Optimizely CEO on suites, pricing AI agents, scaling through M&A, and more | Alex Atzberger

In this episode of Second Acts, Krish is joined by Optimizely’s CEO, Alex Atzberger.

Alex shares notes on: why deeply integrated suites win in enterprise (and will continue to do so with AI), scaling Optimizely into an AI-powered platform (and past $400M+ in ARR), pricing AI agents that span vastly different use cases, treating monetization as a reversible decision, lessons from more than a decade of M&A, building with long-term discipline under PE, hot chocolate, and much more.

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Chapters:

(00:00) Episode intro

(04:45) Lessons from The Wonderbon Chocolate Co.

(09:10) Principles shaping Optimizely today

(12:36) “The suite always wins”

(17:14) Avoiding platform sprawl

(19:56) Defensibility in a world of overlapping suites

(25:00) What are you really pricing for?

(28:46) Pricing is never a one-shot decision

(30:00) Enterprise AI is about the unsexy stuff

(35:35) Test and learn: How Optimizely prices AI agents

(40:35) The hard thinking behind successful M&A bets

(44:44) Building a “long-term healthy” business with PE

(50:20) Team of Teams

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Referenced:

Optimizely

SAP Ariba

The Wonderbon Chocolate Co

"The suite always wins"

"Enterprise AI is not all alike."

"The great bundle brawl (Brian Balfour)"

OpenAI

Optimizely Opal

Insight Partners

Three things I learned from my past five years running a Private Equity owned business

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Connect with Alex:

LinkedIn

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Connect with Krish:

LinkedIn:

X

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About Chargebee:

Chargebee helps thousands of recurring revenue businesses unlock second acts of scale with transformative billing, monetization, and growth infra. Learn more.