Scott Barneson - Tableau Conference 2014 - theCUBE
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2014-09-11

Scott Barneson, Amazon, at Tableau Conference 2014 with John Furrier and Jeff Kelly

@theCUBE
#Data14
Building around the same customer focused culture and sales strategy from the beginning, Tableau Software, Inc. focuses on taking on the local and international market. The company’s efforts revolve around enabling people to better see and understand data, explains Kelly Wright, EVP of Sales at Tableau, in a live interview with theCUBE co-hosts John Furrier and Dave Vellante at the Tableau Conference 2014.

As the first sales person to work at Tableau, Wright has the longview on the company’s maturation. “I’ve seen how things have changed and evolved. We have a lot more people and customers,” Wright said, yet “the culture was really sound from the beginning.”

The company was built by people who were very passionate about the mission, which was “people had to see and understand data. It is still our mission.”
A widening target

 

Wright considers Tableau to still be the disruptor in the business intelligence (BI) market, but has quite a huge target to pursue. “Now we’re a public company, but we’re still barely, barely scratching the surface.” Although there are “50 million” companies out there, Tableau has 20,000 customers, “we have a long way to go,” said Wright.

Commenting on the challenges of working in a startup, Wright said that “when you’re in this company building mode, you put your head down and you go. It’s always about going out and finding the next customers,” getting the customers excited about your customer. Tableau’s strategy is “treating each customer like they are gold.” She said she did not remember a particularly challenging moment because “it was an uphill battle all the time, we’re still kind of the underdog.”

Wright did pinpoint the moment of absolute triumph in Tableau history to be the company going public at the New York Stock Exchange in May 2013, surrounded by about 100 employees who had attended the ceremony. “That was the moment of a lot of pride,” she added.

Discussing specifically on the sales strategy and how it evolved, Wright said “our model is really quite simple – we help people to see and understand data.” Tableau helps people to answer their own questions and empower them with agility and self-service. “As we add more products, it’s really extending the number of people we can help. In terms of how our sales strategy is working, it’s the same that it’s always been.”