Top Gun 51 Profile: Josh Lewis on Alteryx’s Analytic Process Automation Opportunity

Alteryx, a supplier of analytic process automation (APA) software, is riding the digital business transformation wave. Founded in 1997, Alteryx is now going through its own transformation. In October, the company’s founding CEO, Dean Stoecker, passed the reins to Mark Anderson, who previously was Palo Alto Networks’ president.

Stoecker, who is now executive chairman, stepped aside to enable a seasoned executive to accelerate growth. Alteryx, which went public in 2017, offers tools that sit between data management platforms and analytics interfaces such as Tableau. Alteryx’s platform unifies analytics, data science and business process automation.

Channel chief Josh Lewis said Anderson’s arrival promises to boost Alteryx’s effort to expand indirect sales through partners. Lewis, who joined the company nearly three years ago, is among those channel executives chosen by a panel of distributors, master agents and industry analysts for this year’s Top Gun 51 list. Channel Futures spoke with Lewis about how his team has helped partners address the growing demand for modern analytics tools. The following are some highlights, edited for clarity.

Channel Futures: What are some of the ways you have helped Alteryx expand its go-to-market and partnering efforts?

Josh Lewis: We are in hyper growth mode. Our growth trajectory has just been just tremendous. It has been a rocket ship. Our partners play a critical role in that.

CF: When you arrived nearly three years ago, how partner-focused was the company?

Alteryx’s Josh Lewis

JL: Prior to coming on board, there was a lot of great partner engagement. The form and fit and substance of how we worked with partners needed some work. During a talk I gave at our partner summit in October, I referenced one of my favorite coaches, Jim Harbaugh. He was a 49ers coach and now is the coach at Michigan. My family’s all from Michigan. So I have very much a football mindset. Real growth happens over time. It is incremental, and that can lead to really big change. It has translated into things like modernizing our partner program, making sure that it’s on brand. We have focused on making sure we have best-in-class infrastructure and policies. And making sure that they really feel part of our success as a company.

CF: How can you tell?

JL: Most of our partners are users of our technology; that’s often where we start. This is not like selling a commodity product. We’re really selling a high IP kind of solution and it takes a certain profile. We know it when we see it. A lot of our partners really do feel very connected to us. In our recent survey, partners told us that we’ve gotten better over the last couple years.

CF: What have you done to make it best-in-class?

JL: Certainly, building out a great team in the field. When I came on board, there were a couple of us. Now the team is more than 30 people. We’ve gone through …