EP 86: Christian Chabot (Co-Founder, Tableau) on Operating Lessons From Scaling Tableau to $15.7B

The Logan Bartlett Show

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.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow

📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow

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 of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.

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