Alina Vandenberghe

Co-founder & co-Ceo @Chili Piper 🔥 🌶 Here I talk about lessons I learned to jumpstart my career from an intern to SVP. And to grow a company from 0 to almost 1 Bn

Started my own company before high school to pay for my own education. Sold lipstick and my tech skills. Decided to do a master in computer science because make-up was a low margin business

Went on to create first mobile products with millions of users for Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, Pearson. Some of them went to be keynoted on stage by Steve Jobs 

The past few years have got me back to entrepreneurship and it fits me like a glove. I founded Chili Piper - the demand conversion platform that doubles inbound conversion rates for cool companies like Spotify, Airbnb, Snapchat, Shopify and thousands others. Recently gone through a financial transaction that got us close to a billion dollar valuation 

On LinkedIn I write about lessons I learned as a woman & mom entrepreneur and hope to help others find their own giants within to prevail in their lives at work  

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Chili Piper is the most advanced routing and scheduling software for B2B revenue teams. 
We solve interesting problems, live and breathe our core value of “help,” and have a ton of fun doing it while fully distributed around the world — powered by espresso and hot sauce. 


We’re hiring all remote roles! In marketing , customer success  and product 

Community and events manager https://lnkd.in/ev448bmC

Senior product marketer https://lnkd.in/efZJ8Apt

Customer success manager https://lnkd.in/eEidxKYE

Customer LOVE engineer https://lnkd.in/epFkrnmh

Product designer https://lnkd.in/efg7nQgN

Scala engineer https://lnkd.in/eKhX_i5g

P.S. thank you for the hundreds of messages following up this post in my inbox. I feel extremely grateful to see the beautiful notes that appreciate our unique culture.

Might not have capacity to respond to each one of you but here's the gist : 

-  agencies that help with hiring.   Our recruiting team is awesome and we don't need any help 🧡 

-  candidates applying for roles. If you follow the normal recruiting process you have best chances to enter the funnel, i don't have any influence in it but I will be sending virtual good vibes for everyone. We have an awesome hiring team across the board and you are in great hands

chilipiper

kosmotime

Talks about #saas, #uxdesign, #marketingb2b, #entrepeneurship, and #productmanagement

Co-founder & co-CEO @Chili Piper 🔥 Here I talk about lessons I learned to jumpstart my career from intern to SVP. And to grow a company from 0 to almost $1Bn

My 6 year old had to write a word at school that would describe the most important value in our family.  The word he picked shook me 

Thought he’d write love or kindness or joy 

Or something along these lines. 

But he wrote none of those words

Instead he wrote “empathy” 
My 6 year old boy wrote “empathy”

I’m shook. In the best possible way

Mamdani won the NYC race . Despite being one of the "rich" affected by his new proposed tax system I'm staying put and firm in my decision to live in NYC. Why? 

Because :

1.  i think the rich caring more for helping the full ecosystem thrive is a good idea . Helping bridge the divide is always a good idea. We're all in this together.  We need to aim to solve together not separate 

2.  I love his messages of hope. Of togetherness. Of loving thy neighbor even if they are different. That is very meaningful to me. There's no reason to throw dirt at each other just because we're different 

3. I love that he's bringing people together. Gen z is finally getting back to community IRL because of his efforts and it's beautiful to see . Loneliness is an enemy towards us solving for big problems together 

3. I would imagine if many flew the traffic and subways in NYC will finally be bearable 😂 

Yes i know he's unexperienced. Yes i know some of his ideas don't have legs. But I love the message of unity he's bringing forward. And that kind of energy can be transmuted by others who are more experienced around him towards beautiful change hopefully 

I have traveled to 50 + countries . Sometimes alone . Sometimes alone and pregnant. I also lived in Europe for half my life and spend a big chunk of time in the summer there. So I have some knowledge on what’s like to be in other places 

I still to date prefer New York over any other place despite all its shortcomings and the craziness . Why?  Because i'm surrounded by amazing people doing amazing things. And that gives me a lot of inspiration to try to make the world a little better too. One ripple at a time 

Unlike SF I get a breath of industries to be inspired by. I won't be leaving NYC anytime soon

Status symbols over 40

Inner peace
Strong network
Sovereign thought  
Joy in the journey 
Great bullshit radar 
Incurable optimism
A partner who gets me 
A healed relationship with power
Love towards my past tormentors
No longer operating in survival mode
Not tying my worth with external validation  
Friends in 40+ countries who can host me 
Surrender in my attempt to fix all humanity 
My kids laughing more often than screaming 
Peace in my family despite all the differences
Intuition so strong I know what others will feel before they know it 
Courage to do things that don’t require social media broadcasting 
The kind of confidence in my skills that would terrify my 20 year old self 

Thank you Andrew Yeung for the inspiration

Our team of two marketers was responsible for creating $30M in pipeline this year.  For 2026 we're completely re-thinking our budgets and channels. Curious to see how we're going about it? 

