Allison Pickens is a solo GP at The New Normal Fund who brings a rare operator-to-investor background as the former COO of Gainsight, where she helped pioneer the customer success category and now provides hands-on support for B2B AI/SaaS founders on building post-sales engines rather than just financial guidance. She has built a content-first investing brand through her own Substack and podcast where she interviews founders about SaaS and AI playbooks, while simultaneously serving as an independent board director at companies like dbt Labs and Commvault, giving her a unique vantage point across both fast-growing startups and scaled public companies.

• A strong focus on Generative AI and its evolution into defensible products. She highlights the journey of companies like Jasper moving from early adoption to established market positions and notes how AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in daily workflows, such as AI agents attending Zoom meetings.
• Advocacy for modern SaaS business models, particularly Product-Led Growth and usage-based pricing. She frequently discusses how shifting to consumption-based pricing requires a complete overhaul of a company's go-to-market strategy, citing insights from leaders at companies like Metronome.
• Emphasis on tactical operational rigor, specifically regarding CRM configuration and data management. She shares granular advice for founders on how to set up Salesforce properly, such as separating product sign-ups from account records to better enable enterprise sales motions on top of self-serve users.
• Interest in progressive organizational design and talent management strategies. She critiques outdated HR frameworks like forced ranking or annual promotion cycles, favoring agile models like just-in-time career progression and continuous feedback loops.
• Attention to the intersection of modern data infrastructure and business ROI. She explores how data teams can prove their value and how the modern data stack should directly benefit revenue-generating teams like sales and customer success, rather than just existing in silos.
• Valuation of leadership psychology and emotional resilience. She shares personal frameworks for managing founder stress, such as channeling frustration into productive energy during hard times, and offers structured methods for CEOs to evaluate their executive teams.