Founder Spotlight: Ann Chan, Co-Founder Berry AI
We’re excited to feature Ann Chan, co-founder of Berry AI - a sharp, strategic thinker with an infectious energy for solving real challenges in customer success through AI. Ann’s passion for innovation is matched only by her resilience, from navigating setbacks to redefining AI-powered solutions that help CS leaders scale smarter.
Berry AI’s mission is clear: empower companies to drive NRR growth with AI. Dive into our conversation to learn more about Ann’s journey and the impact of Berry AI. Plus book a demo to learn more here.
What inspired you to co-found Berry AI, and what problem were you most excited to solve?
Berry was born from a real, urgent customer pain that I discovered through rejection. Initially, we created a multiplayer screenshare tool for remote onboarding during the pandemic—but quickly uncovered a much bigger challenge. During one brutally honest conversation, a CS leader told me, "This is cool but just a nice-to-have. My real problem is that I don't have enough people to onboard and support thousands of customers." That candid feedback sparked a pivotal shift: we reimagined how AI can empower customer success teams to achieve 100x more and effectively tackle the scaled CS challenge.
I’m most excited to solve the high-touch-at-scale dilemma: delivering personalized experiences to tens of thousands of customers without burning out the team. Our mission is simple: help companies harness AI to grow NRR.
As a woman in AI, what challenges have you faced in your journey, and how did you overcome them?
One persistent challenge in my tech career is frequently finding myself as one of the few women—or sometimes the only woman—in the room, whether in an engineering stand-up or a high-stakes exec meeting. It can feel isolating and sometimes daunting.
Over time, I realized I didn't need to tackle this alone. Instead, I focused heavily on building relationships—seeking out mentors, connecting with peers, and actively engaging in women-first communities throughout my career. At Meta, I ran weekly circle meetings with a small group of female PMs, and today I regularly meet and text with a close-knit group of female founder friends. Communities like Women of CS have become invaluable because they provide me with a network where I feel safe being vulnerable, sharing challenges, and asking for help.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is Inspire Inclusion. How do you think we can drive more inclusion for women in tech and AI?
To inspire inclusion, we should celebrate stories of women successfully adopting AI to advance their careers. I've seen this firsthand with Berry's customers, where women in CS who embraced AI projects gained visibility, delivered results that got board-level attention, and unlocked new career opportunities.
Leaders can play a big role by proactively offering these AI-driven projects—and when they come your way, take them!
Practically speaking, it’s essential for women in CS to develop core technical skills, as that's where true confidence stems from. Participate actively in workshops, help each other master new technologies, and embrace AI daily. I truly believe in consistent baby steps—incremental progress is the key to real growth. Personally, I love sharing new tools with my friends and family—often playfully acting as an “AI police” to nudge them: “Why are you still doing this manually? Go talk to ChatGPT!”
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other women looking to break into leadership or start their own company?
My biggest advice is to actively seek out rejection and get comfortable putting yourself out there more frequently. Early in my career, my biggest regret wasn't experiencing rejection—it was not intentionally pursuing enough of those "nos."
Most people understand that overnight success is a myth, but few fully grasp that success is built through frequent setbacks and painful feedback. If you want to accelerate success, you need to accelerate the rate at which you encounter rejection.
It’s a mindset shift: the quicker you experience rejection—especially brutally honest feedback from bosses and customers—the faster you can learn, iterate, and ultimately improve. Think practically: if landing a promotion required first hearing "not ready" from your manager three times, wouldn’t you eagerly check off your first rejection today? Managing your feedback loop—the frequency, quality, and openness to it—is one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself.
What’s next for Berry AI? Any exciting developments our community should know about?
Berry’s AI has transformed how customer success teams manage onboarding, support, renewals, and expansions, achieving remarkable results—and we're just getting started. Our goal is to conquer every post-sales customer interaction and task, empowering CS teams to achieve 100x more.
One exciting advancement is our AI CSM’s capability to autonomously run QBRs and upsell customers, helping CSMs to consistently deliver expansion-ready leads.
Contrary to what many believe, Berry's AI doesn't require perfect documentation or extensive structured data to deliver powerful results. The real breakthrough lies in our AI's ability to harness scattered tribal knowledge from across your teams and systems. Berry's AI learns directly from your existing renewal and upsell practices, transforming high-touch playbooks into repeatable strategies you can deploy at scale!
