companies are in a constant state of transition, as high performance and growth can lead to ever-changing business priorities and challenges. Hear from a couple of SAP’s hypergrowth customers about how they use technology to inform their strategy and ultimately drive business results. SAP Managing Director, Midmarket and Ecosystem Greg Petraetis will share how businesses grow from being innovators to disruptors to category leaders and how the technology they choose can impact the future of their business productivity.
Stephanie is a product marketing leader at Momentive.ai, the maker of SurveyMonkey and GetFeedback. Stephanie spent over 10 years conducting quantitative research at market research and brand consulting agencies, including Kantar and Hall & Partners, before working in AdTech at Wayfair and CX at Medallia. Stephanie is based in San Francisco, CA.
Stephanie's Sessions
Accelerate your growth using agile market research throughout the product lifecycle
Conducting market research at each stage of your product lifecycle is a critical component to a successful product launch and sustained growth in an increasingly competitive market. While traditional market research can be costly and require a specialized team, agile market research software makes it possible for anyone on your team to get the insights you need fast. Join Momentive.ai to learn how to conduct your own market research to identify what kinds of products and features users value most, get insight into the competitive landscape, and track your brand’s awareness and shifting perceptions over time.
Olivia Rose is the CISO, and VP of IT & Security for Amplitude. Olivia is a proven cybersecurity leader with 20 years of experience building, transforming, and optimizing successful cybersecurity programs. Olivia possesses a unique blend of technical, governance, and business acumen and experience, enabling security initiatives to align with the business and demonstrate value. Olivia is frequently requested at speaker events and podcasts, and is regarded as a mentor and thought leader in the industry and a champion for diversity. Olivia holds numerous IT and security certifications, including CISSP, CISM, CCSK, is an active participating member of several industry groups.
Olivia's Sessions
SaaS Security, Today and Tomorrow
Enterprises face a constant stream of threats, from nation states to cybercriminals and corporate insiders. After a year where billions worked from home and the cloud reigned supreme, startups and corporations alike can’t afford to stay off the security pulse. Find out what SaaS startups need to know about security now, and in the future.
Creative analytics leader with 10+ years of experience delivering actionable insights through data analysis and a visual storytelling approach.
Jamila's Sessions
Data warehouse: the foundation of the modern data stack
The modern data stack is changing rapidly, with new technology emerging everyday. Increasingly, though, architectures are being built around the data warehouse. In this panel discussion, experts will discuss why this new architecture has emerged, what specific technologies are driving the trend and what the data stack of the future looks like.
Monica is the founder and CEO of Xata.io, a serverless database for Jamstack and Low-Code applications. Xata is backed by Index Ventures and several well known tech entrepreneurs, including the founders of Elastic, Confluent, Vercel, and Netlify. Monica is also a founder of Tupu.io, a non-profit initiative offering free mentorship for unprivileged people in tech. Previously, she has founded Packetbeat, an open source monitoring system, which was acquired by Elastic in 2015. At Elastic, she served as Director of Engineering, leading several teams, including the teams developing the popular open source projects Logstash and Elastic Beats. When she’s not busy with data grokking, she enjoys spending time with her daughter and traveling the world.
Monica's Sessions
What Happens After Your Startup is Acquired
We’ll speak to three founders about the emotional upheaval of being acquired and what happens after the check clears and the sale closes. Our panel includes Jyoti Bansal who founded AppDynamics, Nick Mehta from GainSight and Monica Sarbu who founded Packetbeat that was acquired by Elastic.
Dr. Nashlie Sephus is the Machine Learning Technology Evangelist for Amazon AI at Amazon Web Services focusing on fairness and identifying biases. She formerly led the Amazon Visual Search team as an Applied Scientist in Atlanta, which launched visual search for replacement parts on the Amazon Shopping app in June 2018. In 2018, Dr. Sephus became the founder and CEO of The Bean Path non-profit organization based in Jackson, MS assisting individuals and startups with technical expertise and guidance. In September of 2020, she became the owner and developer of the Jackson Tech District—14-acres of mixed-use commercial real-estate in downtown Jackson—to bring tech training and workforce/economic development to the area.