Wrote an entire ungated blog post that talks about :
- Tech stack 
- People vs budgets (we're hiring! two roles are open on our site but more are coming) 
- Agents & ai workflows 
- Personalization at scale 

Live on our site https://lnkd.in/eXCKswTW

they: company events are boring 
me: hold my champagne

Yesterday I was waiting to speak right after Marcelo Claure  - a man who I admire a lot - and something cracked open inside of me as I was watching him talk

I was waiting next to the stage at the MXV Capital  event in New York . Mark G.  brought together vc and founders to talk about building in this chaotic , soulful city 

I said yes immediately when he invited me, because he and I share the same obsession:
New York as a home for tech built with conscience . built with diversity . built for human wellbeing

San Francisco is shaping many of the innovations in Ai 
But New York?
New York is shaping a wholesome ecosystem 

Here, tech is not separate 
It weaves in with art
It comes with music

It’s often at dinner tables with fashion, finance, philosophy, spirituality, and cultures from every corner of this planet 

So I’m standing there, waiting for my turn to tell the Chili Piper story together with a few entreprenuers interviewed by Dylan Itzikowitz  . And I’m looking at Marcelo - someone who has built at a scale I can barely wrap my mind around (he used to be CEO at SoftBank where he invested a billion in startups every week !!) 

And suddenly I feel something shift in me

This city is the reason I’m still becoming the person I’m meant to be

I came to New York because I wanted to learn from the kinds of people who attempt the impossible

I stayed because I kept meeting humans who do extraordinary things . not just for themselves, but for the world

The density of talent here is insane
But the density of consciousness is even higher

These days I’m obsessed with conscious capitalism - a version of business that actually takes humans into consideration.  Helps them get stronger, kinder, and more whole, not more depleted

I wouldn’t have the energy for that mission anywhere else

NYC doesn’t let me shrink
It doesn’t let me forget why I’m doing any of this

And every time I think I’ve reached my limit, someone like Marcelo reminds me:

We’re all capable of far more than we think . Especially when we build for something bigger than ourselves.

What events should i consider for my 2026 planning ? Varun Anand is inspiring me to create a proper tour for next year 

The only ones I am sure of for now that are in my immediate future are: 
  
speaking at Metadata's Agentic Ai - virtual https://lnkd.in/eeYquWai 
Spiralyze above the fold - in Florida  https://lnkd.in/eVGB9hte 
MXV Capital summit in New York https://lnkd.in/emVaNu5X 
Mada Seghete Female Founder retreat https://lnkd.in/eatmHNSd 
Go Nimbly REvfest https://lnkd.in/etVjn_aa 

and of course any Wednesday Women dinner 

Plus a few other smaller events , will start adding all to a notion doc so i can make my schedule public like a proper Linkedin influencer 😂 https://lnkd.in/eb2YE4C6

why i like Nathan Latka (even though some of you don't) 

Some of you might not like that he’s too loud 
He asks for comments on his post 
He sends a million texts 
He asks a gazillion dollars to meet him at events 

People think that’s too loud 
I say.... that’s not enough 

Here’s why 

All his content is 🔥

He is very mindful of the value he provides with his data and product 
He’s very mindful of his network 
He helps amplify all founders that do great things 
I always find value in what he shares 
I find that he helps the ecosystem grow together 

For example:
He funded Joel Ohman at Exercise.com at $50k of MRR in 2021 via his fund Founderpath
He funded Joel 19 more times totalling $3.5m
Joel bootstrapped using Nathan's money and got "massive" personal liquidity event last week when he exited

He brings value to everyone he meets 

I wish he just had capacity to do more. To help even more entrepreneurs 

So no , not loud. Just not enough

Real power is available to you whether you are the janitor or the ceo 

Because Real power is not what most people think

Most people think it’s control of resources . Yet all the history in the world shows us that is NOT at all the case 

You know when you’re really going to feel like you’re strong and powerful? 

When you will learn to gain influence

And influence is not how much followers you have on social media 

Influence is 

The ability to move people without forcing them
The ability to shift a room towards you without raising your voice
The ability to guide someone toward the right step 

This kind of subtle influence must be earned

This has been my obsession since I was an intern
I didn’t wait for a title to be named a leader
What I focused on with all my might : learning to influence 

from the bottom of the org chart

You don’t become a leader when you’re put in charge
You become a leader when people choose to follow you

When you can rely on yourself to speak, no matter how inappropriate the question or how badly it triggers you. When you can navigate another person’s opposition to your ideas with generosity and skill, recognizing it as an opportunity for intimacy or access to critical information instead of seeing it as a slammed door 

When you can ask anyone for anything, and greet even the hardest no with a sense of humor and persistence and curiosity. When you can do this, you’re not going to need power poses or advice on how much jewelry to wear with your expensive brand outfit  if you want to be taken seriously. You’re going to feel exactly as confident as you should . And everyone else is going to feel it, too

That’s power
The only kind worth having

There's one luxury that i have that I cherish more than anything else in my possession.  The ability to work only on things that I truly enjoy 

It's not everyone's reality and I'm extremely aware of it 

But because of AI we are getting closer and closer to it 

We can finally work on making crazy ideas happen 
Things that have been in our mind for a long time  
Things that we might never thought possible 
Things that have been calling us for a long time but have been put on the back burner 

It might not be a popular take but this year I'm thankful that AI is getting people to work more on things that bring them joy

Have problems articulating your points of view in a meeting ?

Journal 

Have problems giving or receiving feedback ?

Journal 

Have problems with someone ?

Journal 

Have problems journaling ?

Journal

i love men in tech. heck i even married one 

i organize lots of events with men in tech . i respect all they built. i empathize with the crazy grind, the pressure and the relentless ups and downs 

and while I admire them deeply I also yearn for something deeply 

to also make more space for more women founders too  
not as a favor.  but as a force multiplier 

because together we can solve for more problems. because together we can see more than one alone

taplio

Alina Vandenberghe 🌶️'s Linkedin Analytics