Lessons in Growth and Adaptation from a Successful Tech Company

This is Zack Fuss. Today I am joined by Yanev Suissa, Managing Partner at SineWave Ventures, to break down the private company Databricks. Born out of a UC Berkeley research lab in 2013, Databricks has grown rapidly, and after 50% growth this summer, it was rumored to have last raised at a $43 billion valuation.

In the most simple terms, Databricks provides tools for ingesting, transforming, and analyzing large sets of data from multiple sources in multiple formats in order to inform business and engineering decisions. Databricks is on a crash course with Snowflake to amass market share. In this conversation, we explore the nuances of structured and unstructured data, discuss data lakes, and what it entails to get "Hadooped." Please enjoy this breakdown of Databricks. 

Interested in hiring from the Colossus Community? Click here.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors, and provider of Canalyst. Tired of calculating fully-diluted shares outstanding? Access every publicly-reported datapoint and industry-specific KPI through their database of over 4,000 driveable global models handbuilt by a team of sector-focused analysts, 35+ industry comp sheets, and Excel add-ins that let you use their industry-leading data in your own spreadsheets. Tegus’ models automatically update each quarter, including hard to calculate KPIs like stock-based compensation and organic growth rates, empowering investors to bypass the friction of sourcing, building and updating models. Make efficiency your competitive advantage and take back your time today. As a listener, you can trial Canalyst by Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss | @ReustleMatt | @domcooke

Show Notes:

(00:02:32) - (First Question) - What Databricks is and why it is so successful 

(00:04:38) - Real world examples of how customers use Databricks 

(00:07:23) - How issues were handled historically before Databricks was available 

(00:08:39) - Key examples of what helped accelerate Databricks’ success 

(00:10:52) - Databricks revenue model and how it converts into bottomline  

(00:12:13) - How Databricks competes with competitors like Snowflake 

(00:14:11) - Competition versus symbiosis when compared to large organizations 

(00:14:11) - The overall size of Databricks as a business

(00:18:09) - Costs incurred when using a database service like Databricks

(00:19:47) - The founding story of Databricks 

(00:22:53) - When SineWave recognized the database's potential 

(00:24:29) - The importance of partnerships and how they help grow the business 

(00:27:07) - Legacy solutions that they are disintermediating or replacing in their growth  

(00:27:57) - What being Hadoop’d means 

(00:21:50) - A breakdown of the complexity behind switching to different database providers 

(00:32:07) - The success of these businesses breaking into legacy regulated industries 

(00:34:47) - Why AI is so impactful to the database 

(00:37:40) - How AI is helping these businesses go to market with their software 

(00:39:50) - Democratization of data access and businesses taking the opposite approach 

(00:43:00) - Key reasons for investing in Databricks and potential risks to be considered  

(00:46:12) - Lessons learned from studying Databricks