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Julia Schottenstein is a product lead at dbt Labs, a data transformation company, and an active angel investor in data and infrastructure startups. She first got excited about dbt in 2019 when she was a VC at NEA and decided to make the leap from investor to operator by joining dbt Labs. She also co-hosts the dbt Labs Analytics Engineering Podcast, a show about data trends that impact analytics engineers’ work. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• Advice for founders hoping to improve their M&A outcome
• How to strategically think about competition
• How to determine your paid features and have willingness-to-pay conversations
• Why Julia lives by “worse is better” and “tech debt is a champagne problem”
• Lessons from dbt Labs
• What PMs can learn from investors
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/ma-competition-pricing-and-investing-julia-schottenstein-dbt-labs/#transcript
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Where to find Julia Schottenstein:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/j_schottenstein
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-schottenstein-25424318/
• Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4BKMMeVXk4jJnAQSqGSJvE
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Julia’s background
(04:15) How Julia went from VC to working in product at dbt Labs
(08:24) Four things Julia uses to evaluate a company’s potential
(11:10) How to identify whether or not you have product-market fit
(12:05) Distribution strategies
(13:11) M&A strategies
(15:54) Lessons from the Transform acquisition
(18:01) Competitive values at dbt
(20:25) Keys to dbt’s success
(26:35) An offsite exercise Julia used to help her team internalize upcoming changes
(29:32) Determining what features are included in open source
(31:56) Pricing and willingness to pay
(33:34) Lessons from dbt Labs’s first pricing change
(36:33) Whether or not to be public about selling your startup
(40:08) How to utilize connections during acquisitions
(44:57) How to communicate selling your company
(46:33) M&A market forecast
(47:28) Values at dbt Labs
(50:14) Lessons from working with strongly opinionated users
(52:02) The importance of shipping, learning, and iterating
(54:08) How VC skills translate into product
(57:03) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• dbt Labs: https://www.getdbt.com/
• Tristan Handy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristanhandy/
• dbt Labs acquires Transform to enhance Semantic Layer tool: https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/news/365530993/DBT-Labs-acquires-Transform-to-enhance-Semantic-Layer-tool
• Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/en/
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567
• Red strings training clip from Ted Lasso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVe3Iwy10MA
• Monetizing Innovation: https://www.amazon.com/Monetizing-Innovation-Companies-Design-Product/dp/1119240867
• Madhavan Ramanujam on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-and-science-of-pricing-madhavan#details
• Pricing survey: https://www.qualtrics.com/marketplace/vanwesterndorp-pricing-sensitivity-study/
• Hunter Walk’s blog post about publicly selling your startup: https://hunterwalk.com/2023/05/13/the-acquihire-market-for-early-stage-startups-is-ice-cold-one-better-strategy-announce-youre-for-sale/
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214506/
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life: https://www.amazon.com/Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business-Life/dp/0553384619/r
• Sam Walton: Made in America: https://www.amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835
• Succession on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/succession
• In Depth podcast: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
• dbt community Slack: https://www.getdbt.com/community/join-the-community/
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.