Why an Ex-Googler Bet Everything on an Open-Source Database

Jordan Tigani (0:00)

There's a war for attention. If you build something that nobody uses, it might as well have not been built.

Patrick Akil (0:05)

This is Jordan Tigani. With over a decade of experience at Google, and specifically BigQuery, he shares why he started a new company and how he's building MotherDuck.

Jordan Tigani (0:15)

I'm not sure I'll ever have another idea that's this good, so I might as well go for it.

Patrick Akil (0:19)

What is your advice for people that want to get into specifically this niche of engineering?

Jordan Tigani (0:24)

You just had the partner meeting, how much do you want? And I'm like, I don't know, $5 million?

Patrick Akil (0:32)

Could you share the MotherDuck origin story from your perspective?

Jordan Tigani (0:37)

Sure. So I mean, first of all, I was a single store database company, formerly known as MemSQL, and I had just gotten fired. I was a chief product officer, and I had gotten fired on a Friday morning, and I'm like, you know, it was like, hit me sort of like a ton of breaks, like what the hell am I going to do?

And I tried to figure out what I wanted to do, and I had seen this great open source database called DuckDB, and I've been thinking, you know, somebody should take that and build a SaaS service out of it. And I'm like, well, I've built two database SaaS services, you know, first BigQuery, and then the SaaS service for a single store. And I'm like, huh, maybe that should be me. So I'm like, and I really want to learn Rust. And so I thought I would use this as an excuse to learn Rust. I was going to hack on it for a little bit. And then I asked a friend to introduce me to the creators of DuckDB, Hannes and Mark, who were in the Netherlands. And, you know, I had a call with him and he said, hey, it's a cool idea, you know, I'll introduce you to Hannes and Mark, but you should also talk to my friend Tom. Tom invested in my company. And, you know, he'll give you some feedback on the idea. I'm like, sure. And then the next morning, I talked to Hannes and Mark and they're like, I was actually asking for a job. I was like, hey, do you want, would you hire me to build a SaaS, to help you build a SaaS service? And I said, no, we don't really want to do that. We want to just focus on the core database. And that afternoon, I talked to Tom, who was Tom Tunga's, he was the managing director at Redpoint. And now has his own firm. And I get about 15 minutes in, he's like, yeah, it's a good idea, I want to fund it. Just like that. Come to the partner meeting next week, but it's sort of a foregone conclusion because he was the managing director. And then the next day, I was talking to some other VCs about something totally different. And I thought it was wasting their time. I'm like, hey, I had this idea kicking around, do you guys want to hear it? And they said, yes. And it was Martin Casado from A16Z and Elad Gill. And Martin said, you just had the partner meeting, how much do you want? And I'm like, I don't know.

Five million dollars? Like, I had no idea. I didn't even know who these guys were. I didn't know if this was a good firm or not. I didn't know anything. And they said, sure, sounds good. Anyway, the long story short, I kind of stumbled into starting a company.

And then about a week later, and I'm sort of like, I sat down, I was like, is this really what I want to do?

And then I just thought like, well, you know, of the options that I have in front of me, like, you know, there's, this is the one where, you know, it's a bet on myself, it's a bet on, I think it's a really good idea. I'm not sure I'll ever have another idea that's this good. So I might as well, you know, go for it. And also I realized that, you know, I've worked at jobs that had great culture and great environment and ones that were horrible and toxic. And it's like, well, how do you know that you're going to have a good place to work? And I'm like, well, you know, if you create it yourself, then, you know, at least you only have yourself to blame if it doesn't work out. You know, it's not always, you know, sunshine and roses and everybody is wonderful to each other. But, you know, that's sort of, I figured like it's the best way to actually build a good work environment and to, you know, to win by building a group of people that like each other, that work hard because, you know, they're doing it for their co-workers who they trust and respect and they want to see them succeed versus like everybody out just for a payday.