Seattle-based customer data startup Amperity has appointed Dawn Lepore, a seasoned tech leader, as its new board chair.
Lepore brings over four decades of industry experience, marked by board positions at prominent companies like eBay, Walmart, The New York Times, and AOL. Her background also includes spearheading technology initiatives at Charles Schwab and serving as CEO of drugstore.com for eight years, culminating in its acquisition by Walgreens in 2011.
Amperity, established in 2016, is a key player in the customer data platform (CDP) sector. The company achieved a billion-dollar valuation in 2021 following a $100 million funding round.
Amperity assists businesses in refining marketing campaigns and understanding consumer behavior by consolidating diverse customer data sources, such as emails, purchase history, mobile app usage, website traffic, and physical store visits.Lepore, who was an angel investor in Amperity, cited her experience as an operator and board member, observing the challenges companies face with fragmented customer data, as her initial attraction to the startup.
Amperity’s Competitors as a startup
Amperity faces competition from companies like Salesforce, Adobe, Tealium, Treasure Data, and Lytics, recently acquired by Contentstack. Lepore emphasized to GeekWire that the AI boom presents a significant opportunity for Amperity.”
As data volumes explode and organizations generate unprecedented amounts of customer information, the need for highly scalable customer data platforms has become critical,” she stated.Lepore’s appointment follows five months after Amperity named former Salesforce executive Tony Alika Owens as its new CEO. Amperity, ranked No. 48 on the GeekWire 200, has undergone multiple rounds of layoffs in recent years.
Owens said in November that the company may have over-invested in growth prior to the 2022 tech slowdown. Owens is Amperity’s third CEO since early 2022, following the abrupt departure of co-founder and former CEO Kabir Shahani.
Other board members include Owens; Amperity co-founder Derek Slager; Concur co-founder and Accolade CEO Raj Singh; Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain; former Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson; and musician Ciara.Amperity had 260 employees as of November, with additional offices in New York City, London, and Melbourne, alongside its Seattle headquarters.
