I’m honored to announce that Aseem Chandra, seasoned leader from Adobe, Omniture and Oracle, and Aman Singla, co-founder of Plume and tech leader from Atheros/Qualcomm, have joined Mayfield as entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) today. Aseem and Aman continue our long tradition of partnering with world-class entrepreneurs and executives starting at the “idea on a napkin” stage, working alongside them to conceptualize and refine their value propositions all the way to helping them build iconic companies.
Participating at the earliest stages of company creation is a very rewarding activity, especially for a former serial entrepreneur like myself. Late night brainstorming sessions to imagine the possibilities, whiteboarding ideas, honing the MVP and the GTM motion, codifying the culture and values, and articulating the vision and mission are just some of the collaborative sessions that take place between entrepreneurs and investors.
As the forces of digital transformation accelerate, the power of AI/ML has yet to have a meaningful impact on how the majority of the world’s businesses are run. Business practitioners are frustrated by applications that are difficult and expensive to change. Aseem & Aman have joined forces with Mayfield to build a next generation tech company that empowers every employee to leverage AI/ML to transform their business.
Over the last two decades, Aseem and Aman have built storied careers in Silicon Valley. Aseem is passionate about building high performing teams and scaling businesses that shape industries. Over the last 20+ years, he has played key roles at Oracle, Omniture and Adobe leading initiatives in product innovation, go-to-market, and integrating acquisitions. He launched several new products at Oracle, such as Oracle Exchange for running B2B marketplaces and Oracle Application Integration Architecture. He joined Omniture to run product and industry marketing through its successful $1.8B acquisition by Adobe. During his 10 year tenure on the Adobe leadership team, the Experience Cloud business grew 10 fold to $3.3B and established a new market category. As general manager, he transitioned Adobe Experience Manager to a cloud and subscription model, delivering $1B+ ARR and 25%+ CAGR over 5 years. He participated in the acquisition and integration of several digital marketing companies, most recently Magento ($1.7B) and Marketo ($4.75B).
Aman is an entrepreneur at heart who is passionate about the intersection of business and technology. Over the last 20+ years in Silicon Valley, he has built deep operational experience as an engineering & technology leader working across early stage start-ups (Plume), mid-scale public companies (Atheros) and large corporations (Qualcomm). His entrepreneurial journey started when he joined Atheros as a ~30 person start-up, where he played a key role in the company’s entry into wifi-enabled smartphones and other consumer devices. During his time there, Atheros grew to > $1B in revenue and was acquired by Qualcomm for $3.6B. Most recently, as part of the founding team at Plume, he transformed a hardware ecosystem into a cloud-based, data-driven, software platform which the biggest and smallest ISPs are using to provide Smart Home services to consumers.
“As an entrepreneur, one must fall in love with the problem. I believe so many more businesses can benefit from democratizing AI/ML access that only the Fortune 500 can afford to build today,” says Aseem. “Navin and Mayfield have a legendary track record of helping build great companies. I look forward to partnering with them as we build the next iconic Silicon Valley company together.”
“I’ve always been motivated by building teams around new ideas,” says Aman. “Mayfield is known for its founder-friendly approach and I have seen that in action. Navin’s guidance will be crucial as we hone and mature our ideas at Mayfield. We value the infrastructure and expertise that Mayfield brings to help entrepreneurs with fundraising, hiring, business development, and marketing, which are all the key elements a company needs to evolve from idea to reality.”
Aseem and Aman are the dream team to found a B2B company. Aseem has the ability to look around the corner and the experience to help a company get to scale in a profitable manner. Aman has world-class skills when it comes to building technology, products and teams. I’m energized by their passion and look forward to helping them realize their dream to leverage AI to help humans become superhumans.
Mayfield has a long history of working closely with entrepreneurs to help conceptualize companies, including in 1984 with John Hennessy, founder of MIPS Computer Systems, who went on to lead Stanford University and is the current chairman of Alphabet. More recently, some of our early collaborations with enterprise, consumer and engineering biology focused entrepreneurs include:
At the concept stage, entrepreneurs can begin to leverage the past experiences of Mayfield’s investing team—former operators and founders who are passionate about company building and bring deep domain expertise. The investing team works with entrepreneurs at every step of the process—product strategy, go-to-market, hiring, and operations. In addition, Mayfield’s portfolio services team provides specialized services in the areas of business development (customer introductions, need-finding), marketing (branding, public relations) and talent (hiring, assessments).
Aseem and Aman join us today to help us carry on this rich tradition. Please join me in welcoming them to the Mayfield family.
