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After starting my career at Bain, I was given the opportunity to join a small basement…
Articles by Dave
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Best of #LucidLearning in 2018
Best of #LucidLearning in 2018
Just over a year ago, I wrote my first real LinkedIn post and tagged it with #LucidLearning. Going into it, I had no…
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Dave Grow shared thisBusiness partners are coming with big ideas for AI transformation. CIOs are responding with two questions. • What is the desired outcome? • What is your current process? This was a dominant theme at a roundtable discussion I led last week with 15 Enterprise CIOs. The reality is that all executives are under pressure to deliver real, measurable ROI from AI investments. But outside of a few core areas (like customer support and coding), that ROI hasn't materialized at scale yet. It’s not for a lack of ideas. It’s a lack of process clarity. While most executives can articulate what they want to accomplish, few deeply understand their current workflows at the level required for automation and agentic AI. True optimization requires mastering two perspectives simultaneously: • The 30,000-foot view: Major stages and steps for strategic redesign. • The 30-foot view: How individual tasks are actually performed on the ground. Think about the process you are currently considering for AI. Is it robustly documented? Do you truly see: • The triggers? • The hidden decision logic? • The handoffs between people and systems? • The actual outputs? Usually, the answer is no. This critical institutional knowledge is locked in your team's heads, not in a system that can be analyzed or mined. Surfacing and capturing this tribal knowledge in a streamlined, AI-assisted way is exactly how Lucid is supporting customers right now -- helping them generate real, measurable ROI faster. Because you can't transform what you can't see.
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Dave Grow shared thisMany organizations are measuring AI success the wrong way. They’re asking: "How much faster are our employees working?" The better question is: "How much faster is work moving through the organization?" An employee can draft a proposal in minutes instead of hours. A team can summarize research instantly. A manager can generate a presentation with a few prompts. But if decisions still sit in queues waiting for approval, if teams are still working from different assumptions, or if handoffs between functions still create delays, the business itself hasn't become meaningfully faster. That's the productivity paradox we're seeing play out across industries right now. AI is creating incredible gains at the individual level. The challenge is that organizational productivity has always depended on something bigger than individual output. It depends on how effectively information, decisions, and work flow across teams. The companies that create lasting advantages with AI won't simply help employees work faster. They'll redesign how work moves through the business. I explore this idea in my latest Forbes article. You can read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/g9Q2zHHaWhy Faster Employees Don't Equal More Productive OrganizationsWhy Faster Employees Don't Equal More Productive Organizations
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Dave Grow shared thisA Fortune 50 exec shared with me: "We have a problem here. We don't know where the authoritative source of process information is." This hits on the real reason why so many enterprise AI initiatives are stalling out right now. Companies are trying to make a massive leap from individual AI to institutional AI -- moving from "everyone has ChatGPT" to "agents are helping run our core business workflows." But there’s a gaping chasm in the middle. Think about it: if a human executive doesn't know where the authoritative source of truth is, how is an AI system supposed to find it? We’ve built this expectation that the technology will just figure it out. And that’s the missing piece. You can't automate a workflow that nobody actually understands. The true operating model of most enterprises isn't written down anywhere; it lives entirely as messy, invisible tribal knowledge inside people’s heads. And if you try to bolt a brilliant AI tool onto an opaque, unmapped process, you don't fix the business. You just automate the friction. You make mistakes faster. Crossing the gap to institutional AI requires doing the foundational work. You have to map out the actual reality of how work flows today, surface the hidden dependencies, and clearly document your processes. That's exactly why we're helping more executives and teams tackle this than ever before.
