Klaviyo’s CTO keeps company firmly focused on the data 

Before joining Boston-based marketing automation platform Klaviyo as chief technology officer last September, Surabhi Gupta had already built a career rooted in data. She began her professional life as an engineer at Google, working on the search ranking team before becoming director of engineering at Airbnb and eventually SVP of engineering at Robinhood. Through all these jobs, one constant has been a strong interest in data, which has informed her work in every role.

Although her previous jobs were more consumer-focused, what initially drew her to Klaviyo was the company’s deep emphasis on data. According to IDC, Klaviyo’s data platform (KDP)  is key to its success. “Central to its B2C CRM strategy, the KDP unifies customer data from various sources to provide a holistic customer view,” IDC wrote. But just as important to her was the strength of the leadership team, something she observed during the interview process when she had dinner with the whole executive team.

With AI rapidly elevating the value of data, Gupta saw Klaviyo as well-positioned to build on its strong data roots, and she was eager to put her experience to bear in helping the company fully realize that potential.

It’s starts with the data

Gupta says that she could see how Klaviyo aligned closely with her technology philosophy, even before she officially joined. “With Klaviyo, I felt that everything started with data, and the fact that you're storing all of this data for customers means that there's an infinite set of possibilities of what you can do. So in terms of the problem space and potential, I felt it was ripe for us to be doing a lot more,” she said.

That includes the application of AI, which she sees as a natural extension of Klaviyo’s original vision. In this case, the company is looking at predicting the next best action for the marketers using the platform to give them a head start on how to best interact with their customers. But long before the company became known as a marketing automation platform, the founders focused on building a centralized database for customer information.

“The fundamental premise was actually, let's make it easier to store all this data so you can do interesting things on top of it,” she said. “And that vision has allowed us to have a strong foundation for storing the data, while setting us up to scale.”

One of Gupta’s first key leadership hires was Liang Zhang as VP of engineering and head of AI. “We're sitting on all of this data. Let's bring in the talent that has worked at a really high level of scale from a data  and intelligence perspective, and then I think we can create magic here,” she said.

Creating cross-functional magic 

Gupta sees everything as broadly a team effort, and while each group may have its own set of responsibilities, she believes there’s a lot of power in the groups working together to get the job done. “I believe in the power of strong cross-functional teams at every level,” she said. “Ideally when you have the right teams working together, and you give them autonomy to do what they need to do, while setting clear goals, they should move as fast as they can, and have clear decision rights as well.” Her job, as she sees it, is to remove blockers to progress and make sure that employees are not getting in their own way. 

In many ways, this sounds like Palo Alto Networks chief product officer, Lee Klarich’s management approach. He says you hire smart people and then give them the power to make decisions. “If you hire people, and you tell them what to do every day, you're not going to get the best people. No one really wants that," he told FastForward in an interview earlier this year.

With Klaviyo, I felt that everything started with data, and the fact that you're storing all of this data for customers means that there's an infinite set of possibilities of what you can do. So in terms of the problem space and potential, I felt it was ripe for us to be doing a lot more.

Gupta sets up her engineering organization in a similar way where she has created a “well-oiled machine,” while giving employees room to do their work more efficiently. To that end, she’s looking at how AI can help, and while her team is working with tools like Cursor and Microsoft Copilot, she says more than coding help, she wants to see the tools do a better job at managing the code base.

“What I'm actually interested in is where the field is going over the next year because I think there's a lot of work involved in doing engineering around a really large code base,” she said. That could involve bug tracking, migrations, system patching and the like. “My hope actually is that over the next year, these things are going to get easier.”

Bringing startups into the mix

Like many of the executives we talk to here at Fastforward, Gupta sees a role for startups to help solve unique problems for her company. The company, which was founded in 2012, went public in 2023. So it’s not that far from its startup roots.

She says she looks for a company that’s going to solve a complex issue and save money while doing it. “For me, it starts with, is this something that is filling a gap that we don't have today,” she asked. If the answer is yes, she may assign a handful of engineers to test it.

She’s more inclined to go with a bit more mature startup than early stage because they are more likely to have some kind of track record with their product. “I think the sweet spot is maybe Series B, even Series A startups, where you align on the vision where you're going,” she said. As with her teams, she wants to work together: “Let's be partners in this. Let's co-create. Let's be early testers. Let's give you feedback. Like, hey, solve this set of problems for us,” she said.

But whether it’s working with startups or working with her engineering team, Gupta is always looking for good team work, good communication and the ability to get things done. “I feel like we have the foundation, and there's a lot more we can do," she said.

Featured photo courtesy of Klaviyo