Laurence Leong
Palo Alto, California, United States
7K followers
500+ connections
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7K followers
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Laurence Leong reposted thisLaurence Leong reposted thisToday, we’re excited to announce the general availability of Okta for AI Agents. Okta for AI Agents is the natural extension of Okta’s leading platform for securing identity, which today expands to cover human, non-human, and now also agentic identities. We’ve built this product with input from hundreds of the world’s leading companies. It implements our blueprint for the secure agentic enterprise, helping customers answer three fundamental questions: - Where are my agents? - What can they connect to? - What can they do? Okta provides the single control plane for AI agent identities, giving customers centralized visibility into where agents exist, governance over what they can access, and consistent control over what they are allowed to do. And since Okta is vendor-neutral and supporting all platforms and over 8,000 integrations, our customers can secure AI agents wherever they are built or run. Our customers’ feedback shaped this innovation, and their deployments are already proving the value. Early adopters like @Yahoo and @Ramp are showing that the path forward isn't about slowing down—it's about securing identity to securely scale the agentic workforce https://bit.ly/4uiV5M2
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Laurence Leong shared thisWho's going to Gainsight #Pulse2026? Honored to be speaking at the event, along with my rockstar colleagues Melissa Allen and Alana Stoltzfus, on AI in CS, and on scaling CS! Hope to see you there, and I'm looking forward to chatting on all things CS, comparing notes, and learning from the CS community. Tickets are limited, so use the code SPEAKER35 for 35% off.
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Laurence Leong shared thisI’ve had the pleasure of working with Kevin, and I can confidently say he brings a strong mix of customer focus, technical fluency, and commercial mindset to his work. He is thoughtful, proactive, and highly credible with customers. Any team looking for a Customer Success professional who can drive adoption, build relationships, and create real business impact would be lucky to have him.Laurence Leong shared thisCurrently looking for new opportunities within Customer Success and SaaS! I have been in the Customer Success and SaaS ecosystem with 7 years of experience and a proven track record supporting industry leaders like Okta, Google, and Cisco. I have mastered the art of driving product adoption and commercial growth at scale. As a Customer Success Manager for Okta, I helped pioneer AI-driven sentiment analysis and automated playbooks that significantly boosted MFA and Adaptive SSO adoption by 35% growth quarter over quarter. My ability to blend technical expertise—holding an Okta Certified Professional Certification and Google Cloud Sales Certifications—with a strategic mindset make me an invaluable asset for any high-growth organization. Beyond my technical acumen, I bring deep experience in lifecycle management and revenue generation. From managing a $4 million quarterly sales pipeline for Google Cloud partners to overseeing complex medical infrastructure sales and logistics for Siemens- I consistently exceed targets and strengthen C-level relationships. My background as a Senior Lifecycle Manager at Cisco, where I managed over 400 high-value federal and enterprise accounts, highlights a rare ability to navigate complex security concerns while ensuring long-term client satisfaction.
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Laurence Leong shared thisI enjoyed our recent panel "How to Use AI in CS Without Killing Trust" hosted by Gemma Cipriani-Espineira of CS Angel where I was joined by Tori Jeffcoat, Chad Horenfeldt 📕and Anika Zubair The consensus is clear: AI must augment human CSMs, not replace them. Other key takeaways: - Reality Check: Only 14% of CS teams use AI agents, due primarily to operational hurdles like ensuring data integrity ("garbage in, garbage out") and internal expertise gaps. - Core Applications: AI provides value by acting as a CSM Co-Pilot (risk analysis), an AI Support Agent, and delivering personalized insights like Okta's "Value Snapshots". - Trust Imperative: Leaders must test internally first and be transparent with customers, always providing a human "off-ramp". AI is a tool requiring constant "Gardener" maintenance. - The Goal: Use AI for maximum scale and administration, enabling humans to focus on building relationships and strategic outcomes. Links to a blog post and Youtube recording are below. https://lnkd.in/gH95sJUu https://lnkd.in/gJB7qXY2
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Laurence Leong shared thisI'm often asked by customers, "What would you do if you were in my shoes?" My response is straightforward: I *am* in your shoes. As both an employee and a user of Okta, I prioritize securing my identity and protecting my team's resources. In our journey toward becoming an agentic enterprise, Okta and I encounter the same challenges as our customers: how to become a *secure* agentic enterprise. For insights on how Okta secures our own AI usage internally, check out this informative blog post: https://lnkd.in/g65KqviC
