Project type: Venture Services

Launch - Lightspeed Venture Partners
## Accelerate your progress to **Product-Market** **Fit**
The Launch program combines over **20 years** of investing experience with hard-learned lessons from founders and executives, covering key topics such as Founder-Led Sales, Core Team Building, Finding Product-Market Fit, and Managing the Business.
## Support, Resources, Workshops
A first-of-its-kind, company-building program for early-stage Lightspeed founders, Launch consists of 3 main components:
Deep hands-on, company-building support led by your board partner, our Lighthouse platform team, and our extensive operator network.
A custom-built library of early-stage playbooks and toolkits.
Expert-led workshops tailored to instill key skills for founders.
> Founder & CEO, Navan
> Lightspeed invested in our Seed round when Navan was just an idea. They have participated in every equity round since the very beginning and are a trusted partner to Ilan and me. They rolled up their sleeves from day one and have been invaluable partners over the last 8 years.
> Founder & CEO, Rubrik
> I chose Lightspeed as my first investor in 2013 due to their deep company-building expertise. They have since invested in every funding round and have been instrumental in helping us acquire customers, build a world-class team, and evolve our product strategy.
> Founder & CEO, Redpanda
> Arif Janmohamed and Lightspeed have been thought partners to me as we've scaled from pre-revenue to onboarding the largest Fortune 2000 companies. They played an important role in coaching and mentoring me and helping shape our product and go-to-market strategy. In 2020, they led our Series A.
> Founder & CEO, Moveworks
> Lightspeed is the best firm for founders looking for a hands-on partner from seed stage and beyond. Arif Janmohamed led my first founding round and his enterprise expertise has been transformational to our business.
> Founder & CEO, Yugabyte
> Lightspeed was our first investor in 2016. Over the last 7 years, they helped us acquire customers, hire key executives, and invested in all of our subsequent funding rounds.
> Co-Founder, Materialize
> When I took the leap to become a first-time founder, Lightspeed was there to provide everything from funding to go-to-market and hiring best practices. They have been an impactful investor since the first days of Materialize, and as we scale.
> Co-Founder, ThoughtSpot
> Lightspeed was the first investor in both companies I co-founded, ThoughtSpot and Nutanix. I chose them because of their decades of experience partnering with founders to build transformational companies.
> Founder & CEO, Handshake
> Lightspeed invested in our Seed round when Handshake was a small team with only a handful of customers. As a first-time founder, their advice and support have been invaluable to my growth as a CEO.
## **20+ YEARS** As First Believers
Lightspeed has had the privilege of backing early-stage founders for over 20 years. As the first institutional investor in Affirm, AppDynamics, Arctic Wolf, Blend, Honest Company, MuleSoft, Mist, Oyo, Nutanix, Navan (formerly TripActions), QuantumScape, Rubrik, Snap, ThoughtSpot, Zscaler, Materialize, Yugabyte, Redpanda, Handshake and others, we have learned how to build generational global companies.
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Navan‘s logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Rubrik‘s logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Appdynamics‘s logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Affirm's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, MuleSoft's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, The Honest's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Blend's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Mist's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Nutanix's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Snapchat's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Quantum Scape's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Zscaler's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Arctic Wolf's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Oyo's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Thought Spot's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Materialize's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, YugabyteDB's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Redpanda's logo 
* ![Lightspeed Launch program company, Handshake's logo 
The program provides a custom-built library of playbooks to help Lightspeed founders navigate the early stages of company-building. Here’s a glimpse into a few of the available resources:
## Interested in learning more about the program?
For more on Lightspeed’s history in early-stage investing and the story behind the program, read our post announcing Launch 
* What is Launch and how long has it been around?
The Launch program combines 20 years of investing experience with hard-learned lessons from founders and industry experts.
The Launch team at Lightspeed has studied founders, industry experts, and investing partners to identify the key challenges startups face at the early stages. We have transformed this collective wisdom into practical solutions to tackle these challenges and provide company-building best practices, saving you time and money while reducing stress.
* Who runs the program?
Luke Beseda, our Launch Partner, will be your hands-on guide through the program. He has spent the last 9 years at Lightspeed working with founders and obsessing about early-stage company building. As the most tenured early-stage-focused platform Partner in venture, he will help you navigate the complexity of early-stage company building.
* How is this different from other early-stage programs?
Launch is a company-building program, not an investment screening mechanism for Lightspeed. We make high-conviction investments in founders at the first stages of their company-building journey and hold ourselves accountable for providing tangible and impactful support.
In short, we believe in our founders and invest heavily in programming to propel their journey from the early stages to high growth.
* Is Launch available to Lightspeed founders outside the US and EU?
While much of the programming is globally relevant, Launch is currently designed for founders building companies operating in the US and EU. Additional regional programming is in development.
* Is Launch available to founders outside of Lightspeed? How do I access more of the content if I’m not a Lightspeed founder?
While full access to the Launch program is only available to Lightspeed-backed founders, we believe in supporting the global startup community. Check out our open-sourced playbooks here 
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© 2024 Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Faction Ventures, LLC (“Faction”) and Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C. (“Lightspeed”) are separate businesses that operate independently of each other. Faction is a registered investment adviser under the United States Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. Faction advises its own fund(s) and does not advise any Lightspeed clients, and Lightspeed does not advise Faction or any of its clients. Lightspeed and Faction are parties to an agreement pursuant to which Lightspeed holds certain interests in Faction and the fund(s) Faction manages.
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