Amplitude Founders’ Award Winner: Alex Simmons

At Amplitude, we believe great businesses are built by empowering great people. Our annual Founders’ Awards represent our company's highest recognition, celebrating four Ampliteers who embody what it means to think and act like a founder.

As the late, great Steve Jobs once quipped, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell US what to do.” That ethos is at the heart of Amplitude’s beginnings, and since day one, we’ve strived to foster an environment where our people don’t simply excel in their jobs—they take a step back, see the big picture, and boldly tell us what needs to happen to drive the business forward. In other words, they think—and act—like a founder.

Today, we celebrate one such Ampliteer who has risen to the challenge and is shaping Amplitude’s future with the same relentless vision and drive that built it.

Alex Simmons, Principal Customer Success Manager

Alex Simmons demonstrates daily that business success is fueled by customer success. With a ceaseless commitment to positive customer outcomes and product innovation, our Principal Customer Success Manager is more than deserving of the 2024 Founders’ Award.

Alex’s nomination (submitted by Amplitude vice presidents and the executive leadership team) reveals his founder’s mentality. Achieving 123% of his Q4 quota, he drove significant upsells while supporting account transitions. His deep product expertise—he amassed over 1,000 hours in the Amplitude platform in 2024, more than any other Ampliteer—enabled him to bridge customer needs with product development, sparking innovative ideas to fuel customer success. On top of this, Alex played an instrumental role in the Amp on Amp initiative, all while sharing his vast knowledge through workshops and playbooks that empowered the entire team.

Congratulations, Alex!

Tell us a bit about yourself and what brought you to Amplitude

I’ve always been in and around analytics—it’s been a constant thread throughout my career. I started out at TripAdvisor in the Boston area, where I owe a huge shoutout to John Melpignano and Adam Medros for taking a chance on me and giving me my first real job in the analytics world. That time was hugely formative—learning analytics and understanding what it takes to build a great company (credit to Steve Kaufer for setting that standard at TripAdvisor). It’s one of those experiences where, in hindsight, you realize just how special it was.

From there, I moved to London (where I ended up staying for five years) and joined Hotels.com under the Expedia Group umbrella. Fun fact: I believe I was the last internal transfer from TripAdvisor before the official Expedia spin-off! After five years in London, my visa was up, so I took the opportunity to get my MBA at IE University in Madrid. Post-MBA, I returned to the U.S. and joined Deloitte Consulting in the Customer & Marketing practice, where I got my first real taste of customer-facing work. That experience was eye-opening—it planted the seed for what would eventually bring me to Customer Success. While I loved working with clients, the short project cycles in consulting made me crave longer-term partnerships and more ownership over outcomes.

Through circumstance and good luck, I had friends moving into Customer Success. I started to see the role as the perfect blend of something I knew well (analytics) and something new and exciting (customer engagement and strategy). Funny enough, I had worked closely with great CS teams from the customer side, so stepping into the role felt like flipping perspectives.

That’s what ultimately brought me to Amplitude—a place where I could bridge my deep analytics experience with my passion for helping customers solve real problems. It’s been a fantastic fit, and I feel lucky to be part of a company that’s shaping how businesses leverage data to drive impact.

What does acting like a founder mean to you?

For me, acting like a founder is about taking ownership, solving problems, and getting things done—without waiting for permission. I’ve always been drawn to problem-solving and fixing things, both in my career and in life, and I believe in acting first and asking questions later whenever possible.

I try not to get caught up in swimlanes or rigid roles—if something needs to be done, I just do it. One of my guiding principles is: If it takes longer to discuss doing something than actually to do it—just do it. In most cases, that effort comes back around, whether through reciprocity or just building goodwill. If someone’s struggling, I pitch in. If I see a problem, I work to fix it. Of course, sometimes this means I multitask too much—starting one thing, then suddenly finding a new cause célèbre to champion—but that’s a topic for another day.

The other key piece is persistence. I often feel the effort you put in directly correlates with the results you get. Of course, working smarter matters, too, but if you truly care about something, you put in the work to make it happen—there’s not always a shortcut.

What motivates you to translate customer needs into innovative solutions?

This is my first Go-To-Market/Customer Success role, so my sample size is a grand total of one—but in many ways, this work comes naturally after spending most of my career in product analytics and product management. I’ve spent countless hours building charts, tweaking, rebuilding, waiting, and trying to summarize insights—which has been both a source of joy and frustration. That experience makes stepping into our customers’ shoes easy because I’ve been in their position before.

I’ve also been a broken record about how critical it is to dogfood your own product. Part of my motivation is actually selfish—many things that either work incredibly well or cause the most pain aren’t abstract customer problems; they’re the same things that impact me and my peers. You can try to create empathy, but nothing focuses the mind like actually experiencing that pain yourself.

A perfect example: Recently, an engineer on another team noticed a few customers had flagged an issue with Drafts cluttering their Recently Viewed section. He closed his Slack message with: “I also have the same complaint. 😅 Has there been any discussion around this?” 33 Slack replies later, with input from eight to 10 people across teams, we landed on an incremental but meaningful improvement. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was a step forward—and that’s what it’s all about. When you can bottle that energy—listening to customers, iterating quickly, and working across teams to build a more delightful product—that’s the secret sauce.

At the same time, a heavy dose of realism is also needed. Being the connective tissue between customers and product is important, but so is knowing how to cut through the noise and get to the real issue—not just the second-degree symptom. Finding that balance is key to driving real impact.

What advice would you give others looking to bridge the gap between customer success and product development?

First and foremost, keep it simple—having a clear understanding of both perspectives is critical. It’s not just about advocating for the customer; it’s also about recognizing your product team’s constraints and priorities. They have a roadmap and things they’re already working on, so framing problems in a way that resonates with their goals and unlocks real value is key.

Second, speak the language of the Product team. Don’t try to force-fit customer requests—chances are, Product is already working within certain themes or priorities, so position customer needs within those existing frameworks whenever possible. And with customers, be realistic about what’s feasible. Sometimes, the perfect fix isn’t immediately possible, but a creative interim solution can alleviate pain. Always ask why—the headline issue is rarely the whole story, and uncovering the deeper need can make all the difference.

Finally, build relationships before you need something. The best partnerships between CS and Product come from trust, not transactions. If Product needs customer research, help facilitate those conversations and provide meaningful context. And when a request or timeline seems unrealistic, be the voice of reason and call it out. None of this is groundbreaking, but when done consistently, it makes bridging the gap feel natural instead of forced.