Meet the leaders shaping the future of ecommerce

Guru Hariharan

Chief Executive Officer, CommerceIQ

Guru is a seasoned Technology and Business leader with over 15 years of experience in the ecommerce industry. Prior to founding the company in 2012, Guru spent five plus years at Amazon building out automated vendor management, supply chain and AI based selling coach for 3P sellers. Guru also held the role of General Manager of the Marketplace Experience at eBay, where he led the global launch of eBay’s “Fast N’ Free” shipping and the Global Returns programs. Guru has a Masters with a focus on Machine Learning from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Nikitas Koutoupes

Managing Director, Insight Partners

Nikitas Koutoupes is a Managing Director at Insight Partners who joined the firm in 2001. He focuses on investments in application software, especially in education technology and sales & marketing automation. He currently works with Campaign Monitor, Conga, Copado, Ensighten, Epignosis, Illuminate Education, ILUMNO, Nearpod, OwnBackup, SpaceTime Games, and Versatile.

Nikitas’ prior investments at Insight include CloudCraze (acquired by Salesforce), Virgin Pulse (acquired by Marlin Equity), Capella University (IPO, NASDAQ: CPLA), Exact Target (IPO, NYSE: ET, acquired by Salesforce), eVestment (acquired by Nasdaq), Football Fanatics (acquired by GSI Commerce), Frontline (acquired by Thoma Bravo), Greenfield Online (IPO, acquired by Microsoft), Platespin (acquired by Novell), and Realink (acquired by Zaio Corp). He was named to the AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100. For the first decade of his tenure at Insight, Nikitas co-managed Insight Onsite, the firm’s team of dedicated operations and strategy experts.

Prior to Insight, Nikitas co-founded and was the Chief Financial Officer of CTSpace, a software company which became part of Insight’s portfolio and was subsequently acquired by the McLaren Software. He started his career with McKinsey & Company, where he worked on strategy, turnaround, M&A, and corporate finance engagements. He also contributed to a major research initiative entitled “The War For Talent.” Nikitas co-authored a chapter titled “Customer Lifetime Value: Methodology and Applications for Operating Partners,” in “The Operating Partner in Private Equity,” published by Private Equity International.

Nikitas received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He earned a BA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, graduating summa cum laude. Nikitas is fluent in Greek and speaks conversational French. He is a persistent runner and cyclist, and has a keen interest in the philosophy of physics.

Nikitas and his wife, Zineb Guessous, live in Manhattan, learning to play zone defense with their three children.

Karan Mehandru

General Partner, Madrona Ventures

Canadian-Indian-American and father of three, Karan is a seasoned go-to-market-executive-turned-B2B-investor who fiercely advocates for his CEOs and supports both their professional and personal development by taking a thematic approach to investing. He is excited by B2B companies that capitalize on secular trends like consumerization of the enterprise, Software-as-a-Service, AI/ML, and big data. Karan was an early investor in CommerceIQ, and has been on the board since June 2014.

Scott Jacobson

Managing Director, Madrona Ventures

Prior to joining Madrona, Scott worked at Amazon.com, where he held senior product and business management positions in the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Marketplace groups. He led several key initiatives, including the international rollout of Amazon’s Merchants@ platform. Earlier in his career, Scott was a Senior Consultant in Accenture’s strategy consulting practice, where he worked with clients in enterprise software, retail, and energy sectors. Scott graduated cum laude from Northwestern University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics. He received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Scott was an early investor in CommerceIQ, and has been on the board since June 2014.

Jason Pressman

Managing Director, Shasta Ventures

Jason is a Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, overseeing an early-stage venture capital firm managing over $1 billion. His active investments span enterprise cloud computing, mobility, commerce, open source software, SaaS, and social networks. Jason has spearheaded notable investments, including Adometry (acquired by Google), Demdex (acquired by Adobe), Makara (acquired by RedHat), Steelbrick (acquired by Salesforce), and StrongLoop (acquired by IBM). Currently, he serves on the Boards of CloudPassage, Glint, Leanplum, Nextdoor, Smule, and Zuora.

Prior to joining Shasta, Jason held the position of Vice President of Strategy and Operations at Walmart.com for five years. His impactful tenure contributed to growing the business from zero to substantial revenue, establishing Walmart.com as one of the largest online retailers. This experience equipped him with insights into thoughtfully scaling fast-growing businesses and leveraging software for operational enhancements. Jason initiated his career as an investment banker at Alex.Brown.

He holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. degree in Finance from the University of Maryland. Beyond his professional pursuits, Jason is an avid scuba diver and a dedicated supporter of shark conservation.