1. Dharmesh Shah

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Founder and CTO of HubSpot — which he built from an MIT dorm-room blog into one of the most widely used CRM platforms in the world — and one of the most genuinely active technology executives on LinkedIn, with 1.1 million followers and daily posts published at 3pm EST without fail. His simple.ai newsletter has accumulated over 2 million subscribers, his agent.ai platform is in active development, and his March 2026 post about a 10,000-follower spike (since confirmed a platform glitch) generated more organic engagement than most executives' best content of the year. HubSpot's Culture Code has over 5 million views. A rare combination: serious engineer, company builder, and a social media voice that feels genuinely human.

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2. Tobias Lütke

Based in Ottawa, Canada

Founder and CEO of Shopify — now a $215+ billion e-commerce infrastructure company — and the author of the most discussed corporate document of 2025: an internal memo declaring that AI usage is a baseline expectation at Shopify, that managers must prove AI cannot do a job before requesting headcount, and that AI competency will be built into performance reviews. The memo spawned a genre: Box, Fiverr, and even Canada's Prime Minister published their own versions. Lütke's authenticity — he self-published the memo on X when it was about to be leaked — combined with Shopify's 20-40% annual revenue growth makes him the most credibly influential technology CEO actively shaping how the profession thinks about AI and the future of work.

 

 

3. Lenny Rachitsky

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

Former Airbnb product lead turned the most widely read independent voice in product and SaaS growth. Lenny's Newsletter now has millions of Substack subscribers — built entirely on word of mouth, without a dollar spent on paid acquisition. Lenny's Podcast remains the most listened-to show in the product and growth space, with his December 2025 episode "The New AI Growth Playbook for 2026" (featuring Lovable's Elena Verna on how the company hit $200M ARR in under a year with 100 employees) among the most shared SaaS content of the review period. His interview with Dharmesh Shah in early 2025 has tens of thousands of views. The most trusted independent practitioner voice in the SaaS ecosystem.

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4. Jason Lemkin

Based in Palo Alto, California, USA

Founder of SaaStr Ai — the world's largest community of SaaS founders, executives, and investors, with over 3 million monthly views and a conference (SaaStr AI Annual, May 12-14, 2026, SF Bay Area) that drew tens of thousands of attendees. Lemkin publishes multiple detailed SaaS practitioner posts daily, deployed 20+ AI agents across SaaStr's GTM function in 2025 (replacing mid-tier sales reps and generating 15% of SaaStr London's revenue), and has backed an extraordinary portfolio including Salesloft, Pipedrive, Talkdesk, Algolia, and Owner. His LinkedIn posts from 1 and 3 days ago continue the cadence. The most prolific and practically useful daily voice in SaaS leadership.

 

 

5. Satya Nadella

Based in Redmond, Washington, USA

CEO of Microsoft — which under his leadership has become the most consequential enterprise software and AI company of the current era, having transformed from a stagnant Windows-centric business into the cloud and AI platform that now powers a significant portion of global enterprise software through Azure, Microsoft 365, and the $13B OpenAI partnership. His Hit Refresh remains required reading for anyone interested in how large technology organisations undergo genuine cultural transformation. Throughout 2025-2026, Nadella's framing of AI as an "empowerment" technology rather than a replacement technology gave technology leaders a language for navigating their own AI transitions. The most important technology executive of his generation.

 

 

6. Aaron Levie

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

Co-founder and CEO of Box — the enterprise cloud content management platform serving over 100,000 businesses and millions of users globally — and one of the most consistently sharp and publicly engaged enterprise SaaS voices on social media, with hundreds of thousands of followers and a posting cadence that generates significant engagement among SaaS operators, technology leaders, and enterprise buyers. Throughout 2025-2026, Levie's commentary on AI's impact on enterprise software — which products survive, which get commoditised, and what the next generation of SaaS looks like when AI can generate content rather than just store and manage it — was among the most practically cited analysis in the enterprise technology community. His combination of genuine operator credibility, built over two decades taking Box from a dorm room project to a publicly traded company, and his willingness to engage directly with the hard questions facing SaaS business models at a moment of genuine disruption makes him one of the most trusted independent voices in enterprise technology.

 

 

7. Arvind Krishna

Based in New York City, NY, USA

CEO of IBM, who has led one of the most credible enterprise AI transformations in the technology industry — built on IBM's genuine research depth in AI and a client base that gives him unusual authority when talking about what enterprise AI deployment actually looks like versus what it looks like in press releases. His watsonx platform, the Red Hat integration, and IBM's shift to consulting-led AI implementation have made IBM a surprisingly relevant voice in 2025-2026 enterprise technology. Krishna publishes consistently on LinkedIn and remains one of the most grounded and technically credible CEO voices in enterprise software.

