# Spenser Skates

> Spenser Skates is the San Francisco-based co-founder and CEO of Amplitude. After studying bioengineering at MIT and working as an algorithmic trader at DRW, he built Sonalight with Curtis Liu. The analytics infrastructure they developed for that voice-texting app became Amplitude, which launched publicly in 2014 and listed on Nasdaq in 2021. His current work focuses on AI-assisted product analysis and improvement.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-founder at Amplitude
- **Organizations:** Amplitude, Sonalight, DRW Trading Group
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- **Known for:** Co-founded Amplitude and led it through its September 2021 Nasdaq direct listing., Member of first-place MIT Battlecode teams in 2009 and 2010., Helped turn Sonalight’s internal behavioral analytics infrastructure into a standalone software business.

## Career timeline

- **2009** — His MIT Battlecode team placed first.
- **2010** — Graduated from MIT; his Battlecode team won again; worked in algorithmic trading at DRW.
- **2011** — Built Sonalight with Curtis Liu; an earlier Y Combinator application was rejected.
- **2012** — Sonalight joined Y Combinator’s winter batch; Skates and Liu shifted full-time toward analytics in June.
- **2014** — Amplitude launched publicly as a mobile analytics platform.
- **2021** — Amplitude began trading on Nasdaq under AMPL on September 28 through a direct listing.
- **2026** — Led Amplitude’s push into agentic analytics and self-improving products.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Amplitude and led it through its September 2021 Nasdaq direct listing.
- Member of first-place MIT Battlecode teams in 2009 and 2010.
- Helped turn Sonalight’s internal behavioral analytics infrastructure into a standalone software business.

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Published The last bottleneck and announced Amplitude AI agents for behavioral analysis and product workflows.
- **2026-09** — Discussed the Sonalight pivot, the changing CEO role and Amplitude’s AI direction on The Luba Show, published September 17.

## Links

- Website: https://amplitude.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spenserskates
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/spenserskates

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/spenser-skates
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-23