# Nick Mehta

> Nick Mehta co-founded Gainsight in 2013 and spent 13 years as CEO building the defining customer success platform - growing it from a startup into a $1.1 billion unicorn acquired by Vista Equity Partners, and in the process creating an entirely new job category of Customer Success Manager now held by hundreds of thousands of professionals worldwide. A Harvard-educated biochemist turned serial entrepreneur with a penchant for Taylor Swift parody rap videos, he stepped down as CEO in August 2025 to make way for his hand-picked successor while continuing on the board.

- **Role:** Board Member and Special Advisor to the CEO at Gainsight
- **Organizations:** Gainsight, F5 Networks, PubMatic, Larridin, Stage2 Capital
- **From:** Massachusetts, USA
- **Nationality:** American (Indian-American, Gujarati heritage)
- **Education:** B.A. in Biochemical Sciences, Harvard College, M.S. in Computer Science, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
- **Known for:** Co-created the Customer Success category - from ~1,000 CSMs globally in 2013 to hundreds of thousands by 2025, Built Gainsight from startup to $1.1 billion unicorn acquired by Vista Equity Partners (2020), EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Northern California (2020)

## Career timeline

- **1996** — Co-founded ChipShot.com (online golf retailer) from Harvard dorm room; raised Series A from Sequoia Capital
- **2000** — ChipShot.com sold as dot-com bubble burst; company had grown to 250 employees and $30M annual sales
- **2002** — Director of Product Management at XDegrees (acquired by Microsoft)
- **2002** — Joined VERITAS Software; eventually became VP/GM of Enterprise Vault business
- **2005** — VERITAS acquired by Symantec; continued as VP/GM
- **2008** — Became CEO of LiveOffice, a SaaS e-discovery/archiving company
- **2012** — Led LiveOffice sale to Symantec
- **2013** — Co-founded Gainsight as CEO; Battery Ventures Series A
- **2014** — Gainsight Series B (Bain Capital Ventures) and Series C (Bessemer, Lightspeed)
- **2015** — Gainsight Series D (Insight Partners); Pulse conference launched
- **2016** — Co-authored 'Customer Success' book (Wiley) - foundational text for the discipline
- **2018** — Ranked #3 on Top 50 SaaS CEOs; Gainsight earns Forbes Cloud 100
- **2019** — Joined Board of Directors at F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV)
- **2020** — Co-authored 'The Customer Success Economy'; Vista Equity Partners acquires Gainsight for $1.1 billion; EY Entrepreneur of the Year Northern California
- **2021** — Gainsight surpasses 1,200 employees; Pulse Everywhere draws 20,000 attendees
- **2023** — Gainsight launches AI features; joins Board of PubMatic (NASDAQ: PUBM)
- **2025-08** — Stepped down as Gainsight CEO after 13 years; named Chuck Ganapathi as successor; transitioned to Board Member and Special Advisor
- **2026-01** — Appointed to Board of Directors at Larridin

## Achievements

- Co-created the Customer Success category - from ~1,000 CSMs globally in 2013 to hundreds of thousands by 2025
- Built Gainsight from startup to $1.1 billion unicorn acquired by Vista Equity Partners (2020)
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Northern California (2020)
- Named #3 Top SaaS CEO by The Software Report (2018)
- Top CEO by Comparably (2018)
- 99% CEO approval rating on Glassdoor
- Built Pulse Conference into the world's largest customer success event (30,000+ annual attendees)
- Co-authored two foundational books on customer success published by Wiley
- Five-time Forbes Cloud 100 company (Gainsight)
- Raised ~$187M in venture capital for Gainsight
- Gainsight earned ~80% revenue market share in customer success software

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Appointed to Board of Directors at Larridin, a scheduling/appointment tech startup
- **2025-12** — Featured on AI and the Future of Work podcast discussing AI uncertainty and post-CEO life
- **2025-08** — Stepped down as Gainsight CEO after 13 years; named Chuck Ganapathi as hand-picked successor; Gainsight pivoted to Retention-as-a-Service (RaaS) model
- **2025-01** — Gainsight launched Atlas AI, an agentic AI initiative; Renewal AI announced as first autonomous agent

## Links

- Website: https://mehtaphysical.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmehta
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/nrmehta
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mehtaverse/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nick-mehta
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-26