 

 

8. Marc Benioff

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

CEO, Chair, and Founder of Salesforce, and the most vocal tech CEO on the intersection of AI, ethics, and enterprise transformation. His "Agentforce" launch in 2025 — Salesforce's autonomous AI agent platform — represented the most significant product repositioning in the company's history, and Benioff's relentless LinkedIn and media presence throughout 2025-2026 kept Salesforce at the centre of the enterprise AI conversation even as newer competitors emerged. His combination of genuine product conviction, social activism, and showmanship makes him one of the most watched technology CEOs in the world, whatever one thinks of the performance.

 

 

9. Claire Hughes Johnson

Based in Boston, MA, USA

Corporate Officer and Advisor at Stripe, author of Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building (2023) — which became the most cited practical management handbook in SaaS companies throughout 2025 — and one of the most respected operational minds in the technology industry. Active throughout 2025-2026 as a board director, advisor, author, and speaker on the specific mechanics of building and scaling technology companies. Her frameworks on hiring, team structure, operating cadences, and culture have been adopted by hundreds of SaaS companies. One of the most practically useful executives in the ecosystem.

 

 

10. Patrick Campbell

Based in Puerto Rico

Founder of ProfitWell (acquired by Paddle) and the most data-driven voice on SaaS pricing, retention, and monetisation in the world. Throughout 2025-2026, Campbell remained extraordinarily active producing research and content on how AI is restructuring SaaS pricing models — from per-seat to consumption to outcome-based — at a moment when the question became genuinely urgent for every SaaS company navigating AI competitors. His Protect the Hustle podcast and LinkedIn presence remained among the most practically cited resources in SaaS finance and pricing strategy.

 

 

11. Bobby Moesta

Based in Grosse Pointe, MI, USA

Pioneer of the Jobs-to-be-Done framework — co-developed with the late Clayton Christensen — and CEO of the ReWired Group. Author of Demand-Side Sales and Rewired, and throughout 2025-2026 one of the most practically applied innovation and product strategy educators in the technology sector, with his JTBD framework embedded in product development processes at hundreds of SaaS companies. His interview on Lenny's Podcast in 2025 introduced his framework to a new generation of product managers. The most important living practitioner of the JTBD methodology.

 

 

12. April Dunford

Based in Toronto, Canada

Author of Obviously Awesome — widely regarded as the most useful book ever written on product positioning — and Sales Pitch, published in 2023, which extended her framework from marketing into the sales room. Throughout 2025-2026, Dunford remained actively consulting, speaking, and publishing, with her positioning and sales pitch work more relevant than ever as AI changed what software products could claim and made differentiation harder to sustain. Her podcast Positioning with April Dunford continued throughout the review period. The definitive practitioner authority on positioning for technology companies.

 

 

13. Melissa Perri

Based in New York City, NY, USA

Author of Escaping the Build Trap — the most widely read book on product management and organisational product maturity — CEO of Product Labs, and host of the Product Thinking podcast. Active throughout 2025-2026 building her consulting practice, publishing on how AI is restructuring the product management role, and running CPO Accelerator, her programme for Chief Product Officers. Her frameworks for distinguishing between outputs and outcomes, and her diagnostic for organisational product maturity, are embedded in product team operating systems at companies around the world.

 

 

14. Elena Verna

Based in Nashville, TN, USA

Growth advisor, former SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey, Miro, and Amplitude, and Head of Growth at Lovable — the AI app builder that reached $200M ARR in under a year with 100 employees, the subject of her widely shared December 2025 appearance on Lenny's Podcast. One of the most practically credible voices on product-led growth, AI-era growth strategy, and the rewriting of the SaaS growth playbook for AI-native companies. Active throughout the review period as a consultant, advisor, and prolific LinkedIn author with a large and engaged following.

 

 

15. Wes Bush

Based in Toronto, Canada

Author of Product-Led Growth — the book that named and codified the PLG movement — and founder of ProductLed. Throughout 2025-2026, Bush remained one of the most actively publishing voices on how PLG strategies need to be rebuilt for an AI-first product world, where free tiers, viral loops, and time-to-value calculations are all being disrupted simultaneously. His ProductLed community, courses, and newsletter continued to attract product and growth leaders from SaaS companies globally throughout the review period.

 

 

16. Kyle Poyar

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Founder of Growth Unhinged and one of the most rigorous researchers and content producers on SaaS pricing, PLG benchmarks, and go-to-market strategy. His annual SaaS benchmarking reports are among the most widely cited data sources in the industry. Throughout 2025-2026, Poyar's work on the shifting economics of SaaS in an AI-first environment — pricing model disruption, the death of the per-seat model, the rise of outcome-based pricing — gave CFOs and operators the frameworks they needed to navigate genuine uncertainty. A data-first practitioner voice with the reach and respect of an academic researcher.

 

 

17. Hiten Shah

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

Co-founder of Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, FYI, and Product Habits, and one of the most prolific and generously sharing voices in the SaaS and product community. Active daily on LinkedIn and X throughout 2025-2026, with a reputation for genuinely useful and high-signal content on SaaS strategy, product thinking, and founder craft that has made him one of the most followed and trusted practitioners in the ecosystem. His long career building and launching multiple SaaS products gives him an empirical depth that most commentators lack.

