Tristan Handy: dbt's Evolution

Tristan Handy, CEO and co-founder of dbt, recently held his fifth Coalesce conference with the largest turnout yet. During a live chat at the event, he discussed industry shifts, open-source vs commercial offerings, Iceberg's impact on data, value capture within the modern data stack, and data team ROI. Handy emphasized that software amortizes well as more people use it, allowing for the development of cooler and bigger things in the community. He also highlighted the importance of acknowledging the growing diversity within the dbt community. Regarding open-source vs commercial offerings, Handy explained that state is a good thing to commercialize, while open-source remains a great way to get started. Iceberg's impact on data could potentially move companies back to ETL instead of ELT, and the platform play aims to make it more compelling for users to join the ecosystem. Lastly, Handy believes that the value of data teams should be pushed back out to the lines of business, reducing centralization.