About the Firm

Keith Block is Founder and CEO of Smith Point Capital. Prior to Smith Point, Mr. Block was co-Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce and served on the company’s Board of Directors. Block had previously served as COO and Vice Chairman. Joining the company in 2013, under his leadership Salesforce grew from $3 billion to over 20 billion in revenue.

Prior to joining Salesforce, Block served as Executive Vice President of North America Sales and Consulting at Oracle. As an executive committee member, he led a multibillion-dollar sales and services business unit that achieved record growth and profitability during his tenure. He began his career at Booz Allen Hamilton as a senior consultant.

Block currently serves as a Director of State Farm Insurance Company. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for Carnegie-Mellon University, and the Advisory Board at Carnegie-Mellon University Heinz Graduate School. In April 2019, he was recognized by Business Insider as one of the 100 People Transforming Business. Previously, he was a member of the Business Roundtable, the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, the American Heart Association Roundtable, and was a governor on the World Economic Forum IT Council.

In February 2018, Block and his wife Suzanne helped establish the Block Center for Technology and Society at Carnegie-Mellon, which will create meaningful plans of action to ensure emerging technologies can be harnessed for social good, are more inclusive, and improve quality of life.

Burke Norton is co-founder of Smith Point Capital. Prior to Smith Point, Burke was Senior Managing Director at Vista Equity Partners, where he was co-head of Perennial Capital, the firm’s long-term enterprise software investment fund. Mr. Norton also served as a member of Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee.

Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Norton was Chief of Corporate and Government Affairs, Chief Legal Officer and a member of the Executive Committee at Salesforce. Before his time at Salesforce, Mr. Norton worked at Expedia as a member of the Office of the Chairman and was Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

Prior to Expedia, Mr. Norton was a Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he practiced M&A and securities law. Mr. Norton has executed on over 100 public and private M&A transactions, over 50 public equity offerings and over 200 venture investments.

Mr. Norton has been a regular speaker at World Economic Forum meetings regarding digital transformation, digital inclusion and technology policy, and he was Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Policy Community. Mr. Norton was also a member of the Board of Directors of The Business Software Alliance, and he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Chris Lytle is co-founder of Smith Point Capital. He brings more than 25 years of experience in technology investing and management roles. Over the past 13 years, Chris has served as President of Longfellow L.P., where he performed the dual roles of investor and executive positions at two technology companies. Chris currently serves on the Boards of Inseego and Prolifiq and is a strategic advisor to Virtualitics.

Before 2019, Chris was an investor and EVP of Enterprise SaaS & Chief Strategy Officer at Inseego, a publicly traded 5G and edge compute company. In 2017, Chris led the hiring of a new management team and the creation of a new strategic plan. In addition, he led the restructuring of the balance sheet and recruitment of strategic capital.

From 2013 to 2016, Chris served as lead investor and President of Cavulus, a privately held SaaS company focused on the automation of individual health plan membership acquisition, where he led both sales and finance functions. As the lead investor of a syndicate owning 50 percent of Cavulus, he led the sale of this stake to UPMC Enterprises in 2017.

Prior to these operating roles, Chris started the RCL Capital hedge fund at John Levin & Co. in 2003 and sold a controlling position in the fund to Morgan Stanley in 2006. He served as Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and managed the fund until 2009.

John Cummings is a Managing Director with Smith Point Capital. Prior to joining Smith Point, John was Senior Vice President of Finance, Corporate Development and Investor Relations for Celonis SE, a pioneer in process mining and execution management software. At Celonis, he was responsible for the company’s long-range financial plan, corporate strategy, and investor relations, including raising $1.1 billion in Series D equity capital and placing more than $400 million is secondary shares.

Before Celonis, John was Senior Vice President of Finance for Salesforce, Inc., where he was a member of the global finance leadership team. At Salesforce he oversaw Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis, where he was responsible for the company’s $17 billion annual budget. He also led global Investor Relations, where he was recognized by Institutional Investor Magazine as the number one ranked IR professional for the software industry for five consecutive years.

Prior to Salesforce, John was a partner with Aeolus Partners, a developer of renewable energy with a focus on European wind energy. He also served in senior finance and investor relations roles at several public companies including the PMI Group, Pets.com, and Sybase, Inc.

John began his career with Government Investment Management Corporation, a Washington, D.C.-based long-short hedge fund where he served as an equity research analyst. In connection with his work at Government Investment Management Corporation, John served as a representative to the Asia Pacific Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank on economic and security policy and served as an adviser to Malaysia’s former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

John earned dual MBAs from the Haas School of Business and Columbia Business School, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Relations from UCLA. John resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and eight-year-old son.

Lorenzo Salazar joined Smith Point Capital in April 2023 as a Principal where he is focused on growth investments in leading enterprise software businesses. Lorenzo brings a fundamentals focused, highly experienced background to Smith Point having spent the majority of his career in software and technology investor roles at Vista Equity Partners and Ionic Partners. Previously he worked in the M&A investment banking division at Credit Suisse.

Originally from Chicago, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees from the McCombs School of Business. Outside of work, Lorenzo likes to play tennis, read and explore new food and travel destinations.

Katie Rodday is Director of Operations at Smith Point Capital. Katie is a seasoned operations executive with nearly 15 years in the field. Prior to joining the team at Smith Point, Katie has held notable positions supporting C-Suite leaders within the tech, sports and entertainment, and retail and fashion industries in Boston and New York City.

Katie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Stonehill College and is a native of the Boston area.