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Lightspeed Venture Partners September Newsletter
Welcome to the September 2023 edition of the Lightspeed newsletter. Our theme for this edition is Unwavering Conviction – in the Founders we back, in the opportunities they identify, and in our partnership on their journeys.
At our recent Generative: LA Meetup, AI In Gaming,
with Ken Wee of Activision Blizzard and Ankur Bulsara of Scopely.
In this issue: Learn about the growth and European expansion of our popular Generative AI meetup series, an interview with Ariel Cohen, founder of Navan, our new Sales Benchmark Report, our Game Changers Partnership with GamesBeat, and much more.
At Lightspeed, we’ve been fortunate to have participated in the rise of multiple transformative technologies over the last 25 years – from the internet to the rise of mobile, and now the rise of generative AI. Learn more about our over $1 billion in AI investments, and the 57-and-counting AI companies in our portfolio – with many more to be announced.
This month, we partnered with two AI-powered startups that are building the future, and re-imagining what is possible:
We sat down with some of our Founders to hear about their challenges, successes, their startup beginnings, and why they chose to partner with Lightspeed. In this edition, meet Ariel Cohen, Co-Founder and CEO of Navan.
Our partners regularly share their insights and deep understanding of the market online. We work with our founders by first building a mastery of the areas where we share a passion to invent the next great business. Here are some insights we’ve recently published:
In an ever-changing sales landscape marked by economic uncertainties and rapid technological advancements, new trends are shaping how businesses approach their GTM strategies. In order to shed light on what companies are seeing out in the field, we surveyed 143 startups and aggregated benchmark data around sales representative performance, revenue goal attainment, and the adoption rate of AI-driven sales applications.
Together with GamesBeat and industry-leading judges, we are excited to announce an annual list to celebrate and accelerate extraordinary startups in gaming & interactive technology. The deadline to apply is Sunday, October 1. Winners will be announced later in October and highlighted at the GamesBeat Summit Next conference on October 24 – 25 in San Francisco.
We’re expanding our popular Generative series of AI meetups to Europe! First up: Paris, featuring Guillaume Lample, co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Mistral.ai, and Thomas Scialom, Research Scientist at Meta AI leading the Large Language Models team, in conversation with partner Antoine Moyroud.
Generative Paris will be held on September 26. Apply to attend, or learn more about this event and future Generative Europe events.
Back in the US, Lightspeed is hosting a Generative: NYC event on September 18 with Keith Peiris of Tome, as part of the Fast Company Innovation Festival. Limited spots are still available.
Lightspeed is also hosting a Generative: NYC AI x Blockchain meetup, featuring Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, and Alex Atallah co-founder of OpenSea. They’ll be in conversation with venture partner Anand Iyer on September 21. Request an invitation to attend here.
We’re announcing new Generative meetups all the time. To stay up to date, fill out our notification form.
Generative Recaps
Follow us! We’re on LinkedIn, Threads, X (fka Twitter), and Instagram. See what our Founders are up to, catch up on events you may have missed, like our recent Generative: SF meetup, and read about what Lightspeed’s partners are doing around the world.
We are grateful for your partnership and support, and welcome any feedback you have. We’ll see you next month with more news, insights, and updates!
–Team Lightspeed