Tristan Handy — The Work Behind the Data Work

Tristan Handy is CEO and founder of dbt Labs. dbt (data build tool) simplifies the data transformation workflow and helps organizations make better decisions. Lukas and Tristan dive into the history of the modern data stack and the subsequent challenges that dbt was created to address; communities of identity and product-led growth; and thoughts on why SQL has survived and thrived for so long. Tristan also shares his hopes for the future of BI tools and the data stack. Show notes (transcript and links): http://wandb.me/gd-tristan-handy --- ⏳ Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:40 How dbt makes data transformation easier 4:52 dbt and avoiding bad data habits 14:23 Agreeing on organizational ground truths 19:04 Staying current while running a company 22:15 The origin story of dbt 26:08 Why dbt is conceptually simple but hard to execute 34:47 The dbt community and the bottom-up mindset 41:50 The future of data and operations 47:41 dbt and machine learning 49:17 Why SQL is so ubiquitous 55:20 Bridging the gap between the ML and data worlds 1:00:22 Outro --- Connect with Tristan: