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As a career sales and marketing leader, I have extensive experience transforming depth…
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisPhil Sorgen reposted thisMeet David Tepper (Co-founder and CEO of Pay-i), an expert in AI spend and value management. He founded Pay-i two years ago after a career at Microsoft, where he served as a Principal Architect in the Cloud and AI division. There, he designed the internal platforms and architectures powering Microsoft’s GenAI adoption, along with systems later leveraged by Azure Copilot. David was named the winner of GeekWire’s “Agents of Transformation” rapid-fire pitch competition, judged by @Bryan Hale (Anthos Capital), Yifan Zhang (AI2 Incubator), and T. A. McCann (Pioneer Square Labs). Read about the recent competition here: https://lnkd.in/eHUuD7a3 A leader at the intersection of AI, infrastructure, and business value—David is helping define how organizations understand and optimize their AI investments. Pay-i is a seed-stage startup working with enterprises spending at least $500,000 on AI annually. Learn more about Pay-i here: https://lnkd.in/eg_kipWr 📸(GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisPhil Sorgen reposted thisEvery Technology Shift Redesigns the Office. AI Agents Will Be No Different.Every Technology Shift Redesigns the Office. AI Agents Will Be No Different.Every Technology Shift Redesigns the Office. AI Agents Will Be No Different.
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisPhil Sorgen reposted thisWe just made our Seattle debut and what a welcome! Last week, we marked the big launch with Tola Capital by gathering some of Seattle's best builders around the next evolution of agents. From engineers to our guest speakers--Arm's Sharbani R., Pulumi's Joe Duffy, and our own Nikhil Cheerla-- the room was packed. A few takeaways from our audience: 💬 Building agents is like hiring -- you help define structure, guardrails, and before autonomy 💬 Counterintuitively, more training data can make models more conservative, not less => Quality vs quantity 💬 Solving concurrency has never mattered more as agent-to-agent collaboration becomes the next big unlock 💬 Frontier models are a start, but enterprises ultimately want custom models + agent capabilities fine-tuned to their own workflows Thanks to everyone who made the night what it was. Stay tuned for more!
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisWhat an exciting day for the entire Nooks team! Back in 2021, I met the founders of Nooks (Dan Lee, Rohan Suri, and Nikhil Cheerla) and was immediately struck by their exceptional, wild intelligence, paired with incredible work ethic. They had a vision for a new kind of virtual workspace, and I felt blown away by the speed at which they were building it. At Tola, we have memories of using Nooks, hanging out in Nooks, and feeling the joy of Nooks. Today, that vision has become a true AI-native platform for sellers, redefining how pipeline is created and managed. Nooks isn’t another layer on top of the sales stack; it’s the system actively driving pipeline from within the revenue workflow. In other words, bringing joy to sellers. Nooks is one of our fastest-growing portfolio companies, and I expect that growth to only accelerate. We are so excited for the launch and love being on the journey with you.Phil Sorgen reposted thisI’m excited to announce our biggest product launch ever (and my first-ever acting gig) Since releasing our AI Dialer 3 years ago, we’ve helped thousands of the world’s best sales teams generate billions in pipeline and become the go-to solution for calling Today we’re launching 𝐍𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐒𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 We’ve extended the magical experience of the dialer across every outbound workflow: from building lists to researching accounts and writing emails Our AI Sequencing, Dialer, Signals, and Coaching now form what we call the Nooks Agent Workspace — a unified system for reps to run intelligent, multi-channel outbound Our own sales team has always been strong on the phone, but since we switched off Outreach last year to Nooks AI Sequencing, we’ve doubled pipeline generated from emails via better buying signals, account research, and personalization The AI email drafts are so good, our SDRs get responses from sales leaders every day complimenting how thoughtful and well-researched they are Over 100+ teams have made the switch and have seen similar results If you’re frustrated with your current stack, we can help make sure you're leveraging the full capabilities of frontier AI And I’m incredibly excited that we’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible We already have a sizable waitlist. Comment “Nooks Sequencing” and we’ll fast-track you for a demo 💜
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisPhil Sorgen reposted thisOh hey, we’re coming to Seattle! 🏙️ For our next deep dive, we’re partnering with Tola Capital to bring together big tech + startup leaders doubling down on 2026’s next: vertical agents. Today, domain experts are 10x more powerful with customized agents changing their workflows, and with that….the demand! Nooks' Nikhil Cheerla and Pulumi's Joe Duffy will cover: - How to build customization layers for the power user - Multi-agent orchestration in complex production environments - Balancing agent autonomy with human-in-the-loop design Spots are limited, register here: https://luma.com/w4e7h5ma. And, stay tuned for more guest speakers!
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisPhil Sorgen reposted thisWhenever I ask product and engineering friends who the best 'AI Product Leader' is, one name keeps coming up... Aman Khan leads product at Arize AI and previously worked at organizations like Spotify and Cruise. Sinan Ozdemir and I had a great time chatting with him about the evolution of Product Management in the AI Era. We dove into how prototyping, writing evals, and other PM workflows are changing markedly.... While the core elements of product (intuition, product sense, alignment) are staying the same. Give it a listen at YT: https://lnkd.in/ecjPvfR2 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eV_cbz6t
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisPhil Sorgen reposted thisWith Big Tech earnings this week, our founder Sheila Gulati was delighted to join Bloomberg's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒 - covering market-moving news with key insights from strategists, executives, and investors. Here are three highlights from Sheila’s conversation with Bloomberg TV anchors Romaine Bostick, CFA and Katie Greifeld: - Cloud computing has enabled the AI evolution, where Microsoft has a platform strategy and a multi-layer approach - AI is offering everyone efficiency now, and business leaders should pair the productivity gains with disruptive new solutions that impact top-line growth - Massive CapEx investment increases in data centers are requiring new strategies for building hardware systems, moving algorithmic programmability and learning into the heretofore hardware layer 📺 Check the comments for the video link to Sheila’s insights!
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisOne of the rewards I cherish at Tola Capital is the opportunity to partner with exceptional global innovators who seize the momentum of AI and share our passion for reshaping enterprise software. The current revolution in agentic AI is redesigning the enterprise software category of business applications like never before. While the transition from conventional ERP and CRM solutions towards agentic ERP and CRM is coming, process mining solutions are also facing a moment of truth. Over the years, they have tended to focus narrowly on system-level process flows and did not fully adapt to the evolving complexity of modern enterprises. They often overpromised and underdelivered, leading to unrealized business value and customer frustration. KYP.ai, founded by Dr. Adam Bujak, Mirosław Bartecki, and Frank Scheuble, is increasingly recognized as a leader in redefining process intelligence. Unlike legacy tools centered on system-level process flows, KYP.ai's solutions uniquely capture the dynamic interplay between processes, people and technology. They combine process intelligence with AI-powered productivity mining, allow customers to uncover hidden inefficiencies, quantify automation potential and optimize human-agent-machine collaboration, all in real-time. The business outcome is remarkable and continuously reflected in customer feedback. As Executive Chairman, I'm honored to share that #KYP.ai has been recognized as a Strong Performer in the #Forrester Wave™ Process Intelligence Software Q3 2025 report. Congratulations to the team on this accolade! Sheila Gulati Aaron Fleishman Phil Sorgen Charles Lamanna Muhammad Alam Ramasree Pitla Todd P. Michaud Henry Ellender Jonathan Owens Felix Haeser Florin Rotar Franck Greverie Alok Kapur Hayete Gallot Michael Park #agenticAI #BusinessOutcomes #ProcessIntelligence https://lnkd.in/gH7qckbgPhil Sorgen reposted this🌍 What does it take to challenge the process intelligence industry, and win such a recognition from Forrester? We’re proud to share that KYP.ai has been named a Strong Performer in the Forrester Wave™: Process Intelligence Software, Q3 2025 report. In just 5 years, we’ve moved from ambitious challenger to one of the top 15 global providers of Process Intelligence. Being recognized as a Strong Performer is a clear indicator of our trajectory and a consequence of our ambition. Highlights from Forrester’s evaluation: → one of only two (!) providers with above-average customer feedback → #3 ranking in strategy dimension across all 15 vendors → analytics capabilities regarded state of the art Plus a standout recommendation: “KYP.ai is best suited to users with use cases like challenging AI and automation investments and increasing process effectiveness.” Dr. Adam Bujak, CEO of KYP.ai commented: "This milestone isn’t just about recognition. It’s an independent validation of our mission: equipping enterprises with AI-driven intelligence that transforms processes, technology, and people for measurable impact. We’re deeply grateful to our customers, partners, investors, and our exceptional team who made this moment possible. This is only the beginning." #KYPai #ProcessIntelligence #AgenticAI #DigitalTransformation #ForresterWave
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Phil Sorgen reposted thisPhil Sorgen reposted thisCongratulations to TrustCloud on announcing a new $15M funding round! With strategic investors and partners ServiceNow and Cisco, TrustCloud will continue to deliver AI-native security assurance to enterprise Chief Information Security Officers and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) leaders. Alongside Presidio Ventures and OpenView, Tola is excited to continue backing Sravish Sridhar and the entire TrustCloud team. We’re excited about their vision to modernize security and transform GRC into an enabler of the business, reducing financial liability and accelerating revenue. Read the full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/giB52vTJTrustCloud funding - Raised $15M, led by ServiceNow, with participation from Cisco Investments.TrustCloud funding - Raised $15M, led by ServiceNow, with participation from Cisco Investments.