Nashlie's Sessions
AI Ethics at Enterprise Scale
Keeping AI models fair and unbiased is a tough enough job in the lab or with a single product. How can it be accomplished at the scale of business being done by Amazon and Salesforce? Amazon AI Applied Science manager Nashlie Sephus and Principle Architect of AI Practice Kathy Baxter will discuss the responsibilities as opportunities of putting ethical practices to work in enterprise applications.
Javier Soltero is the Vice President and General Manager of Google Workspace, overseeing Google’s communication and collaboration products. Having joined in October 2019, his main responsibilities are to grow customer subscriptions and drive product innovations, while enabling deeper cross-product integrations that allow billions of users to more seamlessly create, communicate and collaborate together. Soltero has held a number of product executive roles at Microsoft, including for products such as Office, Outlook, and the Intelligent Virtual Assistant, Cortana. He joined Microsoft in 2014 as part of the acquisition of Acompli, a mobile email startup he co-founded and led as CEO, which was then launched by Microsoft as Outlook Mobile. Prior to starting Acompli, Soltero held senior leadership positions at VMware where he joined after the acquisition of his first company Hyperic. Before Hyperic, he held chief architect and senior engineering positions at a number of enterprise software and consumer internet companies including Netscape, where he worked on early internet messaging, application server and e-commerce technologies. Soltero attended Carnegie Mellon University. He is from Puerto Rico and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to starting Acompli, Javier was at VMware where he was CTO of SaaS & Application Services. He was responsible for driving advanced development and strategy for application level cloud services, bringing more than 15 years of experience in designing and developing infrastructure management technologies. Javier joined VMware after the acquisition of SpringSource in 2009. Three months prior, SpringSource had acquired Soltero’s Hyperic, the leader in large scale web infrastructure management software, where he was the co-founder and CEO. Prior to starting Hyperic, Javier held chief architect and senior engineering positions at a number of enterprise software and consumer internet companies including Netscape, where he was responsible for early internet messaging, application servers and e-commerce technologies. Throughout his career, Javier has been actively involved in various open source communities as both user and contributor to projects like JBoss and Apache Tomcat. He is also an active advisor to a number of open source and SaaS startups. Javier is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico and received his bachelor of science degree in information systems and industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Javier's Sessions
Was the Pandemic Cloud Productivity's Spark
One big aspect of SaaS is productivity apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive. We’ll talk with executive Javier Soltero about the role Google Workspace plays in the Google cloud strategy.
In his current role at Microsoft, Jared is responsible for Microsoft 365 marketing, including business management, product marketing, and go-to-market programs. He joined Microsoft in 2006 and has focused on productivity in various marketing, product management, and business roles at the company over the last 14 years. Prior to Microsoft, Jared worked in a number of small- and mid-sized technology companies in a variety of roles, including engineering, product management, product marketing, business management, and sales
Jared's Sessions
How Microsoft Shifted from on Prem to the Cloud
Jared Spataro has been with Microsoft for over 15 years and he was a part of the shift from strictly on prem software to one that is dominated by the cloud. Today he runs one of the most successful SaaS products out there, and we’ll talk to him about how Microsoft made that shift and what it’s meant to the company.
Rene Stewart is a Co-Head of the Endeavor Fund at Vista Equity Partners and a Senior Managing Director. Since its launch in 2017, Vista’s Endeavor platform has raised two funds and now manages over $1.7 billion in assets. Endeavor-sized companies operate at a meaningful growth inflection point and require an investor that can sustainably scale an organization to maximize market capture and product innovation. Rene and the Endeavor team have designed a unique strategy for portfolio partnership based on Vista’s proven operating model. As a result, companies that work with the Endeavor Fund are better positioned to achieve their next stage of growth. Rene currently sits on the boards of iN2L, Dispatch, Kazoo, RadarFirst, Tripleseat and Zapproved. She is also a member of Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee. Prior to joining Vista, Rene worked at Yahoo! in the Corporate Finance Group. She has a B.A. in Economics from Columbia University.