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Laurence Leong shared thisAI is quickly changing CS. Teams are using AI to automate onboarding, analyze customer data, and help CSMs work faster. But there is a challenge. CS is built on trust. When companies introduce AI without being clear about how it works, customers can lose confidence. In this pay it forward webinar, Anika Zubair, Chad Theule and I will be sharing: ❓ How companies can use AI while protecting customer trust 🛠 Real examples of where AI helps the customer experience and where it can create problems 🔄 How to stay transparent and keep humans in the loop Thank you to our sponsors at Gainsight for helping us pay it forward! 👉 Register Now (see comments)
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Laurence Leong reposted thisLaurence Leong reposted thisThe blueprint for the secure agentic enterprise is here. And it's powered by Okta for AI Agents. 👇 Discover every agent. Manage every identity. All in one place. Explore how #OktaSecuresAI: https://bit.ly/3PGzRsq
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Laurence Leong shared thisReposting for reach to my network. I’ve been privileged to work with Jon and would gladly do so again. If anyone is looking for an amazing CS or Renewals Manager, I highly recommend Jon. Reach out to Jon directly or contact me for more information.Laurence Leong shared this📣 I’m exploring new opportunities. I’m putting this out to my network as I start the search for my next role. Areas I’m especially interested in: • Manager, Customer Success • Manager, Renewals • Sales Manager • Manager, Sales Development I’m also open to other opportunities where I can help build strong teams, drive revenue growth, and create great customer outcomes. If you know of a team doing great things, I’d love to connect. And if someone comes to mind, feel free to tag them or send me a message. #OpenToWork #SalesLeadership #CustomerSuccess #Leadership #SaaS
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Laurence Leong shared thisYesterday a senior identity architect from one of our customers joined our company meeting. They talked about: - their race to become an agentic enterprise - but how to do so in a secure way - managing AI security not with a series of one-off tools but converging into their existing security infrastructure - the importance of cross-app access and standardization across the myriad of applications, MCP servers, LLMs etc This is why at Okta, we're doubling down on "Okta Secures AI". Learn more next week at #OktaShowcase!Laurence Leong shared thisNext week, Okta CEO and Co-Founder Todd McKinnon and CMO Shannon Sullivan Duffy will join John Roese, Dell Technologies' Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief AI Officer, on the #OktaShowcase stage to see how we're tackling the three questions every enterprise must ask 👇 📍 Where are my agents? 🔌 What can they connect to? 🛠️ What can they actually do? Join us live: https://bit.ly/4kHRinv #OktaSecuresAI
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Laurence Leong liked thisLaurence Leong liked thisWow—what an absolutely incredible Q1 for the Okta Commercial (CML) org!🚀 The energy over the last few days has been electric. More than just the numbers, I’m struck by our team's fierce focus on bringing Identity to this new world and the radical collaboration we saw across the entire ecosystem. To every cross-functional partner who stood in the trenches with us to clear the path for our customers—thank you. We operate as one team and this win belongs to all of us. A major highlight of this week was seeing our culture in action through our WIN (Women in) CML panels in Chicago and San Francisco! 🌟 On Tuesday, our WIN team came together for two powerful in-person sessions. Some of our incredible female leaders— myself, Leigh Malone, Ieva Sasnauskaite , Olivia Nelson, Victoria Roazzi , Sarah Bagaman, Jennifer Dema ,and Melissa Matos, MBA shared candid insights on their career journeys, offered thoughtful advice, and empowered both rooms to show up as our best selves personally and professionally. A huge thank you to Lauren O'Brien for her incredible energy in bringing these panels to life. WIN CML is dedicated to the growth of our people, and we are committed to hosting a wide variety of future events designed for everyone. Our goal is to create even more inclusive spaces for open dialogue and meaningful conversations that span the entire organization. As we wrap up Q1, our eyes remain fixed on our customers' success. A World-Class Sales team isn’t just closing deals; we are helping our customers solve their biggest security challenges and navigate a complex digital landscape with confidence. This foundation is built on trust, and we’re ready to carry that momentum into the rest of the year. Onwards! 🥂 #Okta #SalesLeadership #WomenInSales #WorldClass #CustomerSuccess #IdentitySecurity #GrowthMindset
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Laurence Leong liked thisLaurence Leong liked thisFour years ago, I started pitching Braindate for Pulse. Four years of "maybe next year." This year? It's happening. 🎉 🧠 Braindates are 45-minute, small-group conversations you host or join based on shared interests and real challenges — not another panel you watch from a seat, but a conversation you're actually in. Think about the talk you wish you could have with your peers: → A challenge you're navigating right now → A playbook that's working for your team → A question you'd love to unpack with people who get it That's Braindate. And it's coming to Pulse, May 27–28 in Las Vegas. We're building this into the experience because the hallway conversations are often the best part of any conference. Braindate just makes them intentional. Register at gainsightpulse.com/us — and start thinking about what conversation you'd want to have. #Pulse2026 #CustomerSuccess #Braindate
