a16z Podcast: Lightfield CEO on Why AI-Native Software Won't Look Like Salesforce
a16z · youtube · 2026-09-16
a16z's Alex Rampell and Joe Schmidt interview Lightfield CEO Keith Peiris on rethinking CRM for an AI-native world.
- The pivot: Peiris previously built Tome to 25M users but walked away, concluding the tech couldn't capture enough context about presenters, audiences, and their relationships. Following customers from AI presentations into sales workflows, he landed on a harder problem: making sense of fragmented, conflicting data across emails, calls, and CRMs.
- Core idea: a "business world model" — intelligence replacing much of the rigid schema behind traditional software once AI has enough context to reason about a company and its customers.
- Also covered: greenfield vs brownfield market strategy, AI-era outcome-based pricing, running an all-generalist company, and what worries him most.
Related event: Lightfield CEO Killed 2M-MAU Product to Rebuild CRM with AI(3 posts)→
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