Closing out June, Lightspeed Venture Partners hosted their Leading Lights 2021 event, an insightful conference with a top-notch lineup of impressive speakers. 

Leading Lights was launched in 2016 to highlight the successes of underrepresented founders and execs in tech. If we are to become a more inclusive industry and society as a whole, it is important to highlight role models in the tech industry that reflect this value. With past speakers including Stacy Brown-Philpot (TaskRabbit), John Thompson (Microsoft), Shan-Lyn Ma (Zola), and Alex Chung (Giphy), Leading Lights gives entrepreneurs and leaders a platform to share behind-the-scenes looks into their journeys. 

For this year's iteration of Leading Lights, the lineup featured three amazing founders: Jessica Alba of The Honest Company, Howard Akumiah of Betty Labs and Max Levchin of Affirm. In casual conversation, they each expressed their candid experience from the start of their journey to IPOs and acquisition. 

Here’s what we learned from each:

The Honest Company Founder and Chief Creative Officer Jessica Alba offered the audience insight into her 10-year journey of growing her startup to a publicly traded company that now has a market cap of $1.5 billion: 

1. Social Media marketing was key to growing The Honest Company. Jessica talked about being in the age of “new media” and how this helped her brand establish an aesthetic for her audience to relate to. 

   • “Creating a sustainable brand for the planet as well as being aesthetically pleasing was very important.” 

2. Diversity is key to making decisions in a timely manner. Being a woman in an industry dominated by politics and mostly male leadership, Jessica spoke about how pivotal it was to have board members that understood the goal of representing an honest brand. 

   • “More than 60 percent of employees at Honest and five of its nine board members are people of color. More than half of the people in leadership roles are women”.

3. Don’t worry about the copycats! Jessica is proud of making the cleaning product space a healthier environment—regardless of the other companies hopping on the bandwagon. Because it creates a better marketplace for moms to provide cleaner products for their children, she accepts this and knows it's a win-win in the end. 

Betty Labs' Founder Howard Akumiah spoke about his journey of getting acquired by Spotify and being a Black founder in tech. Howard offered insight into how the pandemic contributed to the birth of where Betty is today. 

1. Don’t be afraid to pivot. Where Betty is today was not the original vision. Howard and his team saw a need in the sports world to create an environment for fans to communicate with each other. 

   • "I'm a very competitive person. [...]I knew we'd built a great product, but we were always seen as being second to Clubhouse, and it began to grate on me. Partnering with Spotify gave us the best chance to become the number one company in audio." 

2. Acknowledge when people have outgrown the vision of the company. Howard talked about parting ways with his former co-founder, and despite the obvious difficulties that came with that move, ultimately it made the workplace a healthier space for employees to thrive. 

3. Establish a working style with investors that is natural and comfortable. Howard emphasized how he created a casual relationship to communicate with his investors, even if it meant being comfortable enough to send a text message. His investors gave him the room to explore a broader mission rather than sticking to a specific route. 

Affirm CEO Max Levchin had a candid conversation with Lightspeed Partner Nicole Quinn to talk about the culture and values he carries with him in every company he creates. He urged startup companies to take a public stand. A few takeaways from his session are included below: 

1. Confide in the people closest to you. Max spoke very highly of his relationship with his wife and closest colleagues from past companies, and counts on them to contribute different points of view. 

2. Speak your mind about social causes that are personal, but don’t attach them to your company. Max takes pride in being a strong supporter of causes that matter to him. 

   • "It's very clear what causes matter to us as a company, and we don't hesitate to support those. [...] We looked at financial inclusion and the impact of being born Black and not having access to financial instruments and tools. That is important and authentic to Affirm across all colors, creeds, and races, in particular in this moment in time of Black Lives Matter."

3. Knowing when to let people go. Max stressed the importance of knowing when values no longer align, and that is when it is the time to move on from a team member. He is very serious about protecting the culture of a company he creates and ensuring the people that are involved with his company understood what they were signing up for. 

This was truly a great one to be a part of. Interested in hosting an event like Leading Lights? Get in touch to discuss!