Looker provides a disruptive, third generation BI platform which is highly regarded by analysts, but was relatively unknown to the general customer market, especially in Europe, and especially back in 2016 when we started working with them to build their Enterprise EMEA team. They are now viewed as one of the major players – and let’s face it, this is one crowded space!
Looker, VP EMEA John O’Keeffe recognised that a bit of healthy competition is always welcome, and events like the Gartner Summit are key to understanding Lookers place within the market. Adapting their stakeholder focus to reflect the Chief Data or Analytics Officers is important to successful selling, but for the sales team, the focus is still on demonstrating value as simply as possible across the entirety of the business (centralised, single source of truth, monetisation), and keeping the core focus on getting the fundamentals (data governance) right.
There is plenty of speculation as to why Google was so keen to pay $1bn above valuation, but after working with the team for over 3 years, here is our take on why they made such an attractive prospect.
1. Growth
"Looker is doing really well. We raised $103 million in a Series E bringing our total capital raised to $280 million. We have 1,600 customers, our revenue run rate is over $100 million and we are enjoying 70% year over year growth."
2. Reputation
Outside the glowing analyst reviews, Looker are the preferred integration for data warehousing/management for partners like Snowflake. When Jim recently dropped in on the Snowflake Summit he noticed a real buzz around Looker. In particular how highly regarded Looker are by other vendors in the ecosystem and that they were specifically mentioned more than once in Frank Slootman’s key note speech.
3. Customer Experience
Valued above pretty much everything else, Looker are consistently ranked Leaders for “Customer Experience and Vendor Credibility”. From the initial qualification and pre-sales POC through to the Customer Success and R&D, Looker are constantly working to understand where they can improve understanding and performance across each customer’s business. As a platform, they have recently built departmental focused apps – marketing, sales, next will be Finance and HR – to ensure customers are able to highlight specific, actionable insights.
4. Culture
Something they have in common with Google! For Looker, culture is #1: a combination of youthful energy with a “grown-up”, mature sales approach, a passion for data and inclusive team spirit.
"Great companies exhibit a personality. And I think that’s the part that scales, it’s who the people are, and who they share the vision with and bring on, is what makes a company great."
