Julia Schottenstein
Product Leader at dbt Labs
Julia Schottenstein leads the dbt Cloud product at dbt Labs. She came from venture capital at NEA, where she invested in early-stage developer tools and infrastructure startups. She was so convinced dbt would be special that she tried to invest 20% of her net worth, lost the deal to Sequoia, and then joined the company to build the product herself.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Julia Schottenstein shares her unusual path from VC at NEA to product leader at dbt Labs, driven by recognizing that dbt had product-market fit so strong that users made it part of their identity. She provides a framework for evaluating early-stage companies across people, market, product, and distribution, and reveals her M&A playbook: inflict competitive pain on potential acquirers while keeping the relationship warm to maintain optionality.
Leadership Principles
- → Evaluate early-stage companies on four dimensions: people, market, product, and distribution — you won't get 10/10 on all four
- → M&A is always about creating plan Bs — don't prematurely shut down conversations with potential buyers
- → To get noticed for acquisition, inflict pain on the potential buyer in your area of competitive advantage while staying friendly
Notable Quotes
"M&A is always about creating plan Bs. Figure out the area that you bring a competitive advantage and inflict pain on that potential buyer. Make it impossible for them to not notice you."
— On the strategy for getting acquired — be competitively painful but relationally open
"When I talked to people using dbt, the way they described their experience was unlike anything I had heard before. It was much more of an identity for them than just a tool they were using to get their job done."
— On recognizing extraordinary product-market fit through user identity signals
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