Why the Next Generation of Enterprise Software Looks Nothing Like Salesforce

a16z’s Alex Rampell and Joe Schmidt sit down with Lightfield co-founder and CEO Keith Peiris to discuss what it takes to rethink the CRM for an AI-native world, and the unusual pivot that got him there. Keith previously built Tome to 25 million users, but eventually walked away from the product after concluding that the underlying technology couldn’t capture enough context about a presenter, their audience, and the relationship between them. Starting again, his team followed customers from AI presentations into sales workflows and eventually found a harder problem: making sense of the fragmented and often conflicting data spread across a company’s emails, calls, CRM, and other systems. They unpack Lightfield’s idea of a “business world model,” why Keith believes intelligence can replace much of the rigid schema behind traditional software, and what changes when AI has enough context to reason about a company and its customers. They also get into building for greenfield versus brownfield markets, AI-era pricing, running a company where everyone is a generalist, and Keith’s lessons from making a hard pivot. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:52 - From Tome to Lightfield: The Pivot Story 02:28 - Why Not Just Wait for the Technology to Get Better? 07:29 - Knowing You're Onto Something With the New Product 09:15 - CRM as a Repository: What's Actually Broken Today 11:18 - The Architecture Choices That Make Lightfield Work 18:48 - Greenfield vs Brownfield: Cracking the CRM Market 25:27 - Skeuomorphic vs Natural Language: The Product Trade-Off 30:56 - Pricing in the AI Era & Outcome-Based Models 36:22 - Company Culture, Velocity & Shipping Speed at Lightfield 40:02 - What Worries Keith Most Right Now Resources: Follow Keith Peiris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithpeiris Follow Alex Rampell on X: https://x.com/arampell Follow Joe Schmidt on X: https://x.com/joeschmidtiv Learn more about Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

Joe SchmidthostAlex Rampellhost

Sep 16, 202652mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: September 16, 2026
Duration: 52m
Channel: a16z
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

a16z’s Alex Rampell and Joe Schmidt sit down with Lightfield co-founder and CEO Keith Peiris to discuss what it takes to rethink the CRM for an AI-native world, and the unusual pivot that got him there. Keith previously built Tome to 25 million users, but eventually walked away from the product after concluding that the underlying technology couldn’t capture enough context about a presenter, their audience, and the relationship between them. Starting again, his team followed customers from AI presentations into sales workflows and eventually found a harder problem: making sense of the fragmented and often conflicting data spread across a company’s emails, calls, CRM, and other systems. They unpack Lightfield’s idea of a “business world model,” why Keith believes intelligence can replace much of the rigid schema behind traditional software, and what changes when AI has enough context to reason about a company and its customers. They also get into building for greenfield versus brownfield markets, AI-era pricing, running a company where everyone is a generalist, and Keith’s lessons from making a hard pivot. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:52 - From Tome to Lightfield: The Pivot Story 02:28 - Why Not Just Wait for the Technology to Get Better? 07:29 - Knowing You're Onto Something With the New Product 09:15 - CRM as a Repository: What's Actually Broken Today 11:18 - The Architecture Choices That Make Lightfield Work 18:48 - Greenfield vs Brownfield: Cracking the CRM Market 25:27 - Skeuomorphic vs Natural Language: The Product Trade-Off 30:56 - Pricing in the AI Era & Outcome-Based Models 36:22 - Company Culture, Velocity & Shipping Speed at Lightfield 40:02 - What Worries Keith Most Right Now Resources: Follow Keith Peiris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithpeiris Follow Alex Rampell on X: https://x.com/arampell Follow Joe Schmidt on X: https://x.com/joeschmidtiv Learn more about Lightfield: https://lightfield.app Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

SPEAKERS

Joe Schmidt
host
a16z podcast host.
Alex Rampell
host
a16z partner and podcast host.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of a16z, featuring Joe Schmidt and Alex Rampell, Why the Next Generation of Enterprise Software Looks Nothing Like Salesforce explores lightfield’s AI-native CRM rebuild: timeline-based world models over rigid fields Keith Peiris describes pivoting from Tome (AI presentations) to Lightfield after realizing the presentation product couldn’t become indispensable without deeper user-and-audience context.

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