When Steve Herrod joined Juxtapose in early 2023 to lead our efforts accelerating Infrastructure Software builds, we were excited to bring a sharper focus to our work building companies that would break through the noise and become defining infrastructure for the technology sector and beyond. Like the rest of the world, we saw huge potential in building with and for Gen AI use cases. Knowing we were collectively in the early innings of figuring out not only how AI would be used, but how it would be integrated into existing enterprise systems, we focused on co-creating a company that would enable a productive and impactful transition for employees using AI in the workplace.
Earlier this year we announced the start of Project Lanai. Lanai Software (still operating in preview) is an all-in-one AI empowerment platform that helps businesses discover, protect, and accelerate their employees’ use of Gen AI models and applications. Built for business leaders, by business leaders, Lanai is based on the premise that companies need to lean into lots of different Gen AI services to stay competitive - but can only gain a durable advantage if they can see clearly how employees are interacting with Gen AI, protect against the bad stuff, and help accelerate the positive use cases. Lanai is built for CIOs, CISOs, AI Counsels, and organizations who need that visibility, security, support and want to collaborate in trusting partnership with their employees.
While we were researching, testing, and iterating on Lanai’s core components, we were also searching for a CEO with the experience and vision to dream big and build Lanai into the Gen AI system of record for enterprise companies. Today, we are thrilled to share that we are partnering with longtime tech leader and veteran operator Lexi Reese to do just that.
Lexi has a storied history as entrepreneur and scaled operator. Prior to Lanai, she served an over six-year tenure as Chief Operating Officer of HR platform Gusto, and has led teams across large-scale, global SMBs and enterprises like American Express, Google, and General Catalyst.
At Gusto, Lexi drove team growth from fewer than one hundred to more than 1,500 employees, and helped grow the customer base from 10,000 to 200,000 small and medium sized businesses. During Lexi’s tenure, Gusto’s ARR grew from $10MM to approaching $300MM, and Gusto expanded ambitiously into new categories, including insurance and financial services. Prior to Gusto, Lexi led Google’s Global P&L as VP of Programmatic Advertising. She joined Google to start the East Coast AdWords team, where she ended up spending eight years on the general management track; during her tenure, Lexi oversaw growth of the business from $150M to billions of dollars globally, with a customer set spanning small, medium, and large advertisers, publishers, and enterprises. While at Google, she managed teams of upwards of a thousand people across sales, marketing, operations, product marketing and operations, and analytics.
Between her time at Gusto and leading Lanai, Lexi was a senior Executive in Residence at General Catalyst focused on the “Future of Work.” During her time at GC, she focused on developing a point of view on how work and labor markets were evolving in the context of AI, making investment and board-level recommendations with the GC partnership, and advising high-growth companies. She also ran as the only tech candidate during the most recent United States Senate race in California with a campaign focused on ending financial insecurity and improving quality of life for everyone.
Each of Lexi’s experiences feed directly into her passion for Lanai. Under her leadership, we are excited to see Lanai go beyond the AI hype and empower enterprise employees around the world to use AI to improve efficiency, scale, and drive direct business value.
From all of us at Juxtapose, welcome Lexi!