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Dave Grow shared thisMost organizations are already experimenting with AI. The harder challenge is building the operational foundation required to scale it across the business. That was a major focus of our three-part Lately @ Lucid webinar series, which wrapped up today. Over the past three months, we’ve explored our latest Lucid AI enhancements, strategies for enabling flexible planning, and how organizations can create the visibility and alignment needed for successful AI transformation. One thing has become increasingly clear throughout these conversations: AI transformation is fundamentally different from AI experimentation. It requires organizations to move beyond using AI as an individual productivity tool and instead treat it as an operational layer woven throughout the business. That shift depends on something many companies still lack today: clear visibility into their systems, processes, data flows, and decision-making structures. That’s where Lucid Software plays a critical role. By helping organizations create shared visibility and alignment around how work actually happens, Lucid provides the operational foundation AI needs to scale effectively. It’s been rewarding to see customers recognize how that foundation can help move their companies from isolated AI wins to true organizational transformation. Watch the recording of the last webinar here: https://bit.ly/4wqvbYL And read more about how Lucid is enabling AI transformation in organizations here: https://lnkd.in/gN86ebYJ
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Dave Grow shared thisThe list is out. And Lucid is the #11 most popular app in the Fortune 500 and #13 globally among all companies. The rankings from Okta's Businesses at Work report are always meaningful and 2026 is no exception. What stands out even more this year is the story behind the rankings. Organizations are moving faster than ever as they adopt AI. But speed alone isn’t the challenge. The real blocker is something more fundamental: most teams still can’t clearly see how their work actually happens. And if you can’t see it, you can’t improve it. You can’t automate it. You can’t transform it. That’s exactly where Lucid Software comes in. Now more than ever, organizations are using Lucid to capture and visualize the operational context layer – the core processes and workflows, the systems architecture and infrastructure, and the governance and guardrails – to enable real, scalable AI workflows. Visibility is what turns ambition into velocity. Grateful to our customers for using Lucid as the foundation for their AI transformations. Here’s to another year of helping teams everywhere see and build the future.
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Dave Grow shared thisIf everyone is using the same AI models to automate the same tasks, where does your competitive advantage come from? Operational context. Think of all the “what if” exceptions, judgment calls, and decision points in any given process. How does a customer service team know when to escalate a ticket? Or, when does a sales team know to switch up their messaging? These teams rely on context, unique to your business and often accumulated over years of experience. And if AI agents are to provide real value, they need this context too. For most businesses, though, context is hidden in undocumented processes. Only 16% of teams in our latest survey said their workflows are extremely well documented. The businesses that will see the best ROI will be the ones that treat documentation not as administrative work but as the critical foundation AI needs to scale value. No solution makes it easier to document context than Lucid. We’ve been helping enterprises visualize complex processes and operations for years, and we’re adding capabilities to make it even quicker to create and manage this documentation. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gdPkMrws
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Dave Grow shared thisRecently, Ben Dilts, Karl Sun and I joined Kickstart's podcast to tell the founding story and reflect on the learnings from the basement to today with 100+ million users, hundreds of millions in revenue, and an amazing team all around the world. It may have actually been the first time that all three of us sat down to tell the story externally. And there's no better person to do it with than Gavin Christensen who has supported us over the last decade+. In this short clip, I shared one of my biggest learnings over the last 15 years - be fanatical about the details. In the early days, I was deep in the details every day as I responded to every support ticket for the first couple years. And then, even with a team now responsible for responding, I continued to read each and every support ticket for years -- probably more than 100,000 in total. Today, with AI, there is the risk as operators that we get removed from the details. Could AI have created a summary of those 100,000 support tickets for me? Of course. Would I have developed the same deep understanding of, and empathy for, our user needs? Absolutely not. As much as I'm using AI in my day-to-day work today, I strive to stay close to the things that really matter. Don't get abstracted from the details that collectively paint the picture of where you can and should go as a team and as a business. I'll link to the full episode in the comments available on Youtube, Spotify and Apple for those who want to hear more of the full founding story.
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Dave Grow shared thisThis spring, we’re evolving our Lately @ Lucid launch. Instead of a single event, we’re hosting a three-part webinar series that dives into the pillars of modern productivity: intelligence, planning and execution, and transformation. Each month, we’re going deeper on one of these topics and the latest advancements Lucid is bringing to accelerate your team’s work: ⚪ March - Moving from a blank canvas to a finished product with AI in seconds, not hours ⚪ April - Building a "pivot-ready" culture through flexible planning ⚪ May - Mapping the processes and architecture that makes AI transformation possible I'm eager to hear how these themes resonate with your teams! You can find the link to sign up for the first (or all) sessions in the comments below.
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Dave Grow shared thisOpportunity to join a best-in-class legal team working on innovative solutions with incredibly bright and capable colleagues!
