Our founders

Amy Lester is all about making things happen, whether scaling billion-dollar businesses or breaking new ground for transformative startups. With 20+ years in Silicon Valley and beyond, she’s been at the center of pivotal moments across technology and private equity/venture capital, leading teams, crafting narratives and building brands for some of the most influential companies including Walmart, Udacity and BDT Capital.

At Walmart, Amy led the communications team for Walmart.com, helping scale it into a multibillion business and one of the world’s largest online retailers. At Udacity, she shaped the company’s brand as a global edtech leader in AI and autonomous vehicles, earning world-renowned recognition. At BDT Capital Partners, she elevated the investment firm’s global profile while guiding portfolio companies through IPOs, M&A, complex crisis situations and reputation management strategies.

As Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sabertooth Ventures, Amy is crafting stories and building ventures that push boundaries and drive change. She works with founders to build authentic brands and sustainable businesses, combining creativity and operational strategy with a clear focus on achieving measurable results and meaningful impact.

Amy also serves on the Advisory Board of The Jackie Speier Foundation, a nonprofit supporting women and children in poverty across San Mateo County, right in the heart of Silicon Valley. She is also a forever yogi beginner (but hits the mat every day) and a die-hard Radiohead fan – her life soundtrack for dreaming big and getting things done. She holds a journalism degree from Drake University and completed the AI Executive Program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Kat Dykeman's career is a masterclass in transformation—shaped by a relentless pursuit of knowledge, a passion for storytelling, and a talent for connecting people, data, and ideas. From her early days in media to leadership roles at Facebook and Amazon, Kat has built a career at the intersection of creativity, strategy, and innovation.

While based in London for over a decade, Kat founded Facebook’s Marketing Science team in London in 2010, which played a pivotal role in transforming the platform into an advertising giant. By developing tools to measure return on investment, her team set the standard for data-driven advertising effectiveness. Later, at Amazon, she demonstrated leadership by building and directing a completely new team that empowered the world’s largest advertisers to measure and maximize their investments on Amazon’s emerging advertising platform, setting a new standard for performance-driven insights.

Kat’s impact extends beyond corporate roles. As co-founder of Sabertooth Ventures, she champions authentic storytelling through irreverent, impactful media. She is also a partner at Dome Vineyards and is an amateur astronomer who spends any extra hours in her observatory.  Kat has spent the last three decades in New York City, London, and San Francisco, but has never forgotten her midwest upbringing. Through every endeavor, Kat has stayed true to her mission: creating meaningful connections between ideas, people, and the stories that define them.