I did a startup in 1998 by applying AI to the lead generation and qualification problem. It was early. The data was not yet rich enough. Now, the data is there. Can the problem finally be solved at the right level of sophistication? Sramana Mitra: Let's go to the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born and raised? Jonathan Spier: I'm a California guy raised in San Diego. I came up here to go to school at Berkeley. I was never able to escape again. Sramana Mitra: What did you do after Berkeley? Jonathan Spier: I went briefly into consulting and then I landed at a company called Ariba. I was the number 85 employee. Within a few years, we were 3,500 people. It was a fun place to be. Sramana Mitra: We have the Ariba case study. Keith Krach was on the series. Jonathan Spier: He was a great leader. That whole team was amazing. I was the youngest person they hired. It was a really senior team they had by the time I joined. I got pretty much hooked on growth