# Ali Akhtar

> Ali Akhtar is the co-founder and CEO of Letter AI, a Chicago-based, AI-native revenue enablement platform that helps B2B sales teams build training, content, coaching, and live deal guidance with generative AI. A University of Chicago and Michigan Ross graduate, he spent roughly a decade leading machine learning and product teams at Samsara, project44, and McKinsey before launching Letter AI through Y Combinator's Summer 2023 batch. By early 2026 the company had raised more than $52 million, including a $40 million Series B led by Battery Ventures, and counted Lenovo, Adobe, Novo Nordisk, Plaid, and SolarWinds among its customers.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Letter AI
- **Organizations:** Letter AI, project44, Samsara, McKinsey & Company, Statum Positioning Systems
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** A.B. with Honors in Philosophy, Mathematics, and Computer Science, University of Chicago, MBA with High Distinction (Data Science & Statistics, Business Strategy), University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Letter AI, raising more than $52 million in total funding, Closed a $40 million Series B led by Battery Ventures in February 2026, Brought Letter AI through Y Combinator's Summer 2023 batch

## Career timeline

- **—** — Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, advising on corporate strategy
- **—** — Co-founded Statum Positioning Systems
- **—** — Worked in product management connected to the Obama campaign
- **—** — Director of Engineering, Data & Machine Learning at Samsara
- **—** — VP of Product, Data & Machine Learning at project44
- **2023** — Co-founded Letter AI with Armen Forget; joined Y Combinator Summer 2023 batch
- **2026** — Raised $40M Series B led by Battery Ventures; launched Letter Compass

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Letter AI, raising more than $52 million in total funding
- Closed a $40 million Series B led by Battery Ventures in February 2026
- Brought Letter AI through Y Combinator's Summer 2023 batch
- Built a customer base including Lenovo, Adobe, Novo Nordisk, Plaid, Zip, RingCentral, Kong, and SolarWinds
- Scaled the platform to revenue teams across 30+ countries
- Earlier built and scaled ML teams at Samsara and product/data teams at project44

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Letter AI raised a $40M Series B led by Battery Ventures and launched Letter Compass, a real-time, deal-specific guidance product.

## Links

- Website: https://letter.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/m-ali-akhtar
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LetterAICo
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znULXKSAN7o

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ali-akhtar
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-14