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Welcome to the Tola team Vahé Torossian! It is great to be working together again!
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Phil Sorgen liked thisPhil Sorgen liked thisAt Tola Capital, we practice an ethos of partnership in our community called Magnet 🧲 We recently partnered with Microsoft for Startups in NYC and two early-stage investors, Antler and Lorimer Ventures, to host dozens of startups for a Lunar New Year seasonal brunch. The theme of the gathering was luck. You never know whom you’ll bump into on the street, in the elevator, or at a community event. You might reconnect with someone you haven’t seen in years, or you might meet a new collaborator with whom you’ll build something over the next quarter! When luck shows up in your startup journey, lean into it. The relationships you develop intentionally will compound as you scale.
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Phil Sorgen liked thisPhil Sorgen liked thisMeet David Tepper (Co-founder and CEO of Pay-i), an expert in AI spend and value management. He founded Pay-i two years ago after a career at Microsoft, where he served as a Principal Architect in the Cloud and AI division. There, he designed the internal platforms and architectures powering Microsoft’s GenAI adoption, along with systems later leveraged by Azure Copilot. David was named the winner of GeekWire’s “Agents of Transformation” rapid-fire pitch competition, judged by @Bryan Hale (Anthos Capital), Yifan Zhang (AI2 Incubator), and T. A. McCann (Pioneer Square Labs). Read about the recent competition here: https://lnkd.in/eHUuD7a3 A leader at the intersection of AI, infrastructure, and business value—David is helping define how organizations understand and optimize their AI investments. Pay-i is a seed-stage startup working with enterprises spending at least $500,000 on AI annually. Learn more about Pay-i here: https://lnkd.in/eg_kipWr 📸(GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
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Phil Sorgen liked thisPhil Sorgen liked thisThis International Women’s Day, I’m celebrating the incredible women who have shaped my career —teammates, mentors, peers, and leaders who challenged me, supported me, and opened doors. Kimberly Storin Laetitia Farrugia Aparna Bawa Kimberly McGarry, CPA (active)Laurie Osumi Tawni Williams Kristy Mickey In the spirit of #GiveToGain, I pledge — today and going forward — to actively give my support and sponsorship to the women around me. When we invest in each other, we all rise. #GiveToGain, #IWD2026 Zoom #pledge1 #womenwholead #nasdaq https://lnkd.in/gySMqxVM
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Phil Sorgen liked thisYour best sales reps — executing with AI. Impressive launch from the Nooks team. Nooks AI Sequencing takes outbound workflows to a new level — bringing list building, account research, and email personalization into one intelligent workspace. The results speak for themselves: better buying signals, smarter outreach, and reps who really know their prospects. If you’ve ever wished your sales tech stack could think as strategically as your best reps — this is worth a look.Phil Sorgen liked thisI’m excited to announce our biggest product launch ever (and my first-ever acting gig) Since releasing our AI Dialer 3 years ago, we’ve helped thousands of the world’s best sales teams generate billions in pipeline and become the go-to solution for calling Today we’re launching 𝐍𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐒𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 We’ve extended the magical experience of the dialer across every outbound workflow: from building lists to researching accounts and writing emails Our AI Sequencing, Dialer, Signals, and Coaching now form what we call the Nooks Agent Workspace — a unified system for reps to run intelligent, multi-channel outbound Our own sales team has always been strong on the phone, but since we switched off Outreach last year to Nooks AI Sequencing, we’ve doubled pipeline generated from emails via better buying signals, account research, and personalization The AI email drafts are so good, our SDRs get responses from sales leaders every day complimenting how thoughtful and well-researched they are Over 100+ teams have made the switch and have seen similar results If you’re frustrated with your current stack, we can help make sure you're leveraging the full capabilities of frontier AI And I’m incredibly excited that we’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible We already have a sizable waitlist. Comment “Nooks Sequencing” and we’ll fast-track you for a demo 💜
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Phil Sorgen liked thisPhil Sorgen liked thisOur community called Magnet 🧲 continues to gather ambitious startup founders and engineering leaders who exchange thoughtful ideas and feedback in Seattle. Check out this article in GeekWire’s "Agents of Transformation" series: https://lnkd.in/gMz_2Fe5. The piece recaps the panel conversation that took place at Nooks’ “When Agents Go Vertical” event in Pioneer Square. Tola portfolio company leaders shared insights on vertical AI agents. AI outcomes will emerge from combining infrastructure, LLMs, domain-specific data, workflows, and context. “One of the special parts of a vertical agent is that you can really go deep into one domain,” Pulumi CEO, Joe Duffy said. “We’ve injected them (AI Agents) into almost every part of the stack,” said Nooks co-founder and CTO Nikhil Cheerla, when describing Nooks’ new unified workspace product for revenue teams. Thank you, Sharbani R. (Arm), for joining this panel. Sharbani posed a question around context and behavior when working with agents: “What did you do this week that you were able to achieve — but better — because you had an agent helping you? How are you making higher and higher judgment calls?” And, thank you, Taylor Soper, for writing this piece. Wishing you the best with your new role at AI2 Incubator!
