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Ana Leyva
Go-to-market
“If you want to build a ship, do not drum up people to collect wood and do not assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
– Antonine de Saint-Exupery
Ana specializes in go-to-market at Pear, helping our founders build high-performing sales motions. She has a rich background in enterprise sales and brings invaluable experience from companies like Vanta, ServiceTitan, and Box. Ana is also an entrepreneur, having founded and served as the CEO of the ed-tech startup, Lelu.
As a first-generation college graduate, Ana’s extremely passionate about education. She holds an AB from Princeton University in International Relations and Public Policy and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University.
Ana is a proud native of the Bay Area and remains deeply involved in the community, where she lives with her husband and three children.
Outside of work you’ll find me…
…on any and all swings! on a pickleball court, out biking or hiking with the fam, or cozied up with a good book.
What is your most used emoji?
🥰🚀💪
What’s your favorite book?
It’s way too hard to choose just one book! I need to break it up by categories 🙂
Business:
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Shultz
Life:
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
A must-read for every American:
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Classic:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
What career path did you want to pursue when you were a kid?
I wanted to be a singer/performer like Selena! (Anything for Selenas!! IYKYK)
What are your favorite sports teams?
I’m a Bay Area girl, so Giants, 49ers, Warriors all the way. I love women’s sports and have been a long time fan of the US women’s soccer team. I love watching all the college women’s teams during March Madness, too.
Previously
Box
ServiceTitan
Vanta
Lelu
Interested in
I love working with founders who are champions of their end users. When I meet a founder that is obsessed with serving their end-users and laser-focused on building on behalf of that underserved user, I know they already have the best competitive advantage. That passion and customer-centered focus can’t be beat.
As someone who went from having a very negative idea of what sales is (ALL the worst stereotypes 😅) to being obsessed with sales and seeing it as THE best way to fully understand customers, my main goal in the work I do with founders is to help them embrace GTM leadership for the long-haul. My hope is that after working with me, founders will see themselves as the first, most important and most consistent customer acquisition and customer success leaders for their orgs, and that they come to really LOVE that side of company building.