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Dave Grow liked thisDave Grow liked thisEvery ending comes with a new beginning! I'm still slightly exhausted & deeply inspired by a fantastic farewell party for André Christ. André, you not only built an exceptional product over the last years, but way more important brought an amazing group of people together, supported them relentlessly in their growth and created connections that last. We celebrated this journey in style (with Querbeat 😎 ). I'm deeply humbled to announce that as of yesterday, I'm taking over the role of Chief Product Officer for SAP LeanIX. There are steps in your career that you don't foresee, and that sometimes surprises you in hindsight. Spending time with this amazing team & our amazing customers is what drives me, and where I feel a deep passion to continue this journey. As the leading Enterprise Architecture product, where AI gives us completely new opportunities to reinvent the job of an EA - from collecting data & running behind, to proactively shaping the transformation of any company. As competitor in a fast shaping AI Governance space, being an integral part of SAP's Business AI Platform led by Philipp Herzig, joining forces with Signavio led by Andre N Wenz, with Cloud ALM led by Sören Ruder & others to solve one of the most challenging topics of today's corporate world - balancing rapid innovation based on AI, with the right level of oversight & control. And as key component of SAP's agent-led toolchain, joining forces with Sam Masri to help SAP's customer transform their ERP as foundation to unlock AI innovation. #SAP #LeanIX #EnterpriseArchitecture #BusinessTransformation #AIGovernance #bestTeam
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Dave Grow liked thisDave Grow liked thisLucid just published some data that didn't surprise me, but probably should: AI feature usage on our platform is up 67% in the past year. AI in the workplace isn't coming — it's already here. What I think comes next is the harder part: moving from using AI as a tool to treating it like a teammate. That shift doesn't happen automatically. Based on what I've seen working with customers, there are three things organizations need to get right: Workload literacy — If you can't describe a workflow clearly enough for a new hire to follow it, an AI agent won't be able to either. Start there. Jurisdiction boundaries — Be intentional about where AI acts autonomously, where humans stay in the driver's seat, and what lives in the middle. Culture before stakes — Give your teams low-pressure space to experiment before the pressure is on. Adoption works better when it's not forced. The companies that win here won't just be the ones with the newest tools. They'll be the ones who understand their own work well enough to know exactly where AI fits. I helped write a full guide on making this transition — worth a read if this is something you're thinking through: https://lnkd.in/gREkhCYEUnlocking the full value of human-AI collaborationUnlocking the full value of human-AI collaboration
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Dave Grow reacted on thisDave Grow reacted on thisAfter more than 14 years, I will hand over my responsibilities at SAP LeanIX tomorrow and leave SAP at the end of July. This has been the professional journey of my lifetime, better than I could ever have asked for. Founding LeanIX to solve a real customer problem, turning it into a category leader, and then becoming part of SAP has been the privilege of my career. Together with an incredible team we created the “Google Maps for IT”, we reinvented ourselves again and again, all the way to becoming an AI-native SaaS. Now we are expanding into the new AI governance category. A big thank you to our customers, for believing in us when we were small and always working with us at eye level. To everyone who has been part of the journey: you shaped LeanIX, and none of it would have happened without your effort, dedication, and trust. I will be forever grateful for this experience we shared. I am leaving the team in the best possible hands. Dominik Rose, who has built LeanIX alongside me for years, takes over as of July 1. Together with the team, there is no one I trust more to carry the story forward. A heartfelt thank you to Christian Klein, for the autonomy to lead LeanIX the way we believed was right, and to Sebastian Steinhaeuser and Muhammad Alam, for encouraging me to keep leading as an entrepreneur within the corporate world. And to everyone at SAP, for welcoming us warmly and giving LeanIX a home worthy of its ambition. The photo says it all. Standing next to Roger Federer and Christian at Sapphire is a full-circle moment, and one of the most amazing farewell gifts I could have asked for. Tennis has been my big passion since I was a kid, and that brings me to what comes next: the Bonn Open, a professional tennis tournament, returns at the end of July. For now, I will focus on running it and inspiring kids to love sports, a balance that has always mattered to me. I will be cheering for SAP and SAP LeanIX from the sidelines. It has been an honor. #Startup
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Dave Grow liked thisDave Grow liked thisThree years ago, our family put our lives on hold to serve a mission for our church in Brazil. At the time, I was CEO of the company I founded, Cotopaxi. Leaving that role was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I never doubted it was the right decision. Now our mission has come to an end. If I had to summarize the most important lessons, they would be these: 1. Joy comes from serving others. Money, status, and power don’t create lasting fulfillment. Ironically, the pursuit of happiness directly rarely works. Serving others is the way. 2. Less consumerism leads to a richer life. For three years, material possessions and social media played a much smaller role in my daily life. I found that most of the things competing for our attention contribute very little to our happiness. 3. Authenticity matters more than ever. When we left, AI was not part of our lives. Today it is everywhere. However, AI can’t replace genuine human connection. I hear a familiar artificial voice in posts, comments, and speeches, and I find myself drawn instead to people who speak from the heart. 4. Family and friendships are life’s greatest treasures. We’ve missed our family and friends tremendously. In the end, people are what matter most. 5. Faith grows through sacrifice. I owe God everything. Many of life’s greatest blessings come after we are willing to give something up. We gave up things to serve in Brazil, but what we gained in return was far greater. These three years were among the most meaningful of our lives. I’m a little sad it’s over, but also excited about what’s next!
