Ben Spero

Joined Spectrum: 2001
Sector Focus: Software - Artificial Intelligence - Data
Education: Duke University, AB
Prior Firms: Bain & Company

Ben is a Managing Director at Spectrum, where he helps to lead software, artificial intelligence, and data investing.

ABOUT BEN

Ben Spero has spent more than two decades at Spectrum Equity, where he invests in software, artificial intelligence, and data businesses.

Over his career, Ben has led investments in and served on the boards of companies including AllTrails, Ancestry, Grubhub, Headspace, iPay Technologies, Lucid Software, SurveyMonkey, and The Knot Worldwide. Ben typically partners with founders of fast-growing businesses early on as their first institutional investor, working closely with them to recruit senior leadership, build go-to-market operations, and leverage the accumulated experience of Spectrum’s network of founders, operators, board members, and senior leaders.

PORTFOLIO

Ben’s exits include public offerings (Ancestry, Grubhub, SurveyMonkey) along with strategic and sponsor sales (AllTrails, Ancestry, iPay Technologies, Lucid Software, Mortgagebot, NetQuote).

He currently sits on the boards of AllTrails, Headspace, In Tandem, Lucid Software, and The Knot Worldwide.

Portfolio Highlights

• AllTrails became part of the Spectrum portfolio in 2018. Over the course of the partnership to date, AllTrails has expanded its trail coverage to every continent and country in the world and made significant improvements to its platform; the company has grown revenue by more than 10x and increased its active users from 9 million to 95+ million.
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• Ancestry became part of Spectrum’s portfolio in 2003; over 17 years of partnership the company grew its footprint to 30+ countries, launched a host of innovative new products, expanded through M&A and strategic partnerships, and ultimately became the world’s largest provider of online family history and consumer genomics data. Ancestry went public in 2009 and was acquired by Blackstone in 2020.
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• Grubhub became part of the Spectrum portfolio in 2011 and grew into a leading U.S. online and mobile food-ordering platform. The company merged with Seamless and went public on the NYSE (GRUB).
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• Headspace joined Spectrum’s portfolio in 2017 as a consumer meditation and sleep app. Spectrum backed its expansion into an employer-facing B2B offering; the company later merged with Ginger to form all-in-one mental health offering Headspace Health, adding clinical care including teletherapy, coaching, and psychiatry.
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• Lucid Software became part of the portfolio in 2016; the company went on to scale its visual collaboration platform into one of the most widely used software applications across the Fortune 500.
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• SurveyMonkey joined the Spectrum portfolio in 2009. The partnership worked to recruit talent and board members, complete several acquisitions, expand the company’s offerings globally, launch new products, and dramatically grow its customer case.The company went public in 2018.

INVESTMENT FOCUS

Ben invests in consumer and B2B internet businesses, with a focus on software, artificial intelligence, and data. He looks for opportunities to partner with capital-efficient companies that are growing quickly, investing across consumer categories and vertical software markets.

BACKGROUND

Prior to joining Spectrum in 2001, Ben worked at Bain & Company. He received an AB, magna cum laude, from Duke University.

Ben served for 14 years as Board Chair of Destination: Home, a public private partnership to end homelessness in Silicon Valley, and is currently a Board member and Vice Chair at Tipping Point Community, a non-profit that works to alleviate poverty in the Bay Area. Outside of work and civic engagement, Ben is an avid olive farmer.

“We’re not there to impose a playbook. The best partnerships happen when we’ve taken the time to really know a founder, and they’ve taken the time to know us.” - Ben Spero, Spectrum Equity

The specific companies identified above may not represent all of Spectrum Equity’s investments, and no assumptions should be made that any investments identified were or will be profitable.