Listen Here

| |

Conversation
Highlights

 

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Logan Havern, CEO & Founder of DataLogz, a BI ops platform that has raised $8 Million in funding. 

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

  • Origins of DataLogz: Logan started DataLogz after experiencing significant downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic while working at a major US airline. He used this period to brainstorm and develop a minimal viable product that would later evolve into DataLogz.
  • Validation and Early Traction: Initially, Logan tested the product concept on Reddit, where it quickly garnered significant interest, leading to 600 sign-ups. This early validation was crucial in moving forward with the development.
  • Pivotal Shifts and Aha Moments: DataLogz pivoted from a BI discovery tool to focusing more on BI administration after identifying stronger ROI in this area during a pivotal client interaction, which also led to a significant pilot sale.
  • Defining a New Category – BI Ops: Logan discusses the creation of the “BI Ops” category, which involves managing post-data warehouse processes within business intelligence environments to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
  • Marketing and Messaging Strategy: The effective use of straightforward messaging like “Got BI Sprawl?” resonated well with their target audience, simplifying complex services into relatable challenges faced by businesses.
  • Fundraising Insights: Logan shares his journey of fundraising, highlighting the importance of resilience in facing investor rejections and the strategic fit of investors who are willing to engage deeply with the startup’s vision and challenges.

 

Actionable
Takeaways

Validate Early with Community Feedback:

Logan’s approach to using platforms like Reddit to gauge interest and validate the concept for DataLogz before full-scale development underscores the importance of community feedback in the early stages of a startup. This strategy can provide crucial early validation and guide product development directions.

Utilize Strategic Pivoting:

The shift from a BI discovery tool to a more focused BI administration tool was a significant pivot for DataLogz. This example illustrates the value of being flexible in business strategy, especially after receiving direct market feedback that suggests a different approach might yield better ROI.

Define and Own Your Category:

Logan’s creation of the "BI Ops" category helped differentiate DataLogz from other data governance solutions. For startups in crowded markets, creating and defining a new category can help in positioning the company uniquely, making it easier for customers to understand the value proposition.

Leverage Simple, Direct Messaging:

The use of straightforward and engaging messaging like "Got BI Sprawl?" effectively captured the attention of potential clients. This takeaway highlights the effectiveness of clear and relatable messaging in marketing strategies, particularly when explaining complex products.

Build a Robust Fundraising Narrative:

Despite initial rejections, the persistence in refining the business pitch and demonstrating clear market validation and problem-solution fit was crucial for DataLogz’s fundraising success. This emphasizes the need for startups to develop a compelling narrative that resonates with investors, backed by evidence of potential growth and customer interest.

Recommended Founder
Interviews

Barr Moses

Co-Founder & CEO of Monte Carlo

Barr Moses, Co-Founder & CEO of Monte Carlo: $230 Million Raised to Build the Data Observability Category

Creating the Data Privacy Management Category with DataGrail

CEO and Co-Founder of DataGrail

Creating the Data Privacy Management Category with DataGrail’s Daniel Barber

Sarah Nagy

CEO of Seek AI

Sarah Nagy, CEO of Seek AI: $7.5 Million Raised to Modernize Business Analytics with Generative AI-Powered Database Queries

Nicolas Hourcard

CEO and Founder of QuestDB

Nicolas Hourcard, CEO & Founder of QuestDB: $15 Million Raised to Build the Leading Open-Source Time Series Database

Idan Shchori

CEO of Datorios

Idan Shchori, CEO of Datorios: More Than $23 Million Raised to Build the Perfect Data Orchestration Environment to Run ETL Code

Kaycee Lai

CEO and Founder of Promethium

Kaycee Lai, CEO and Founder of Promethium: $34.5 Million Raised to Make Building Data Products Easy

Saket Saurabh

Co-founder & CEO of Nexla

Saket Saurabh, CEO of Nexla: $15 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Operations

Sean Knapp

Founder & CEO of Ascend

Sean Knapp, Founder & CEO of Ascend: $50 Million to Power the Future of Data Engineering

Nicholas Freund

Co-founder & CEO, Workstream.io of Workstream.io

Nicholas Freund, CEO of Workstream: $7 Million Raised to Build the Data Knowledge Management Category

Eric Olden

CEO and Founder of Strata Identity

Eric Olden, CEO and Founder of Strata Identity: $42 Million Raised to Build the Identity Orchestration Category

Michel Tricot

Co-Founder & CEO of Airbyte

Michel Tricot, CEO of Airbyte: $181 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Integration

Yardin Shaked

CEO of Varos

Yardin Shaked, CEO, and Co-Founder at Varos: $4M Raised to Revolutionize Competitive Analytics and Break Data Silos

Eduardo Silva

CEO of Calyptia

Eduardo Silva, CEO of Calyptia: $5 Million Build the Future of Data Observation

Ajay Kulkarni

Co-Founder/CEO of Timescale

Ajay Kulkarni, CEO of Timescale: $180 Million Raised to Redefine the Database Category

Dan DeMers

CEO of Cinchy

Dan DeMers, CEO of Cinchy: Over $24 Million Raised to Build a Data Collaboration Platform That Makes Data Integration Obsolete

Vinoth Chandar

CEO and Founder of Onehouse

Vinoth Chandar, CEO and Founder of Onehouse: $33 Million Raised to Bring Order to Data Lakehouses

Jean Le Bouthillier

CEO of Qohash

Jean Le Bouthillier, CEO of Qohash: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Data Security

Ethan Aaron

Founder, CEO of Portable

Ethan Aaron, CEO of Portable: $3 Million Raised to Build a Cloud ETL Tool That Supports the Long Tail of Business Applications

Ian Coe

Co-Founder and CEO of Tonic AI

Ian Coe, Co-Founder and CEO of Tonic AI: $45 Million Raised to Build the Future of Synthetic Data

Jorge Penalva

CEO of Lang.ai

Jorge Penalva, CEO of Lang.ai: $40 Million+ Raised to Build the Customer Experience Operations Category

Ryan Janssen

CEO and Co-Founder of Zenlytic

Ryan Janssen, CEO and Co-Founder of Zenlytic: $5.4 Million Raised for AI-Assisted Business Intelligence to Drive Better Decisions

Ethan Ruby

CEO and Co-Founder of SaaSGrid

Ethan Ruby, CEO and Co-Founder of SaaSGrid: $3M Raised to Become the Standard For SaaS Metrics