Developer-Led Low Latency Systems
CEO & President of Lightbend - build, operate and secure low latency systems.
Hey friends.
I am now CEO of Lightbend, my fourth foray into DevOps entrepreneurship!
A little Lightbend background: Digital businesses use Akka (OSS) and Kalix (PaaS) to build, secure and operate ultra-low latency services for any workload at any scale. We have millions of deployments with a blue-chip customer roster that includes Apple, GM, Tesla, Starbucks, Fidelity, Oracle, Cisco, Westpac, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Netflix.
This new job, unfortunately, means that I am no longer with Dell Technologies Capital. However, they are Lightbend's lead investor, a part of our board, and maintain a close working relationship.
I will be continuing to support the companies where I led investments previously as advisor and board member where appropriate. They are all incredible founders and journeys (summaries below)!
My enthusiasm for developer, infrastructure, and customer experience markets has not waned. You can expect new chapters of the developer-led landscape, angel investments, and advisory with DevOps entrepreneurs.
If re-connecting to compare notes would be beneficial (or to just catch up), ping me and we'll connect this winter.
If my background or network could be useful to your own endeavors, I am happy to leverage them to aid you in making an impact.
My background + network:
product at Oracle, Quest, Redhat, & BEA
ran
threefour DevEx companies (2 acquisitions, 3rd nearing $100M ARR, and 4th high growth)investor with $150M deployed across 15 (mostly DevOps) companies eventually returning 2.8-4.5x CoC
publisher of developer-led landscape, a public database of 1500 DevOps companies
derivatives trading algo with 16.5% CAGR since 2011
command pilot for Angel Flights
PS: The most rewarding part of VC is witnessing growth in people, tech and business. To feel inspired yourself, read about these amazing Dell investments:
AppMap - Elizabeth Lawler + Kevin Gilpin
Application security and APM embedded within devs IDE + CI/CD
60K users; demonstrating the strategic impact that DevEx has on DevOps tooling
Archipelo - Matthew Wise + Dom Saggola
Intelligent code provenance and security for software supply chains
Tracks provenance of code, including copy-pasted or AI-generated to ensure compliance
CUE Labs - Marcel van Lohuizen + Paul Jolly
Commercializing the CUE programming language for configuration
Blending configuration and policy with a reusability model that will be like Docker for config
Oxeye Security - Dean Agron + Ron Vider
Application security prioritization that can reduce noise by 90%
Runtime, code, and pipeline context to identify exploitable and business-critical risks
TheLoops - Somya Kapoor + Ravi Bulusu
Customer experience operations platform powered by AI for insights not seeable by humans
Incredible customers including Paypal, Sauce Labs, Tricentis, and User Testing
Zingly - Gaurav Passi
Qualifies SaaS traffic by creating ecstatic user interactions
Identifies the buying intent of users by giving them the right medium to communicate for the right moment.