Bessemer Venture Partners appoints Lance Co Ting Keh to Venture Partner

AI companies commercializing frontier research and reshaping industries require both technical depth and practical wisdom. For Lance Co Ting Keh, Bessemer's newest venture partner, helping founders bridge the gap between theory and deployment is what makes investing compelling. Lance will apply his extensive background in applied artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) toward conducting technical due diligence on early-stage AI opportunities and on supporting founders across the portfolio who are building in an applied setting.

"My journey from academic computer science to building AI systems at X, the Moonshot Factory (formerly Google X) and early-stage startups showed me that the hardest challenges often lie in implementation," says Lance. "The current wave of AI innovation isn't just about breakthrough algorithms – it's about understanding how to make them work as usable, scalable products. That's where I believe I can add the most value to founders."

Lance brings a builder's mentality to venture capital, having founded multiple companies including a sports analytics firm and a subscription optimization platform. His hands-on experience spans from bootstrapped startups to Google's most ambitious moonshot projects.

The intersection of academic rigor and builder pragmatism has defined Lance's career. He has led AI early stage projects at Alphabet working on AI drug discovery and computer vision. As one of the first engineers at contact center AI platform Cresta, he helped build language models for contact centers long before the current LLM revolution. At Box, he pioneered the company's early machine learning efforts, recognizing the potential of deep learning before it entered mainstream consciousness. 

Lance received both his master's and bachelor's degrees from Duke University, focusing on Computer Science (CS) and Electrical Engineering (EE). He pursued additional graduate-level coursework in Applied Mathematics (ICME) at Stanford, and remains connected to the university’s AI network.

“Lance has emerged as a valuable thought leader on AI entrepreneurship as a Bessemer Operating Advisor,” says David Cowan, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Entrepreneurs appreciate learning from his proximity to leading research settings and keen ability to incorporate the latest science into product-led growth strategies.”

“Even in today’s hyper-competitive AI startup market, companies won’t win on profound algorithmic breakthroughs alone,” Lance said. 

“The AI is the ‘steak’ so to speak, but the ‘potatoes and vegetables’ are still crucially important,” he added. “Early-stage AI founders need to remember that all the rules of building a viable software business still apply—like talking with real users, achieving product-market fit (PMF), and developing a go-to-market (GTM) strategy with a self-serve motion and compelling marketing. I look forward to partnering with entrepreneurs in the Bessemer portfolio on building the next generation of great AI companies.”