Opinion
dbt CEO Tristan Handy: The modern data stack concept is dead
“I don't think the modern data stack is a useful idea anymore.”
Insight
Handy: Hyperscalers build features for RFPs, not to kill independent tools
“When you talk to the folks at the hyperscalers, they will say, we are, we're like making sure that our solution is like covers all these different areas, but it's mostly not. Because we want to compete in these areas. It's mostly because people come to us with…”
Insight
Handy: Building in-house is often faster than M&A for data infrastructure
“Had to build, you know, there's like the iceberg, which is 10% above the water and you can see it. And then there's 90% below the water for a data company. The platform is the below the water part. And then the functionality that you build on that platform is …”
Insight
Tristan Handy: Software multiple expansion has shifted from modern data stack to AI
“If what you were trying to do is maximize the multiple that your software company was trading at, then AI is the enemy because all the multiple expansion has moved from modern data stack to AI.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Handy: Social media pricing backlash did not cause mass dbt cancellations
“Our business as a result has not really had a hiccup. But if you only existed on Twitter or LinkedIn you would think that you know, our customers desired us on mass and we're every single one of them was livid and canceled, but that just like didn't happen.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Handy: Early-stage VCs doubted data practitioners would learn Git in 2016
“Early stage VCs that I spoke to back in 2016 told me that, like, it wasn't at all clear that data practitioners actually wanted to learn Git.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Handy: Data processing will be polyglot with non-SQL abstractions within five years
“We really do think that the future of data processing is polyglot, and I think that if you look in five years, you will find more robust abstractions on top of data, and even in the DBT ecosystem, than SQL.”
Opinion
Handy: The core modern data stack architecture remains a good idea
“When people started using the term modern data stack, there was a there, like fivetran, dbt, mode, looker, et cetera. These are tools that. Were built around an idea of how data technology should work. And it was a, it was, and is a good idea.”
Insight
Handy: CDOs shouldn't build data platforms by integrating nine point products
“If you say I want a modern data platform as a CDO, like the right answer is not go out and buy nine different products and integrate them together.”
Insight
Handy: Cloud platforms care about compute consumption, not partner revenue
“My read is that people like us, people like Fivetran, while we are critical to their success as platforms, because we drive a ton of consumption. They don't actually really care about the dollars that we make as businesses. Cause they're so tiny relative to th…”
Insight
Handy: Reverse ETL tool value accrues to sales/marketing, not data teams
“It turns out that the value of a reverse ETL tool does not accrue to the central data team. It accrues primarily to. Sales and marketing teams who get the data.”
Disclosure
Handy: dbt will start exploring visual, GUI-based workflows this year
“And so this year will probably be the year where we start playing around in that space.”
Insight
Handy: Low-code data tools must read and write underlying code
“You have to get no code, low code experiences that read and write code so that code can go through a get PR process and it can have all the same mature stuff built on top of it as any other code.”
Disclosure
Handy: dbt Labs aims to power ecosystem infrastructure, not own cataloging
“As we move forward, we're not looking to, like, own cataloging or own whatever, these different categories. We're looking to be the infrastructure that powers this ecosystem, because it turns out that you don't actually want to connect to, like, four different…”
Insight
Handy: Depending on data engineering backlogs destroys data analyst productivity
“That is like the death of the data analyst as like a productive member of your team. They will get frustrated. They will leave. They, they're, they don't have great career paths. All of these like negative outcomes.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Handy: Data analysts spend 50% of their time blocked by engineering
“Like if you take a team at a like very good, like the data forward organization, a team of 20 data analysts, my guess is that they spend 50% of their time blocked.”
Opinion
Handy: Batch transformation is not LookML's core focus or innovation
“The part of LookML that does batch based transformation is, is not the primary focus of their product. It's not like the core innovation that they have.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Handy: Reverse ETL will automate workflows and multiply the data market opportunity
“There's a class of tools that takes the data that is in your data warehouse and pushes it back to operational systems. And I think that you will, as soon as that starts happening, you can automate the entire process and all of these technologies become, you kn…”
Opinion
Handy: Looker and Mode were superior to pre-cloud Tableau
“I had a strong preference to use tools like mode or looker over a tool like tableau because tableau was pre cloud and it assumed that you were going to be able to download all the data that you needed to operate on into your local cache.”
Opinion
Handy: Venture capital created too many data startups too quickly
“There was just, there were too many companies created too quickly.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Handy: The shift from ETL to ELT will remain true forever
“One of the kind of trends inside of this is the transition from ETL, extract, transform, load to ELT, extract, load and transform. And that seems to anyone who's not in data that Might not seem like a big thing, but in fact, it's like a really significant tran…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Handy: dbt Labs and Fivetran are not going anywhere
“And so that means that companies like us and companies like Fivetran that are big parts of that, you know, we're not going anywhere.”
Disclosure
Handy asked dbt marketing to adopt 'the analytics stack' label
“My big conclusion is I sent an email to our product marketing, our head of product marketing. I was like, Hey, can we just say the analytics stack? Like this is a set of technologies that works together to do analytics. And it kind of tries to get away from th…”
Insight
Tristan Handy: Building a production data system is building a software system
“One of the core beliefs about the, that we have about the profession is that data and software are not that different. And when you're building a production data system, you're building a production software system, which means that we should be taking lessons…”
Tristan Handy