# Ilya Volodarsky

> Ilya Volodarsky co-founded Segment in 2011 with MIT dorm-mates, building it from a failed classroom tool into the definitive customer data platform before selling to Twilio for $3.2 billion in 2020. After nine years scaling Segment to 600 employees, he pivoted to the problem of catastrophic wildfires, co-founding Wildfires.org and joining Convective Capital as a partner to back early-stage climate and healthcare startups.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Wildfires.org; Partner at Convective Capital
- **Organizations:** Wildfires.org, Convective Capital, Segment (acquired by Twilio), Xfund, Y Combinator
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Course VI-3) - took leave of absence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- **Known for:** Co-founded Segment, which grew to 600+ employees and sold to Twilio for $3.2 billion in 2020, Built the customer data platform that became the industry standard for analytics infrastructure, Led Segment as President for 9+ years through multiple funding rounds to unicorn status

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Enrolled at MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- **2010** — Attended Y Combinator's 'The Founder's Journey' class with future co-founders
- **2011** — Co-founded Segment with MIT dorm-mates Peter Reinhardt, Calvin French-Owen, Jean Lafleur, and Ian Taylor
- **2012** — Pivoted to customer data platform after classroom tool failed; launched Segment's open-source analytics.js library
- **2013** — Segment gained significant traction, raised Series A funding
- **2019** — Spoke at Y Combinator Startup School on analytics for startups; Segment reached unicorn status
- **2020** — Twilio acquired Segment for $3.2 billion in all-stock deal in October
- **2021** — Became Partner at Convective Capital, focusing on climate tech and healthcare investments
- **2022** — Co-founded Wildfires.org, a non-profit R&D organization tackling catastrophic wildfires
- **2023** — Wildfires.org partnered with US Forest Service; deployed NEPA-accelerating software in National Forests

## Achievements

- Co-founded Segment, which grew to 600+ employees and sold to Twilio for $3.2 billion in 2020
- Built the customer data platform that became the industry standard for analytics infrastructure
- Led Segment as President for 9+ years through multiple funding rounds to unicorn status
- Co-founded Wildfires.org, partnering with the US Forest Service on wildfire mitigation
- Partner at Convective Capital, backing early-stage climate and healthcare startups
- Faculty Advisor at Xfund (Harvard's startup fund)
- Speaker at Y Combinator Startup School, Startup Grind Europe, Web Summit, TechBBQ

## Latest updates

- **2023-09** — Wildfires.org operating as official US Forest Service partner with NEPA-accelerating software deployed in National Forests
- **2022-01** — Co-founded Wildfires.org as a non-profit R&D team focused on hazardous fuel treatment scaling
- **2021-06** — Joined Convective Capital as Partner for climate tech and healthcare investments ($100K-$5M range)
- **2020-10** — Twilio completed $3.2 billion all-stock acquisition of Segment

## Links

- Website: http://ilyavolodarsky.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilyavolodarsky
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/ivolo
- GitHub: https://github.com/ivolo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ivolo/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ilya-volodarsky
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-09