Building Tableau: From Bootstrapped Beginnings to a $15.7B Salesforce Acquisition

Christian Chabot (Co-Founder, Tableau) dives into the journey from bootstrapping Tableau in the early days to eventually IPOing and selling to Salesforce for $15.7B. Christian shares the biggest operating lessons from scaling Tableau and thoughtful insights for founders, especially those in the business software industry.

(0:00) Intro
(0:55) Christian’s Early Career and Entrepreneurial Journey
(3:14) Finding an opportunity in the market
(6:12) Joining SoftBank
(7:14) Lessons on venture capital
(10:50) Company origin stories
(12:03) The Birth of Tableau: From Idea to Company
(16:20) Getting right in the early days
(20:55) Commercializing something out of academia
(23:42) Bootstrapping it
(28:23) The growth and success of Tableau
(32:38) Reflections on the journey and the future
(43:57) Patience and basic metrics in business growth
(45:33) The role of external investors in business expansion
(48:02) The impact of capital on business ambitions and control
(49:38) Choosing the right investor
(51:39) The importance of maintaining control in fundraising
(54:11) Competition in business growth
(58:28) The importance of team chemistry in scaling a business
(1:02:19) Impact of disruptive hiring practices on business growth
(1:21:26) Power of community and innovating marketing
(1:26:16) Global expansion

Produced: Rashad Assir & Leah Clapper
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.