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Phil Sorgen liked thisPhil Sorgen liked thisAfter 35+ incredible years in the technology industry, I’m officially retiring. This milestone comes with deep gratitude and reflection. My journey began co-founding my own business, Team Technology, which sparked a path that would grow into a lifelong career in building partnerships, creating opportunities, and serving others through technology. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some of the most respected organizations in our industry—including Microsoft, Google, Blackpearl Group, Insight, TD SYNNEX, SHI, WWT, TeKnowledge, and many others. Together, we built partnerships, launched initiatives, and created meaningful impact that I will always be proud of. But when I look back, it’s not just the work that stands out—it’s the people. Relationships have always been at the center of everything I do. Many of you started as colleagues or partners and became lifelong friends. That is what I will carry with me most. Throughout my career, my personal brand has been simple and intentional: Serve Others. Give Generously. Bring Can-Do. That mindset shaped how I led, how I partnered, and how I showed up every day. And while I may be stepping away from my corporate role, that purpose is not retiring. In this next chapter, I will be focusing on: Investing in family, relationships, and opportunities to give back Continuing my mentorship and ministry of helping people find meaningful work Writing a book (more to come on that) I have always been intentional in how I live and lead—and that will remain unchanged in retirement. To everyone who has been part of this journey—thank you. Your trust, partnership, and friendship have meant more than I can fully express. The work may be changing, but the mission continues. With gratitude, Cherryl
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Phil Sorgen liked thisPhil Sorgen liked thisWhen I was at Microsoft, I was told that Bill Gates had a famous line he'd sometimes use in meetings: "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." I heard this same line from other executives as well - it was obvious that this had become a part of the culture. Imagine presenting to the richest guy in the world and hearing that? It would cause most people to crumble and retreat. But here's what most people missed. It was a test. Gates wanted to know if you'd actually done your homework. Did you understand the real nature of the problem, or were you skating on the surface? I watched people respond to that moment in two very different ways. Some folded up into a little ball, while others came back with a thoughtful, substantive answer that revealed genuine depth. Over the years, working with leaders at Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company, and in government, I built two lists. Things to emulate. And things to absolutely not emulate. Both lists are equally valuable. Here is what I took away: 1. Great leaders pressure-test your preparation. Bill Gates and other executives (in most cases) weren’t being cruel for sport. Most of the time they were filtering for people who truly understood the problem versus people who were winging it. If you can't defend your position under fire, you probably haven't gone deep enough. 2. Your response under pressure is the real presentation. The slides don't matter when someone challenges your core thesis. What matters is whether you can engage substantively in that moment. 3. Leadership style is contagious, whether you want it to be or not. Other leaders at Microsoft started emulating that same line. Sometimes, without knowing why he used it in the first place. So if you lead a team, understand that people around you will copy your behavior. The good and the bad. Choose carefully. 4. Build both lists deliberately. Every leader you work for will leave you with impressions. The mistake is only paying attention to what you admire. The "don't do this" lessons are just as important. I’ve chosen not to use the phrase “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”, because I think a better way of getting to the same point is to ask “what would the arguments against this or an opposite point of view look like?” This tells me a lot about how thoroughly a point of view has been thought through. I've been fortunate to work under some of the most well-known leaders in technology. Not one of them was perfect. But every single one of them taught me something I still carry today. The question worth asking yourself: what's on your “do list” and what’s on your "don't" list, and are you honest enough to keep adding to both?
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Phil Sorgen liked thisPhil Sorgen liked thisIt was a huge honour recently to receive my Damehood (DBE) from His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle for services to Business, Technology and Leadership. It was a very special day to share with my family, my husband and my amazing teenage sons, where I think I even managed to be cool just for a few moments! Most poignantly, I was there with my 84 year Mum, who has been a constant inspiration to me in my life and career. She finished her nursing career as Head of Intensive Care for NHS Royal Free Hospital, and always showed me what impact and hard work looked like. My Dad sadly passed away almost three years ago. He was always pushing me to be the best I could be and would have been so proud to share this day. This honour is very much a toast to both of them - for everything they gave and in helping shape who I am today. Before the individual awards were given, we were brought together as a group - 20 extraordinary women from across the UK, all being recognised with honours for their work, passion, impact and contributions. It was a special moment. Finally, a big thank you to Microsoft for being the amazing company that it is and the many leaders and sponsors and that have played important roles in my career. I have been blessed with so many supporters along the way and this honour is a thank you to all of them.
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