Kevin Herr’s path to CEO didn’t start in the boardroom.
Once upon a time, Kevin ran a business with his brother, wearing every hat imaginable and learning how to build a company from the ground up. Those early experiences gave him a horizontal view of business - one that has shaped how he now leads at KnowledgeLake, our recent $65M growth investment.
"You have to take out the trash and call on the bank and go get a customer," Kevin reflected. "All those things that are important, instead of getting siloed into sort of a function."
Today, he leads KnowledgeLake not only with operational precision but with the mindset of a builder.
The KnowledgeLake Journey
KnowledgeLake didn’t start as a SaaS company. Its first incarnation was a professional services shop, helping companies implement legacy tech. That intimate knowledge of what didn’t work became the fuel for something better: building their own platform.
That platform caught the eye of Fujitsu, a Japanese multinational information technology company, and they acquired the business. But when the go-to-market integration proved too difficult, KnowledgeLake's founder, Ron Cameron, bought it back. By that time, the team had already committed to a true cloud-native approach — designing and building for the cloud from the start, rather than simply lifting and shifting existing systems. That move positioned the company perfectly for where the market was going.
"Already an investment had been made to be cloud first, be cloud native," Kevin said. "And it was relatively fresh in our industry. There were a lot of 'lift and shift' technologies to the cloud, but not just native born."
Fix the Front End, Automate the Rest
If you can’t get document ingestion right, everything downstream breaks. This is the thesis behind KnowledgeLake’s platform. It takes unstructured data, ingests it from any format or source, and makes it usable without human intervention.
They combine ingestion, intelligent workflow, and compliant storage to help enterprise customers eliminate manual glue and start scaling intelligently.
Where AI Delivers Real Value...and Where It Doesn’t
Kevin’s approach to AI is refreshingly pragmatic. For him, it’s not about hype cycles; it’s about real outcomes.
"AI is an interesting ingredient, but it's not the main course," he explained. "So we need a business case that we can land on with a customer that's going to drive value."
Instead, the company leans into frameworks that are durable, agile, and proven to integrate quickly. The result: enterprise customers that can go from proof-of-concept to ROI in 90 days and see 5x to 10x returns annually.
"We do a proof of concept for them with their documents so they understand," he said. "We can get this up and running pretty quickly here, show you the value."
Pricing, Retention, and the CFO Edge
Kevin’s financial background gives him a unique advantage in SaaS pricing strategy.
"You think about your cost first, and then you want to cover that and add a margin onto it," he said. "It takes some maturity and some experimentation to understand, 'what kind of value do we bring to customers?' And if we can understand that better, then I can price off the value they're receiving instead of the cost that I'm generating."
That clarity extends into sales, where consultative conversations uncover what customers aren’t saying out loud. "The more that you can understand about their business and where the value lies, it doesn't just inform your pricing, but also informs your product roadmap."
Scaling to $50M ARR: Invest in People, Bet on Potential
With ARR nearing $20M and a goal of $50M, Kevin is scaling the team alongside the product. But he’s not just hiring from the outside. He’s focused on developing leaders internally.
"The trade off is in someone who has this base of what I'll call, just kind of, company knowledge. Then you're betting on their leadership skills to progress, versus someone who might have great leadership skills coming in with no base to build on," he said.
That means putting people slightly over their skis and letting them grow into the next version of the company.
Leadership Lessons and Healthy Urgency
Kevin recently gathered his leadership team for a summit to define what growth-ready leadership looks like. "We just had a leadership summit... and for a day and a half, we talked about a lot of different things," he shared. "The real best leadership training is experiential... You get outside of your comfort zone."
He also reflects on the importance of healthy urgency: knowing when to push and when to pause. "If I have people showing up at five o'clock in the morning working till 10 o'clock at night, we're at an unhealthy spot and you're gonna just get burned out."
Advice to Founders: Build Relationships, Not Just Products
If Kevin could go back and tell his younger self one thing, it would be to network early and often.
"Don't be afraid to build your network," he said. "It really is building trusted relationships that you can lean on and learn from."
Final Thought: Automation with Integrity
Kevin Herr isn’t trying to build hype. He’s building value for customers, for his team, and for the future of KnowledgeLake. And as the company moves towards $50M ARR, that combination of automation, clarity, and leadership is what makes this story worth watching.
For more on Kevin Herr’s approach to automation, growth, and leadership, listen to the full episode of Electrifying Growth.
Interested in guest-starring on Electrifying Growth? Apply Here to be a guest!