Public markets
Kaspien · Nasdaq: KSPN · CEO 2019–2022
$2 → $52
Share price
- Revenue from −28% to +20% growth
- Four consecutive profitable quarters
- $1B+ lifetime marketplace sales
- Became CEO of the Nasdaq-listed parent
Kunal Chopra
Three-time CEO · Board chairman
Three-time CEO · Board chairman
I rebuild companies around the technology shift their industry hasn't absorbed yet.
Right now that shift is AI, whether you make things or already sell software. As CEO in public markets, private equity and venture, I've turned around a Nasdaq-listed company, rebuilt a PE-backed services business as a technology platform, and built an AI-native company from zero. I write about what AI changes in the operating model and work with the boards and operators doing it.
Nasdaq-listed CEOPE platform transformation0-to-1 AI-native founderBoard chairmanAmazon · Microsoft34 countries launched
The three chairs
Transformation across ownership models.
Private equity
Beckett · PE-backed · CEO 2022–2024
10x → 25x
EBITDA multiple
- $200M+ capital secured
- ~$40M SaaS ARR built
- Recurring revenue mix 5% → 20%+
- Card-grading share 5% → 10%
- Three acquisitions
Venture
Certivo · CEO 2024–Present
$6.3M
Raised · Backed by Fortive
- Investors: Fortive, Suffolk Technologies, Pioneer Square Ventures, AI Studio Fund
- AI-native from the first line
$270M+ raised across debt and equity · 5 acquisitions · Amazon, Microsoft, Groupon and Unikrn before that.
Covered in
Business WireGeekWireTech StartupsThe Spokesman-ReviewPR NewswireGlobeNewswireCNBCThe recordCore point of view
AI will reorganize the enterprise — not simply automate its tasks.
01
AI and industrial transformation
02
Product, data, compliance, and supply-chain intelligence
03
Building technology companies through change
Featured insights
Ideas from the work in progress.
Boring AI
When nobody has done the job before, hire for learning speed, not experience
What the selection research says a résumé actually predicts, why that number goes to zero in an AI-native company, and how to structure a hire as a bet you can settle quickly.
Readkunal-chopra.com
Bolt-on AI speeds up the old unit of work, AI-native software replaces it
Where the model sits in the control loop, what that does to the record your customers trust, and how a SaaS CEO or CTO can tell which of the two they are actually building.
Readkunal-chopra.com
The AI playbook for acquired software companies, forty-eight levers each tied to the P&L
Every lever an owner can pull between diligence and exit, in an AI-native world: what it is, which line it moves, how much the evidence supports, and what kills it. Five composite companies show how the same levers land differently. One of them is worked in full.
ExploreCurrent work
Building the intelligence layer for product compliance.
CEO · Certivo · 2024–Present
Building Certivo, an AI-native platform helping manufacturers transform product compliance from a manual process into an intelligent operating system.
Selected engagements
A practical voice for consequential moments.
Board and governance background is set out on the board page. For anything else, email kunal@kunal-chopra.com.