Rene's Sessions
Things Fall Apart At $10MM ARR: Lessons For Growing Your SaaS Company
The strategies that get you to $10MM ARR look very different to those that get you to $50MM or even $100MM. At the $10MM growth inflection point, most software companies need to pivot their approach and often find they are facing new – often seemingly insurmountable – challenges. The team at Vista Equity Partners – one of the largest enterprise software investors in the world with over $81 BN AUM – have worked with many founders and companies to successfully bridge this transition. In this session, Rene Stewart, Co-Head of Vista’s growth-stage Endeavor Fund, discusses the missteps and misconceptions around software company growth and what you can do to achieve success that scales beyond $10MM ARR.
Laela Sturdy is a 10X unicorn operator-turned-investor whose investments are currently worth nearly $200 billion. Laela joined CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, shortly after its inception in 2013 and has invested in some of the decade’s highest growth companies, such as Stripe, UiPath, Duolingo, Gusto, Webflow and Unqork. Laela came to CapitalG from Google where as Managing Director of Emerging Businesses she launched and scaled a number of businesses and held leadership roles within YouTube and search. Before joining Google in 2007, Laela was a consultant at Bain & Company, advising companies across media, retail, CPG and private equity. She brings her hands-on operational hypergrowth experience and deep, cross-sector knowledge to her role at CapitalG. Laela holds an AB in Biochemistry from Harvard College, a MSc in Multimedia Systems from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. An avid basketball player and former captain of her college women’s team, Laela enjoys spending time listening to live music with her wife and kids in her hometown of San Francisco.
Laela's Sessions
Automation's Moment Is Now
One thing we learned during the pandemic is the importance of automation, and that’s only likely to be more pronounced as we move forward. We’ll be talking to UiPath CEO Daniel Dines, Laela Sturdy, an investor at CapitalG and Dave Wright from ServiceNow about why this is automation’s moment.
Technology leader with experience as a people manager, visual designer, application developer, database administrator, and project manager in a wide variety of business applications. Particularly interested in open source, large scale systems and distributed computing. Rare expertise in integration middleware such as Informatica and Biztalk with a background in relational database technologies like Oracle, DB2, MySQL and SQL Server. Always interested in managing through rapid growth projects, as well as close interaction with business departments.
Stephen's Sessions
How do High-Growth Companies use Technology to Inform Strategy and Drive Results?
Fast-growing companies are in a constant state of transition, as high performance and growth can lead to ever-changing business priorities and challenges. Hear from a couple of SAP’s hypergrowth customers about how they use technology to inform their strategy and ultimately drive business results. SAP Managing Director, Midmarket and Ecosystem Greg Petraetis will share how businesses grow from being innovators to disruptors to category leaders and how the technology they choose can impact the future of their business productivity.
Jason Warner is a Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures on the Early-Growth team. After many years as a tech industry veteran and angel investor, Jason joined Redpoint where he invests in open-source technology, developer tools, infrastructure systems, fintech, crypto, and companies started by exceptional founders. Prior to joining Redpoint, Jason was CTO at GitHub where he was responsible for all aspects of GitHub’s product vision, strategy, and execution, bringing products like GitHub Actions, Packages, Advanced Security, Connect, Codespaces to market and incubating experimental projects like GitHub Co-pilot. He also led GitHub Security, Infrastructure and Data groups to ensure a seamless and trusted experience for developers all around the world. Prior to joining GitHub, Jason was VP of Engineering at Heroku; he also oversaw Product Engineering for Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Phone at Canonical. Jason started his career with IBM working in IT and system administration. Jason has angel invested in companies such as Temporal, Census, Hex, Tinybird, Common Room, Meroxa, Railway, Supabase, Rewatch.tv, Sym, Endgame, Stytch, Meticulous, GraphCDN, Infra, Drata, and others. Jason graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelors in Computer Science and received a Masters of Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic University.