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Dave Grow liked thisDave Grow liked this“Engineering is faster everywhere. AI is accessible to everyone. Speed is table stakes.” This is how Jamie Bergeson Lyon, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Lucid Software, closed out our latest webinar. That gap between shipping faster and deciding smarter is where most AI investment quietly disappears. According to Bain & Company: • 93% of developers use AI coding tools. • Organizational productivity has improved roughly 10%. 👉 The math doesn't add up because the bottleneck isn't where people are looking. It's upstream, in the product function; in the discovery, the alignment, the judgment calls about what actually deserves to get built. • Nearly 50% of product teams don't have enough time for strategic planning. • 72% of product managers spend their days on tactics, not strategy. And the tools the market offers haven't changed that. The challenge is no longer building fast. It’s knowing what to build. That's why we rebuilt airfocus around this premise: Speed only creates value when you're moving in the right direction. In our latest webinar, Jamie Lyon broke down what that means in practice, and what a product intelligence platform built for this moment actually looks like. 🎥 Catch up on the recording → https://lnkd.in/ekxJp2VP
Experience & Education
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Lucid
View Dave’s full experience
See their title, tenure and more.
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Volunteer Experience
Publications
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Lessons of Building a New Category: Visual Collaboration
Category First
See publicationTopics include:
* The state of the visual collaboration market before Lucid.
* Launching new products after establishing category leadership.
* Proving ease of use to customers.
* Stepping into the role of CEO after helping the company reach its current success.
* Taking over a growing company during an uncertain economy.
* Why it's so important to have alignment with your executive team. -
Early Stage Growth Tactics
Running Stuff
See publicationIn this conversation, Dave shares his learnings and insights from Lucid’s earliest days, including the principles around implementing their successful freemium, self-serve motion, their early growth tactics around driving new users to their website, and how they eventually layered on a traditional sales motion to drive accelerated growth.
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Giving Away Your Legos
Built by Humans
See publicationPresident and COO Dave Grow joins Scott Britton and Andrei Newman on the Built by Humans Podcast to discuss his approach to strategy, hyper-growth, self-awareness, and patience.
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Unpacking the New Customer Journey & How to Build a Growth Team
OpenView BUILD
See publicationPodcast interview on the self-service to Enterprise model, including discussion on why self-service can be powerful and when to know if it's the right model; the various roles that sales, customer success and others play in this journey; and the type of company culture required for a product-led growth company.
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Sales & Marketing Spend: How Lucidchart Scaled to 10M Users with Zero Burn
OpenView Labs
See publicationPodcast interview with a few key themes:
* Starting out: keep it simple and focused
* Optimizing: build on what's working
* Adapting: experiment to find your next win
* Expanding: stay true to your approach -
From Freemium to Enterprise: Growing to over 10 million users
SaaS Revolution
See publicationPodcast interview on a number of topics:
* What are the different GTM strategies to get to scale and what has worked for Lucidchart?
* Should SaaS companies pursue a freemium model?
* How Lucidchart moved upmarket and how it overcame certain challenges
* How to find the intersection between what you love and what brings value to your company
Honors & Awards
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CEO of the Year
Utah Business Magazine
https://utahbusiness.com/awards-and-rankings/2026/03/13/ceo-of-the-year-2026-utah-business-dave-grow/
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CXO of the Year
Utah Business Magazine
https://www.utahbusiness.com/archive/2018/06/15/meet-this-years-cxos-of-the-year/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXDlisXXAc -
Forty Under 40
Utah Business Magazine
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/david-grow-lucid-software-named-140000085.html
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Marketer of the Year
American Marketing Association, Utah Chapter
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dave-grow-lucid-software-named-150000094.html
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Sales & Marketer of the Year
Utah Business Magazine
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lucid-software-marketing-team-named-110000406.html
Test Scores
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GMAT
Score: 780
Languages
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Greek
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