Johan Baltzar, co-founder and CEO of Steep, shares insights from his time as Product Analytics Manager at Spotify. He discusses how analytics fueled Spotify's explosive growth and the challenges of making data accessible to all employees. Johan also delves into Steep's user-friendly business intelligence tools, emphasizing semantic layers for real-time data access. Additionally, he explores the vibrant startup culture in Stockholm, highlighting effective collaboration and innovation in the tech scene.

Toby Mao, co-founder and CTO of Tobiko Data, shares insights from his rich experience at Netflix and Airbnb in this engaging discussion. He dives into the transformative journey of building SQLMesh, highlighting its innovative features for data operations. The conversation contrasts SQLMesh with DBT, showcasing SQLMesh's strengths in state management and error checking. Toby also emphasizes the importance of the semantic layer in data quality and shares the collaborative spirit behind SQLMesh's community, making it a vital tool for modern data engineering.

Mark is joined in this episode by Christian Steinert to talk about his solo journey building Steinert Analytics, a data analytics consultancy transforming data into actionable revenue and cost-saving insights for Central Ohio's SaaS startups.Steinert Analytics homepageChristian Steinert LinkedIn Profile“Helping a Roofing Company Define Their Sales Process”“Transforming a Top 5 Fast Food Company's Operational Drive-Thru Reporting”

Mark Rittman is joined in this episode by Ethan Aaron, Founder & CEO of Portable, to talk about what you should do if you’re the first data hire at a company, when and when not to hire a consultant, the founding story of Portable.io and the long tail (and economic model) of the data integration connectors market.Ethan Aaron LinkedIn ProfilePortable.io Homepage“The biggest misconceptions about data integrations..” (LinkedIn)“You join a 100 person company as the head of data. What should you do?” (LinkedIn)“The stuff no one will tell you about running a data team” (LinkedIn)

Mark Rittman is joined by returning guest David Jayatillake, VP of AI at Cube.dev, to talk about Delphi Labs’ journey from a standalone data analytics chatbot to now becoming the basis of Cube’s new AI features within its composable semantic model product.Drill to Detail Ep.102 'LLMs, Semantic Models and Bringing AI to the Modern Data Stack' with Special Guest David JayatillakeDrill to Detail Ep.107 'Cube, Headless BI and the AI Semantic Layer' with Special Guest Artyom KeydunovIntroducing the AI API and Chart Prototyping in Cube CloudA Practical Guide to Getting Started with Cube's AI APICube Rollup London : Bringing Cube Users Together

Mark Rittman is joined in this final episode of the current series of Drill to Detail by returning guest Jordan Tigani, Co-Founder & CEO at Motherduck to talk about the journey from big data to small data and bringing hybrid cloud execution to DuckDB.Big Data is DeadTeach Your Duckdb To FlyAnnouncing Motherduck: Hybrid Execution Scales Duckdb From Your Laptop Into The CloudDrill to Detail Ep.64 ‘Google BigQuery, BI Engine and the Future of Data Warehousing’ with Special Guest Jordan Tigani

Mark Rittman is joined in this special episode by previous Looker founder and inventor of the LookML language Lloyd Tabb together with Carlin Eng, Product Manager at Google Cloud to talk about Malloy, a new query language to replace SQL for analytics.Drill to Detail Ep.60 'A Deeper Look Into Looker' With Special Guest Lloyd TabbMalloy : An experimental language for dataA Sequel to SQL? An introduction to MalloyWhy SQL syntax sucks, and why it mattersComposing with QueriesDimensional Flexibility, one of the things that makes Malloy SpecialData is Rectangular and other Limiting MisconceptionsMalloy's Near Term Roadmap

Mark Rittman is joined in this episode by returning guest and Elementl Founder Nick Shrock to talk about Dagster's role in the modern data stack ecosystem and software defined assets, a new, declarative approach to managing data and orchestrating its maintenance.Introducing Software-Defined AssetsRethinking Orchestration as Reconciliation: Software-Defined Assets in DagsterOptimizing Data Materialization Using Dagster’s PoliciesHow I use Dagster to orchestrate the production of social science data assets

Mark Rittman is joined in this special episode of Drill to Detail by Benn Stancil, CTO and Founder at Mode to talk about their recent acquisition by ThoughtSpot, the economics of the modern data stack and how AI and LLMs could likely become our industry’s next discontinuity.We don’t need another SQL chatbotThe new philosophersThoughtSpot acquires Mode Analytics, a BI platform, for $200M in cash and stockChatGPT-Powered Data Analysis using Cube, Delphi and the Code Interpreter Plugin

Mark Rittman is joined in this episode by Artyom Keydunov, Founder at Cube to talk about embedded analytics and Cube's origin story, headless BI, query acceleration and how Cube and Delphi enable an AI-powered conversational interface for the semantic layer.Empower uniquely insightful AI & LLM data experiencesAI-powered conversational interface for the semantic layerDefine metrics upstream to align your teamHow Rittman Analytics Delivers the Semantic Layer Today with CubeRittman Analytics Cube Quickstart