M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)

2023-07-13 · 61 min · 37 entities

episode page audio

Asserted relationships

→ references Monetizing Innovation Companies Design Product book

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evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Monetizing-Innovation-Companies-Design-Product/dp/1119240867
→ references Range Generalists Triumph Specialized World book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214506
→ references Sam Walton Made America book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835
→ references GöDel Escher Bach Eternal Golden book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567
→ references J Schottenstein person

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evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://twitter.com/j_schottenstein
→ references Julia Schottenstein person

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evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://linkedin.com/in/julia-schottenstein-25424318
→ references Snowball Warren Buffett Business Life book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business-Life/dp/0553384619/r
→ hosted by Lenny Rachitsky person

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evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: Lenny Rachitsky
→ discusses Technology company

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Technology
→ discusses Business concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Business
→ discusses Entrepreneurship concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Entrepreneurship
→ references penname.co website

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evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://penname.co/
→ references snowflake.com website

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://snowflake.com/en
→ references Succession website

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evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://hbo.com/succession
→ references review.firstround.com company

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evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://review.firstround.com/podcast
→ references getdbt.com website

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evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://getdbt.com/
→ references Vanwesterndorp Pricing Sensitivity Study person

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://qualtrics.com/marketplace/vanwesterndorp-pricing-sensitivity-study
→ references Join The Community person

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://getdbt.com/community/join-the-community

Entities found in this episode

books 10

mentioned Monetizing Innovation Companies Design Product book

0.90

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Monetizing-Innovation-Companies-Design-Product/dp/1119240867
mentioned Range Generalists Triumph Specialized World book

0.90

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214506
mentioned Sam Walton Made America book

0.90

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835
mentioned GöDel Escher Bach Eternal Golden book

0.90

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567
mentioned Snowball Warren Buffett Business Life book

0.90

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business-Life/dp/0553384619/r
references Monetizing Innovation Companies Design Product book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Monetizing-Innovation-Companies-Design-Product/dp/1119240867
references Range Generalists Triumph Specialized World book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214506
references Sam Walton Made America book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835
references GöDel Escher Bach Eternal Golden book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567
references Snowball Warren Buffett Business Life book

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://amazon.com/Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business-Life/dp/0553384619/r

persons 10

mentioned J Schottenstein person

0.90

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://twitter.com/j_schottenstein
mentioned Julia Schottenstein person

0.90

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://linkedin.com/in/julia-schottenstein-25424318
references J Schottenstein person

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://twitter.com/j_schottenstein
references Julia Schottenstein person

0.77

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://linkedin.com/in/julia-schottenstein-25424318
mentioned Lenny Rachitsky person

0.70

evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: Lenny Rachitsky
hosted by Lenny Rachitsky person

0.55

evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: Lenny Rachitsky
mentioned Vanwesterndorp Pricing Sensitivity Study person

0.45

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://qualtrics.com/marketplace/vanwesterndorp-pricing-sensitivity-study
mentioned Join The Community person

0.45

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://getdbt.com/community/join-the-community
references Vanwesterndorp Pricing Sensitivity Study person

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://qualtrics.com/marketplace/vanwesterndorp-pricing-sensitivity-study
references Join The Community person

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://getdbt.com/community/join-the-community

websites 8

mentioned penname.co website

0.45

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://penname.co/
mentioned snowflake.com website

0.45

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://snowflake.com/en
mentioned Succession website

0.45

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://hbo.com/succession
mentioned getdbt.com website

0.45

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://getdbt.com/
references penname.co website

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://penname.co/
references snowflake.com website

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://snowflake.com/en
references Succession website

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://hbo.com/succession
references getdbt.com website

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://getdbt.com/

concepts 5

mentioned Business concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Business
mentioned Entrepreneurship concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Entrepreneurship
mentioned Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs concept

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evidence rules-v4
M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)
discusses Business concept

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Business
discusses Entrepreneurship concept

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Entrepreneurship

companys 4

mentioned Technology company

0.50

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Technology
mentioned review.firstround.com company

0.45

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://review.firstround.com/podcast
discusses Technology company

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Technology
references review.firstround.com company

0.38

evidence rules-v4
Link in episode "M&A, competition, pricing, and investing | Julia Schottenstein (dbt Labs)": https://review.firstround.com/podcast

Episode description as stored

Brought to you by Vanta —Automate compliance. Simplify security | Superhuman —The fastest email experience ever made | AssemblyAI —Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech — Julia Schottenstein is a product lead at dbt Labs, a data transformation company, and an active angel investor in data and infrastructure startups. She first got excited about dbt in 2019 when she was a VC at NEA and decided to make the leap from investor to operator by joining dbt Labs. She also co-hosts the dbt Labs Analytics Engineering Podcast, a show about data trends that impact analytics engineers’ work. In today’s episode, we discuss: • Advice for founders hoping to improve their M&A outcome • How to strategically think about competition • How to determine your paid features and have willingness-to-pay conversations • Why Julia lives by “worse is better” and “tech debt is a champagne problem” • Lessons from dbt Labs • What PMs can learn from investors — Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/m-and-a-competition-pricing-and-investing — Where to find Julia Schottenstein: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/j_schottenstein • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-schottenstein-25424318/ • Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4BKMMeVXk4jJnAQSqGSJvE — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Julia’s background (04:15) How Julia went from VC to working in product at dbt Labs (08:24) Four things Julia uses to evaluate a company’s potential (11:10) How to identify whether or not you have product-market fit (12:05) Distribution strategies (13:11) M&A strategies (15:54) Lessons from the Transform acquisition (18:01) Competitive values at dbt (20:25) Keys to dbt’s success (26:35) An offsite exercise Julia used to help her team internalize upcoming changes (29:32) Determining what features are included in open source (31:56) Pricing and willingness to pay (33:34) Lessons from dbt Labs’s first pricing change (36:33) Whether or not to be public about selling your startup (40:08) How to utilize connections during acquisitions (44:57) How to communicate selling your company (46:33) M&A market forecast (47:28) Values at dbt Labs (50:14) Lessons from working with strongly opinionated users (52:02) The importance of shipping, learning, and iterating (54:08) How VC skills translate into product (57:03) Lightning round — Referenced: • dbt Labs: https://www.getdbt.com/ • Tristan Handy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristanhandy/ • dbt Labs acquires Transform to enhance Semantic Layer tool: https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/news/365530993/DBT-Labs-acquires-Transform-to-enhance-Semantic-Layer-tool • Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/en/ • Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid : https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567 • Red strings training clip from Ted Lasso : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVe3Iwy10MA • Monetizing Innovation : https://www.amazon.com/Monetizing-Innovation-Companies-Design-Product/dp/1119240867 • Madhavan Ramanujam on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-and-science-of-pricing-madhavan#details • Pricing survey: https://www.qualtrics.com/marketplace/vanwesterndorp-pricing-sensitivity-study/ • Hunter Walk’s blog post about publicly selling your startup: https://hunterwalk.com/2023/05/13/the-acquihire-market-for-early-stage-startups-is-ice-cold-one-better-strategy-announce-youre-for-sale/ • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World : https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214506/ • The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life : https://www.amazon.com/Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business-Life/dp/0553384619/r • Sam Walton: Made in America : https://www.amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835 • Succ