Michel Tricot: the Story of Airbyte ($1.5 Billion Valuation)

In today’s episode of Unicorn Builders, we speak with Michel Tricot, CEO of Airbyte, an open source data integration platform that’s raised over $180 Million in funding, about how their open source, future-proof solution is helping businesses everywhere extract tangible value from the data they are all now producing. Developed over several years alongside an open source community of engineers, Airbyte have made sure they address real pain points for their partners by learning as much as possible about the problem space from those working right at the coal-face.

We also speak about why Michel believes the demise of the Bay Area startup sector has been greatly exaggerated, how his lifelong passion for data has carried through to all his big business decisions, why data now determines success for most businesses in the modern economy, and how building trust with customers in your industry is a great investment in future growth.

Topics Discussed:

• Michel’s lifelong love of data, and how toys translated into cutting-edge software solutions
• Moving to San Francisco, and why the ups-and-downs of investment cycles don’t change the fundamental innovation present in the Bay Area
• Why collecting data is ultimately about getting a big-picture view of what’s going on, regardless of what sector you operate in
• How Airbyte went about learning as much as possible about the problem space they were getting into before making any big decisions
• Why Airbyte went with PLG, and managed to successfully leverage their community for great market growth
• How the open-source success of Airbyte provides a model for other budding tech businesses to facilitate organic innovation both within and without