4 minute read · May 25, 2021

Why I joined Dremio as the Chief Revenue Officer

Alan Gibson · Chief Revenue Officer, Dremio

There is a big shift playing out in the analytics ecosystem at this very moment. With the rapid adoption of the data lake across every industry, practically all companies are now in the cloud. In parallel to this transformation, advancements in open technologies that are helping these companies work in new environments are creating opportunities for organizations to reimagine their traditional and outdated architecture and data warehouse strategies. This revolution is allowing companies to finally detangle themselves away from frustrating vendor lock-in approaches that, for years, have driven astronomical costs and strangled innovation in even some of the best analytic focused organizations. What’s more, the move to an open architecture allows to freely take advantage of new services as they are invented, with little friction. In comparison to many of the other previous waves of changes in the data analytics space, this one is a monumental inflection point for the industry. One that I think will leave a bigger mark than most. Excitingly, positioned right in the center of this transformation is Dremio. In order to build a great organization with global scale, a lot of “stuff” has to come together at the same time. Having been fortunate enough to have done this before, I also know it takes a ton of hard work and dedication across every corner of an organization to get it right. The saying “you are only as strong as your weakest link” has never been truer when applied to a hyper-growth technology organization. There are a lot of things that get me fired up about Dremio. Here are a few important elements that have me excited to help contribute to this amazing journey: The Customers: You cannot build anything great without customers who share your vision and are willing to invest in the same journey. In only a few short years, some of the largest and most complex brands on the planet now depend on Dremio to power their data platforms. This rate of substantial growth and penetration is incredibly uncommon, and provides concrete evidence of the true enterprise scale and reach we have as an organization. It’s also confirmation of the trust that customers have put into our team to continue to deliver on their critical capabilities to keep their brands leading in the marketplace. Without customer trust, you have very little foundation to stand on, and it’s a responsibly the organization whole-heartedly embraces. The Product: It’s not every day that a new product is born that is truly unique. Frankly, most new innovations are just “better mouse traps”, copycat strategies with a different set of bells and whistles, or old legacy approaches re-birthed as “new” because it’s now deployed in the cloud. For a consumer, the result is a lot of confusion, and a world where everyone pretty much sounds the same. Rising above this noise, Dremio has accomplished what so many of the others could not: A scalable query engine that is purpose built for engineers and business users alike, and that enables an organization to operationalize their data lake. Data lakes are cheap and easy to deploy but interacting with them is complicated. Dremio is blazing new trails with unique capabilities that have turned these historical challenges and the traditional way of thinking on its head. A no copy approach with blazing speeds, all based on an open architecture that allows an organization to change with the advancements of the market. It’s the model of the future, and the world is quickly embracing it. The Team Culture: “True Unicorn”, “Best place in the valley to be right now”, “The company where they actually care” …These are the headlines on the latest employee reviews on Glassdoor. I could go on, but the point is made. A great culture where individuals can contribute and be recognized for those contributions is incredibility critical. It also makes some of the hard things on this tough journey a little easier. I’ve had the opportunity to work with most of the teams across the organization over my first few weeks. The energy and excitement is unmistakable, and it’s real. There is a huge appetite to do great work, and great appreciation for the opportunity that is in front of us. Without a doubt, we have the most dedicated and caring team I’ve even been a part of who are truly invested in creating great customer outcomes. Passion to make our customers wildly successful. Passion to develop a unique product that truly makes a difference Passion to build a world class team that inspires individual purpose This is why I’m honored to be joining the Dremio team.

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