# Lydia Hylton

> Lydia Hylton is the co-founder and CEO of Strella, an AI-powered customer research platform that runs adaptive, AI-moderated interviews and synthesizes the results in hours instead of weeks. A Georgia Tech computer engineer and Stanford MBA, she moved from Facebook data science and Bain consulting into venture capital at Redpoint and Bain Capital Crypto before teaming up with her high-school friend Priya Krishnan to build Strella. After a 'Wizard of Oz' MVP and a perfect 12-for-12 design-partner conversion, the company raised a $14M Series A led by Bessemer in October 2025 and now serves Amazon, Duolingo, Chobani, Square and Apollo GraphQL.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Strella
- **Organizations:** Strella, Bain Capital Crypto, Redpoint Ventures, Meta (Facebook), Bain & Company
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Computer Engineering (Stamps Scholar), Georgia Institute of Technology, MBA, Stanford University, M.S. in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence), on leave, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Strella as CEO, overseeing product and engineering, Raised a $14M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners (October 2025); roughly $18M total funding, Converted all 12 cold-recruited design partners into paying customers (100% conversion)

## Career timeline

- **Pre-2021** — Management consultant at Bain & Company and data analyst/scientist at Facebook
- **2021** — Joined Redpoint Ventures after Stanford MBA to help spin up its crypto practice
- **2022** — Became a partner at Bain Capital Crypto, a $650M Web3 fund, focused on early-stage DeFi, consumer and DAO applications
- **2023** — Co-founded Strella with Priya Krishnan in July; spent first year in the 'idea maze'
- **2024** — Committed to AI customer research mid-2024, ran 'Wizard of Oz' MVP, recruited 12 design partners via cold LinkedIn, launched in October
- **2025** — Raised $14M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners in October; customers include Amazon, Duolingo, Chobani

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Strella as CEO, overseeing product and engineering
- Raised a $14M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners (October 2025); roughly $18M total funding
- Converted all 12 cold-recruited design partners into paying customers (100% conversion)
- Reached $1.6M ARR in the first monetization year with 150%+ net dollar retention on the first renewal cohort
- Quadrupled customer base and grew revenue tenfold since coming out of stealth
- Signed enterprise customers including Amazon, Duolingo, Chobani, Square, Daily Harvest and Apollo GraphQL
- Former partner at Bain Capital Crypto, a $650M fund
- Stamps Scholar at Georgia Tech

## Latest updates

- **2025-10** — Strella raised a $14M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners to redesign customer research for the AI era.
- **2026** — First renewal cohort posted 150%+ net dollar retention; customer roster grew to include Amazon, Duolingo, Chobani, Square and Apollo GraphQL.

## Links

- Website: https://strella.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-hylton/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/lyd_hylton

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/lydia-hylton
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-11