Saam Motamedi Is Greylock’s Newest General Partner
By: Asheem Chandna
We are thrilled to announce that Saam Motamedi has been promoted to general partner at Greylock. The global economy is in the early innings of the largest technology-driven transformation in history, with unprecedented opportunity ahead. We’re excited to have Saam partner with and help entrepreneurs build the next generation of foundational technology companies, with particular focus and deep domain in data and machine learning, applied AI, application software, and cybersecurity.
Since joining Greylock in 2016, Saam has been instrumental around multiple new company investments, has worked closely with founding teams helping them build and navigate product market fit and scale, and has also had a very positive impact internally across our partnership. In just three years, Saam has sourced, incubated, invested in and helped advise and build multiple startup companies, including Blend, Clockwise, Spoke, Notable Health, Avi Networks and four additional unannounced company investments. He has worked closely with founders and management teams across these companies, in both advisory and board roles. He currently serves as a board director at two companies, and has led two new investments for Greylock this year.
Saam embodies several values that are core to us at Greylock including a passion for investing and company building, a focus on helping entrepreneurs and companies win, humility, active listening, independent thinking, strong judgement and intellectual rigor. Founders are additionally also drawn to Saam because of his incredible work ethic and his growing ability to help early-stage teams prioritize and advance — he has already helped several teams conceptualize and start growing new businesses by developing differentiated market understanding, helping navigate to product-market fit, start scaling go-to-market, and identifying and recruiting key talent.
Saam served as an advisor and board observer at Avi Networks, which was recently acquired by VMware. Amit Pandey, CEO at Avi, said, “Saam was a trusted advisor to me and the Avi team. He has a deep understanding of the elements of a high-growth company journey. I view Saam as a highly valuable partner for founders and teams building best-in-class companies.”
Nima Ghamsari, CEO and co-founder at Blend, where Saam also serves as an advisor and board observer, said, “Saam provides strong ongoing value to Blend, as a trusted sounding board. I continue to be impressed with his thoughtfulness and impact on our business.”
Prior to joining Greylock, Saam was a co-founder of Guru Labs and worked in product management at RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce. He previously earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford, where he was a Mayfield Fellow.
Our partnership is focused on working closely with entrepreneurs to help them build and scale across company stages — all the way from an early idea on a whiteboard through company IPO. We strive to be high-impact board members and trusted advisors, and help across key aspects of company building. We are thrilled to announce Saam as a general partner at Greylock, and believe he is an exceptional partner to entrepreneurs. Please join us in congratulating Saam — you can reach him at smotamedi [at] greylock.com and follow him on Twitter @saammotamedi and on LinkedIn.