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Laurence Leong liked thisLaurence Leong liked thisBREAKING: Okta for AI Agents launch + the Okta turnaround story ($850M in operating losses to $760M+ in operating income). Jon Addison (Chief Revenue Officer at Okta) joins GTMnow to share the launch that is GA today and go deep on the GTM transformation behind the tremendous growth. Okta now has hundreds of millions in free cash flow and a clear path from the current $3 billion to $5 billion in revenue 📈 Don't miss Okta’s partner-first sales motion in the interview: it accounted for 95% of their top 100 deals. Key takeaways: 1️⃣ The agent governance gap is the biggest enterprise security blind spot of 2026. 90%+ of Okta's customers are live with AI agents, but only 10% are confident in securing them. Cloud pivot dynamics, compressed from years to months. 2️⃣ Specialization beats generalist coverage on a broad, technical portfolio. Okta restructured GTM around four specialist motions: install base, new logo, Auth0 (B2C), and the Okta platform. One of the top decisions behind the turnaround. 3️⃣ Partner-first is a multi-year cultural commitment, not a comp plan tweak. 95% of Okta's top 100 deals last fiscal year were partner-led. The unlock: aligned incentives, frictionless transaction routes, and treating partner success as a leading indicator. 4️⃣ Customers engage 7+ partners before a major cybersecurity decision. That's the surface area for an enterprise cyber bet. It reframes F1 sponsorships, ABM, global SIs, and partner enablement as one ecosystem strategy. No seven advisors recommending you, no deal. 5️⃣ New products drove 30% of Q4 revenue and 40% higher ACVs on those deals. Governance, security, and PAM are breaking through as enterprises consolidate away from point solutions. AI agents are the forcing function reopening that conversation. 6️⃣ AI doesn't need to reduce sales headcount, rather it redirects skill investment. Jon isn't cutting reps. He's automating repetitive tasks so sellers spend more time on relationships and customer stories. Growth still requires reps, just with a different skill stack (they're actually hiring - check out their careers page!). 7️⃣ Internal AI adoption is bottom-up first, then industrialized top-down. Okta's field adopted AI tools bottom-up. Jon is now industrializing through governance, central investment, and a new methodology called Apex. Field validates, central scales. 8️⃣ Disruption follows a predictable cycle: complexity, consolidation, governance, growth. Jon's seen this with the internet and cloud: AI is the third. SaaS isn't dying, it's consolidating around platforms built for complexity. Okta's bet: 20,000 customers, neutral platform, full coverage across human, non-human, and agent identities. -- 💚 Thank you to our incredible sponsors for supporting the podcast: - Reevo - the vertically integrated Revenue Operating System. - .TECH Domains - .tech domains for those building in the tech space. 💡 GTMnow shares how the best in tech build, scale and invest.
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Laurence Leong liked thisLaurence Leong liked thisEveryone talks about the start and the finish. The idea. The launch. The fundraise. The IPO. But most of building a company lives in the middle. The long stretches where the signal is messy. The hypothesis — about a product, a channel, a leader — isn’t proven yet. Progress is uneven. No headlines. No dopamine hits. Just the work. And plenty of uncertainty. That’s the moment to reframe things. To fall in love with the work itself. Talking to customers. Fixing what’s broken. Keeping the team moving forward. It’s not glamorous. The outside world may not notice. But your team will. And it’s where almost all the value gets created. The middle isn’t the part you survive. It’s the part that matters.
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Laurence Leong liked thisI love this team! I was just 29 years old when we started, so in our 31st year, talking about “Altos 4.0,” it’s a bit surreal to realize that I’ve spent most of my life in one job. But it’s not love of the work that keeps me going. It’s the people - the Altos team, the entreprensures who put their trust in us as partners, and our investors who bet on 3 youngsters with no track record (and even a bad track record after the Dotcom crash). As Buffett says, it’s good to have people in your life that you do not want to let down. Somewhere along the way, a fox that changed jobs every year or two, turned into a hedgehog.Laurence Leong liked thisIt's time for the last post in our series celebrating the 30th anniversary of Altos Ventures and sharing highlights from our Annual Meeting. Today we get to recognize our incredible Altos Ventures team. Our colleagues from around the globe bring their experience and perspectives every day to serve our founders, companies, and investors. They embody our values of Shared Ownership, Drive ("더더더”), and playing the Infinite Game. At Altos, we believe deeply in the power of team. We do our best work when we come together to build something meaningful (and have fun along the way). Thirty years in, we know we're just getting started, with many decades ahead. We’re grateful to be building together, and look forward to co-creating the next 30 years of Altos Ventures!