Jason's Sessions
The Future is Wide Open
Many startups today have an open source component, and it’s no wonder. It builds an audience and helps drive sales. We’ll talk with Abby Kearns from Puppet, Augusto “Aghi” Marietti from Kong and Jason Warner an investor at Redpoint about why open source is such a popular way to build a business.
Max Wessel leads the SAP Learning organization, where he is responsible for SAP’s efforts to create opportunity through learning and development for employees, customers, and partners. In this capacity he leads SAP’s learning, early talent, leadership development, training, and developer relations teams. Max previously served as SAP’s Chief Innovation Officer, pioneering emerging technologies and product incubation across SAP. Outside of SAP, he lectures at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a venture partner with Nextgen Venture Partners. Max began his career in new product development at BCG, was an early employee or founder at multiple VC-backed startups, and invested as a software VC at Sapphire Ventures. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and Rock Fellow, and a BA from Northwestern University where he graduated with distinction in Philosophy and Economics.
Max's Sessions
Taking Your People from Startup to Scale
As your business grows, you need to help your people grow with you. And, in a world that is transforming faster than ever, the methods of developing your team don’t cut it. In this session you’ll hear from Max Wessel, Chief Learning Officer at SAP, about how to build a culture and workforce that is flexible, adaptable, and fit for a rocket ship.
Dan Wright currently serves as CEO of DataRobot, where he sets the strategic direction and manages the company’s fast-growing business operations around the world. DataRobot is the leader in enterprise AI, with the vision of enabling all organizations to use AI to solve their hardest challenges. Prior to joining DataRobot, Wright served as Chief Operating Officer at AppDynamics, the leader in application performance management (APM). During his tenure, he was instrumental in helping AppDynamics increase annual recurring revenue 100x and establish the company as the largest and fast-growing APM vendor. AppDynamics was acquired by Cisco in 2017 for $3.7 billion two days before its planned initial public offering and continued its aggressive growth as a part of Cisco.
Dan's Sessions
How Startups are Turning Data into Software Gold
The era of big data is behind us. Today’s leading SaaS startups are working with data, instead of merely fighting to help customers collect information. We’ve collected three leaders from three data-focused startups that are forging new markets to get their insight on how today’s SaaS companies are leveraging data to build new companies, attack new problems, and, of course, scale like mad.
Dave Wright is ServiceNow’s Chief Innovation Officer and chief evangelist for how to improve workplace productivity. He has worked with thousands of organizations to implement technologies that can create efficiencies, streamline business processes, and reduce costs. Before joining ServiceNow in 2011, Wright spent more than six years with VMware, Inc. as vice president of technical services for EMEA. From 2003 to 2005, Wright headed up the technical division for Northern and Southern Europe at Mercury Interactive. Prior to that he spent six years at Peregrine Systems, Inc., where he held a variety of senior technical and marketing positions.
Dave's Sessions
Automation's Moment Is Now
One thing we learned during the pandemic is the importance of automation, and that’s only likely to be more pronounced as we move forward. We’ll be talking to UiPath CEO Daniel Dines, Laela Sturdy, an investor at CapitalG and Dave Wright from ServiceNow about why this is automation’s moment.
A visionary entrepreneur, Fardad has founded and placed another two companies among the fastest growing business in America. He has also expanded to key markets over Europe and Asia. Fardad is no stranger to big challenges. In 2012, he was part of the design and roll-out a complete makeover of the United Nations’ meeting facilities, including the general assembly hall in New York. He has also played a key supporting role as a high-end equipment provider to various iterations of the IMF/ World Bank Annual Meetings and several European Institutions. With KUDO, Fardad now takes the meeting experience beyond the room to connect business and people in true borderless fashion, without language or geographic constraints.
Fardad's Sessions
Three Easy Steps to Capture Global Opportunities
As our economy becomes increasingly global, is your business prepared to succeed? KUDO Co-Founder and CEO Fardad Zabetian shares his insights on how to capture global opportunities.