Guest: Julia Schottenstein - Product Leader at dbt Labs. Julia transitioned from venture capital at NEA to product management, where she now leads the dbt Cloud product and co-hosts the Analytics Engineering Podcast. Key Takeaways: M&A Strategy: Start thinking about M&A when you don't need it. Create plan Bs by inflicting "friendly pain" on potential buyers to get noticed, but maintain open communication. Evaluating Startups: Focus on people, market, product, and distribution when considering joining or investing in a startup. Understand where you can add value to de-risk the company's success. Competition Philosophy: Stay true to your vision, grow the market pie with partners, and lean into your strengths. Maintain a long-term view and foster an ecosystem of collaboration. Pricing Insights: Engage in willingness-to-pay conversations early. Use customer feedback to adjust pricing, ensuring it aligns with perceived value. Product Development: Embrace "worse is better" and view tech debt as a sign of success. Focus on shipping and iterating based on user feedback. Topics Covered: M&A strategy, startup evaluation, competition management, pricing strategy, open source vs. proprietary, product development, company values.
“M&A is always about creating plan Bs.”
“Perfect doesn't exist and you should instead go with good enough.”
“We would be so lucky to have tech debt because that means people are using the product.”