 

 

18. Dave Gerhardt

Based in Burlington, Vermont, USA

Founder of Exit Five — the most active and respected community for B2B marketing professionals, with tens of thousands of members — and former CMO at Drift and Privy. Throughout 2025-2026, Gerhardt's work at the intersection of content, community, and B2B SaaS marketing made him one of the most practically useful voices for SaaS marketing leaders navigating AI-generated content commoditisation. His Exit Five podcast, newsletter, and annual conference continued to grow throughout the review period. The most credible independent voice in B2B SaaS marketing.

 

 

19. Udi Ledergor

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

Chief Evangelist at Gong — the revenue intelligence platform — and one of the most creative and widely cited B2B SaaS marketers working in the industry today. Ledergor's work pioneering category creation in B2B, building Gong's outrageous and successful marketing culture, and writing Courageous Marketing (2023) has made him a reference point for SaaS CMOs throughout 2025-2026. Active speaker, author, and podcast guest throughout the review period. His framework for building a category through bold, opinionated marketing remains one of the most copied playbooks in enterprise SaaS.

 

 

20. Des Traynor

Based in Dublin, Ireland

Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom, and one of the most original and consistently useful writers on SaaS product strategy, customer support, and company building for the past decade. Throughout 2025-2026, Intercom's AI-first repositioning — led in part by Traynor's public-facing intellectual work — made it one of the most cited case studies in how a mature SaaS company could genuinely rebuild around AI rather than bolt it on. His essays and podcast appearances throughout the review period addressed the fundamental questions the industry was avoiding: what happens to SaaS when AI does the work the software was built to help with?

 

 

21. Gaetano Nino DiNardi 

Based in New York, NY, USA

Former VP of Growth at Nextiva, former Head of Demand Generation at Semrush, and one of the most practically respected and openly communicative voices on B2B SaaS growth strategy — covering demand generation, content-led growth, and what actually moves pipeline for SaaS companies in the current environment. Throughout 2025-2026, DiNardi's LinkedIn content, newsletter, and consulting work on how SaaS companies should think about their go-to-market in an era of AI-disrupted search and content continued to be among the most practically cited material among SaaS marketers and growth operators. His willingness to share what actually worked and what failed — including post-mortems on campaigns and channels — makes him one of the most trusted and genuinely useful independent voices in SaaS growth.

 

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22. Gokul Rajaram

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

Known as the "Godfather of Google AdSense" — growing it from zero to over $1 billion in revenue — Gokul Rajaram then led Facebook's ads platform from $750 million to $6.5 billion in revenue while leading its mobile-first transition. A product leader and board member across seven generational technology companies including Alphabet, Block, Coinbase, DoorDash, Meta, Pinterest, and The Trade Desk, and Founding Partner of Marathon Management Partners. Throughout 2025-2026, his LinkedIn content on AI, product strategy, and company building made him one of the most practically insightful voices in the global technology ecosystem.

 

 

23. Nir Eyal

Based in New York City, NY, USA

Author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products — the most widely read and applied product design book in the technology industry — and Indistractable (2019). Throughout 2025-2026, Eyal's work on habit-forming design gained a second wave of relevance as AI product teams grappled with questions about engagement, retention, and the ethical design of AI-powered products that are designed to be as hard to put down as possible. Active speaker, podcast guest, and LinkedIn author throughout the review period, with a large and engaged following among product designers, engineers, and technology founders.

 

 

24. Leah Tharin

Based in Based in Switzerland

Product-led growth strategist, advisor, and one of the most followed and practically useful voices on PLG strategy and SaaS growth on LinkedIn, with a large and highly engaged following built entirely on the quality of her daily content. Throughout 2025-2026, Tharin's writing and posts on how AI is restructuring PLG mechanics, how SaaS companies can build genuine product-led motion rather than bolting PLG language onto a sales-led business, and what growth looks like in the current environment were among the most widely shared practitioner content in the SaaS community. Rigorous, direct, and willing to challenge the comfortable orthodoxies of the growth profession.

 

 

25. Brianne Kimmel 

Based in San Francisco, California, USA

Founder and Managing Partner of Worklife Ventures — the SaaS-focused venture fund whose portfolio of nine unicorns includes Webflow, Deel, Hopin, and Pipe — former go-to-market lead at Zendesk where she built the Zendesk for Startups programme, and one of the most practically experienced and publicly engaged voices on the consumerisation of enterprise software and what the next generation of SaaS products requires to win. Host of The Shake Up podcast and active throughout 2025-2026 with writing, speaking, and investing at the earliest stages of SaaS company formation.

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Congratulations to All 25 Honourees

 

Think a Technology or SaaS industry leader belongs on next year's list? 

 

Nominations for the 2027 Industry Leaders Top 25 can be made here https://www.theindustryleaders.org/nominate

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Selections are made at the sole editorial discretion of The Industry Leaders based on publicly available information. Inclusion or exclusion does not constitute an endorsement, and positions within the list do not reflect a definitive ranking of merit.