Experience & Education
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CS Angel
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Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Treasurer
Palo Alto High School Robotics Booster Club
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Race coordinator and club member
Alto Velo Bicycle Racing Club
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Publications
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Rethinking Customer Success: How Digital Strategies Are Driving Growth and Expansion
Matik Digital + CS Summit
See publicationPanel discussion with Rod Cherkas, Jeannine Crispino, Maranda Dziekonski, Patrice Sawchuk
Customer Success leaders are under growing pressure to not just retain customers but drive expansion and revenue growth. AI, automation, and digital engagement are making this shift possible, helping teams scale efficiently while uncovering new opportunities. In this panel, CS executives will share how they’re using technology and data to personalize customer experiences, retain customers…Panel discussion with Rod Cherkas, Jeannine Crispino, Maranda Dziekonski, Patrice Sawchuk
Customer Success leaders are under growing pressure to not just retain customers but drive expansion and revenue growth. AI, automation, and digital engagement are making this shift possible, helping teams scale efficiently while uncovering new opportunities. In this panel, CS executives will share how they’re using technology and data to personalize customer experiences, retain customers cost-effectively, identify expansion potential, and demonstrate CS’s impact on revenue. Whether you’re refining your digital approach or scaling your team’s influence, you’ll walk away with actionable strategies to drive growth and long-term success. -
Break away from the herd: How smart brands are using AI
See publicationIf you are truly looking to break away from the herd and into the lead, your CRM and automated marketing platform will need to include AI and cognitive APIs. With AI, the dream can move beyond customer segments and reach down to the individual level by providing the power and speed to make sense of the enormous amount of data out there and surface true insights allowing for individual action, at scale. As the hot new brand coach, AI can lead the way to enhance the human-to-human connection for…
If you are truly looking to break away from the herd and into the lead, your CRM and automated marketing platform will need to include AI and cognitive APIs. With AI, the dream can move beyond customer segments and reach down to the individual level by providing the power and speed to make sense of the enormous amount of data out there and surface true insights allowing for individual action, at scale. As the hot new brand coach, AI can lead the way to enhance the human-to-human connection for your brand by understanding the experiences your customers want.
To learn more about how you can truly supercharge your brand’s marketing and customer engagement efforts, download the IBM and SugarCRM white paper: “Becoming a Brilliant Brand Conversationalist.” at http://bit.ly/2m5N7rC -
10 Key Marketing Trends for 2017
IBM
See publicationLeading organizations will add operationalization and cognition to customer journey mapping.
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5 Things to Look For When Integrating Digital Marketing and CRM
IBM Think Marketing
See publicationIntegration of digital marketing / marketing automation and CRM
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How Digital Transformation Can Be Driven by CRM
CIO Magazine Australia
See publicationThe role of CRM in Digital Transformation
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SugarCRM Partners with Wipro to Deploy CRM Systems for Global Companies
Destination CRM / CRM Magazine
See publicationSugarCRM continued its expansion upmarket this week by forming a strategic partnership with Wipro, an information technology, consulting, and business process services company. According to Laurence Leong, SugarCRM's senior director of strategic alliances, the coupling further strengthens SugarCRM's "ability to service and reach customers, particularly in the enterprise space, globally."
Under the partnership, Wipro is developing a SugarCRM practice within Wipro's CRM service line, as…SugarCRM continued its expansion upmarket this week by forming a strategic partnership with Wipro, an information technology, consulting, and business process services company. According to Laurence Leong, SugarCRM's senior director of strategic alliances, the coupling further strengthens SugarCRM's "ability to service and reach customers, particularly in the enterprise space, globally."
Under the partnership, Wipro is developing a SugarCRM practice within Wipro's CRM service line, as well as constructing a Center of Excellence (COE) that will enable SugarCRM-trained and certified employees to tend to customer needs worldwide. -
SugarCRM Wins IBM Beacon Award
SugarCRM
See publicationSugarCRM wins IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Commerce Solution
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New IBM Marketing Cloud for SugarCRM provides for extraordinary customer experiences across sales, marketing, services and across human and digital touchpoints
SugarCRM
See publicationIBM Marketing Cloud and SugarCRM empower the delivery of exceptional experiences for customers across the buyer journey by leveraging customer data, providing analytical insights and automating relevant cross-channel interactions.
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SugarCRM blog
SugarCRM
How do marketing automation and sales automation systems come together, both today and in the future? What is the difference between CRM, marketing automation, sales automation, and customer experience management?
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IBM Smarter Commerce blog
IBM
See publicationLearn how SugarCRM and IBM are helping organizations get faster campaign-to-cash times, more efficient marketing and sales processes, and higher customer satisfaction.
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