Felix Van de Maele On Building A .3 Billion Business By Turning Your Data Into Valuable Information
Felix Van de Maele is the founder and CEO of Collibra which delivers the only end to end data intelligence platform to accelerate digital business transformation. The company has raised over $300 million from top tier investors such as Index Ventures, Battery Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, Dawn Capital, CapitalG, Newion, Durable Capital Partners, and Brustart to name a few.
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He Built A .3 Billion Business By Turning Your Data Into Valuable Information
Felix Van de Maele is on the forefront of driving the world’s digital transformation. His startup has already raised over $300M to fund their growth in providing ever more in demand data services.
During our interview on the Dealmakers Podcast Felix Van de Maele shared his journey, fundraising experience, and the differences between Europe and the United States for startups. Plus, who you should hire first and the Amazonification of data.
Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.
Travel, Tech & The Thesis That Started It All
Felix Van de Maele was born to a lawyer and doctor in a small town on Belgium's coast.
He still remembers the powerful feeling he got when we created and published his first website. As soon as his city got internet at ten years old, he was on it and creating. This experience set him off on an extended journey studying computer science.
After starting off studying in Brussels, Felix became passionate about seeing the world. He pursued several Master’s degrees which took him around the world and back. He achieved advanced degrees in software engineering and management as well. He spent time in France, and Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and back in Belgium.
His first thesis was on semantic technologies, and building a better search engine. His second was focused on data integration.
“If they can do it, why shouldn’t I?”
At this point Felix was facing several options. He could pursue a Ph.D. in a lab, or go into banking or consulting. Having recently read a book on entrepreneurship that inspired him, he thought, “why don’t I start a company? If they can do it, why shouldn’t I?”
With his degrees in hand, he believed that if his startup didn’t workout he could always go get a job the next day. That was a safety net that de-risked the option of starting his own business.
Together with three other cofounders from his lab they set out to start Collibra. None of them had any work experience. They were in love with the technology, but still didn’t even have a problem to solve. They talked to others and got laughed at for the idea of an enterprise software startup. They were told “enterprise software is dead. No one is investing in enterprise software.”
They began writing a business plan. After a year of preparation and 13 versions of their business plan they raised a Seed round.
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