Spenser Skates, Founder & CEO, Amplitude

Carolyn, I’m so excited—today we’ve got Spencer Skates, cofounder and CEO of Amplitude. Before we get to the company, where did you grow up?

Cambridge, near Central Square, public schools, discount shops and grit. My parents were Harvard‑affiliated statisticians working on early cancer detection, which makes my path into data extra funny in hindsight.

You stayed on the red line and went to MIT. What was that like?

I didn’t plan on MIT—I thought it was only hardcore nerds—but it was the best school I got into. There’s an East Campus hacker culture and a more typical West Campus; I fit West, graduated in 2010, and met my cofounder Curtis in our dorm over video games.

How did Silicon Valley enter the picture?

Through MIT’s Battlecode I met Drew and Arash from Dropbox, read PG’s essays, and fell down the startup rabbit hole. I detoured to finance in Chicago, recruited friends nights and weekends, navigated my Chinese mom’s comparison Olympics, and finally teamed up with Curtis after his year at Google—early projects included an alumni map before we jumped to voice with Sonalite and got into YC Winter 2012 even as PB told us the idea would likely fail.

Quick Battlecode detour and then Sonalite—why voice?

Battlecode is a three‑week January sprint that feels like building a startup—no textbook, just iterate to win. For Sonalite we chased a frontier tech bet; Android let us listen in the background, so I did a hands‑free demo and the room lit up, clap and all, with a little classic “claque” help that made for a great show.

You had downloads and a big demo—what broke and what clicked?

Retention was weak; it was a cool try‑once moment. We built our own analytics to see if first‑try accuracy drove long‑term use—it did—and learned the core tech was out of our control. That insight became the seed for Amplitude.

Was iPhone a non‑starter for always‑listening voice?

Yes—Android could run in the background, iOS did not allow it, which shaped what was possible. On analytics, off‑the‑shelf tools could not answer real retention questions, so we talked to dozens of teams, built, begged for usage for a year, and then a mobile slots studio asked the magic question: how much does it cost?

How did you price that first deal?

I jumped from fifty to one thousand dollars a month thanks to patio11’s advice, and the buyer said it was cheap; usage and pricing grew from there. Many early fans were ex‑Zynga PMs used to deep analytics, while competitors like Flurry had gone ad‑network and stayed shallow; we went deep on product questions and just kept building what customers would pay for.

Did you raise money and build a team before revenue, and when did the name appear?

We scraped together a two million dollar seed over nine tough months from many angels, added Jeffrey Wang as a third cofounder, and I shifted from coding to selling. I also wrote a script to ping hundreds of one‑word domains and landed amplitude.com, which fit perfectly.

You became the salesperson—what did you learn that engineers miss?

With a coach, I learned to stop demoing and start diagnosing pain, keep asking why, and anchor deals to a real timeline and a price that closes now. You learn by doing with expert coaching, just like any craft, and it is as critical as engineering.

Take us to going public and the direct listing choice.

Focus on the marriage, not the wedding—and do a direct listing so price is set by an open auction, not banker games. Our board was nervous, we did it anyway; my miss was not upgrading the team sooner and not signaling how overheated the market was, which hurt when the stock fell hard. To prepare the company, I simulated stock swings at all‑hands so people felt the whiplash before it became real.

Any second thoughts about being public?

I’m glad we did it—it brings credibility, liquidity, M and A currency, and healthy discipline. The trade‑off is volatility and emotions around a price you do not control day to day, so you keep everyone focused on the long game.

You said you aim to stay unfiltered as you grow. Why push against corporate varnish?

The bland, no‑edges executive voice hides truth and drains energy; strong points of view earn trust even if some disagree. I share more on Twitter now, and when trolls reply with our stock chart, I take it as a sign I said something that mattered.

You also shared the personal trade‑offs—building your life around the company and losing touch with friends.

World‑class performance takes deliberate practice, expert coaching, and real family support; the last part is rarely discussed and it changes everything. I was upfront with my now‑wife Ann that Amplitude would take a lot of space, she embraced it and built her own VC career, and while I’ve sacrificed social life, I’m at peace with the choice and keep perspective that you can have many things, just not all at the same time.

Thanks for saying that out loud—people crave honesty about the costs and the design of a life.

We learned so much from you today—thank you for the candor and the Amplitude story.

I’m grateful for YC and for Founders at Work—real founder stories were my best early teachers—and for this community’s steady support through the years.

That is what community is for, and we’re glad you’re in it.

Thank you for coming on—we loved this conversation.

What a joy—he’s so open, and it bookended with you getting verklempt at the start and us reflecting on that realness at the end.

His sales journey was gold and echoed countless founders learning to sell by doing and by coaching, not by reading.

And I loved the self‑aware MIT bit—insisting he was not a nerd while bonding over games with Curtis—perfect.

Such a winning episode—see you on the next one.