They Raised $290 Million To Allow Data Engineers And Data Scientists To Orchestrate Data Workflows

In a world driven by data, it takes a visionary to see beyond the noise and build something truly scalable. Viraj Parekh, co-founder of Astronomer, didn’t have a clear roadmap. His journey from childhood curiosity in technology to becoming a key figure in data orchestration is fascinating.

In this interview, Viraj talks about having close calls and almost going out of business before making strategic pivots. He also reveals insights into thinking about scalable business processes and value propositions.

Here’s how Viraj navigated the challenges of building, scaling, and financing his company to become a leader in open-source data orchestration and raised a whopping $290M.

Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.

The Early Years: A Curiosity Sparked by Family and Technology

Viraj’s story begins with supportive parents and a strong work ethic, similar to many immigrant success stories. He is a first-generation American raised in a small town, Wappingers Falls, in upstate New York, in a close-knit, working-class family.

Viraj grew up in a household that prioritized education. An older cousin who introduced him to computers sparked his interest in technology. By fifth grade, using a computer gifted to him by that same cousin, Viraj had an early and transformative experience with technology.

As a young kid with an Internet connection, Viraj’s fascination with technology grew, leading him to study mathematics and computer science in Boston, BC. He didn’t initially envision himself as an entrepreneur.

Instead, Viraj was drawn to the practical application of technology in early-stage companies, fueled by a passion for problem-solving. His exposure to tech startups and private equity through various internships deepened his interest.

Ultimately, Viraj was steered toward the world of venture-backed tech companies. He was confident this was the environment where he would learn the most.

Finding His Footing at Astronomer and Venturing into Open Source

Viraj’s professional journey began through a fellowship with Venture for America (VFA), an organization that connects recent graduates with startups outside major tech hubs. This program led him to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he joined Astronomer as the fifth employee.

Astronomer, a small startup at the time, focused on marketing analytics. To power the back end of this product, the team started looking at many different open-source technologies. Soon, however, they faced the kind of pivot that could make or break a company.

Astronomer’s initial product was a Clickstream data tool that powered marketing analytics. It used Apache Airflow, a powerful, open-source data orchestration platform developed by Airbnb. Apache Airflow helped users get Clickstream data into their data warehouse.

As they introduced Airflow to more customers, Viraj and his team realized their customers were more interested in Airflow than their Clickstream solution.

This led to a critical decision: rather than focusing on marketing analytics, they would shift their entire model to become the “Apache Airflow company,” building a comprehensive orchestration platform around this powerful technology.

The Big Pivot: Embracing Customer-Driven Insights

As Viraj explained, the decision to pivot wasn’t easy but was driven by an essential lesson in customer listening. Customers consistently showed more interest in the technology behind Astronomer’s product than the product itself.

In retrospect, Viraj explains, “Many times customers are going to tell you things that you don’t want to hear, things that aren’t easy to hear, but ultimately are in your best interests.”

Through conversations with these customers, Viraj discovered a common pain point: data orchestration, the process by which companies transform raw data into actionable insights. Customers wanted the underlying technology itself.

Airflow had the potential to bridge that gap but wasn’t user-friendly or easily scalable for every business. With this insight, Astronomer’s mission shifted toward making Airflow accessible and manageable for organizations, large and small.

This pivot was high-risk, but it proved to be transformative. Viraj describes this period as a series of close calls and near-death experiences for Astronomer where survival was on the line.

However, it also allowed them to align more closely with customer needs, setting the stage for the success that was to come.

Building the Business Model: The Rise of a Data Orchestration Powerhouse

Astronomer’s new direction led to a compelling business model. At its core, Astronomer provides a managed service for Apache Airflow, allowing companies to use Airflow without managing the complex backend infrastructure themselves.

This “easy button” approach appealed to data-driven companies that lacked the resources to build custom Airflow solutions in-house. The move to Airflow wasn’t merely about profit but also about democratizing access to data orchestration.

Viraj’s team created a platform where data teams could seamlessly build, run, and monitor their data pipelines, helping them generate real business value.

Astronomer’s service enabled organizations to extract insights from data without dedicating engineering resources to maintaining complex infrastructure. They could free up time and bandwidth to focus on business-generating activities.

In Viraj’s experience, most founders make the mistake of building things based on assumptions rather than data. A valuable lesson he learned was to get the product-market fit right and adjust it to market requirements–simply by listening to customers to understand their needs.

When they first decided to pivot to Airflow, their primary objective was to provide services to earn revenues and keep the company afloat. But, as they continued working, they started asking crucial questions that helped them understand how and why orchestration is valuable to companies.

• Why is this important to you?
• What are you doing with this?
• What happens if this breaks?
• Why are you paying for the service?
• Why are you looking for a managed service?

Viraj and his team learned that orchestration was the path to production and how companies got business value from their data. They took an insight that happens in a vacuum and turned it into a process that runs every aspect.

These aspects could include building a dashboard for the CEO, delivering a data set to an external vendor, or developing a machine learning model that predicts customer churn.

Airflow was definitely the best underlying technology for data orchestration, with the biggest community of users in the entire Apache Software Foundation. But It wasn’t always easy for everybody since learning and scaling was a bit hard.

This is particularly true if companies are trying to be multi-tenant on Airflow because they have a large number of data users and would have to invest their own resources into making that happen.

Raising $290M: The Journey of Financing and Growth

The pivot to Airflow not only redefined Astronomer’s value proposition but also caught the attention of investors. With Apache Airflow becoming widely recognized as a vital tool for data management, the team attracted significant funding, raising $290M over several rounds.

However, as Viraj pointed out, raising large amounts of capital was only part of the story. Each financing round allowed them to unlock new growth phases, from product development to expanding customer support and scaling their infrastructure.

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The funding journey wasn’t smooth, especially since Astronomer was based in Cincinnati, a location far from the typical tech investment hotspots.

However, as Viraj emphasized, the investment was less about the location and more about their alignment with a rapidly growing community of Airflow users who valued the platform’s potential.

Investors saw the strong user adoption and high-value business cases tied to Airflow, making Astronomer an attractive investment.

Scaling for Success: Building a Robust, Customer-Focused Team

For Viraj, scaling Astronomer has been about building a company culture that attracts and nurtures top talent. He envisions Astronomer as a place that encourages professional growth, creativity, and resilience and motivates people when things aren’t working well.

This company could potentially develop the next generation of tech entrepreneurs, akin to the “Stripe” or “PayPal” mafias that have seeded many successful startups. In terms of operational scale, Astronomer’s growth has been about balancing customer needs with scalable solutions.

As Viraj explains, each scaling decision was made by assessing the impact on the customer experience. When the team identified repetitive tasks or resource-intensive processes, they evaluated automation options to maximize efficiency.

This approach allowed Astronomer to scale not only through people but by building sustainable systems and processes.

A Vision for the Future: Democratizing Data Orchestration

As Astronomer continues to grow, Viraj remains committed to his vision of democratizing data orchestration. The Astronomer value proposition is about ensuring that any data professional, regardless of their organization’s size, can easily build and deploy data pipelines.

Viraj’s vision aligns with a more significant trend of empowering companies to harness data without requiring specialized engineering teams to build or manage backend infrastructure.

According to Viraj, Astronomer’s future will involve continued product innovation to streamline and enhance the data orchestration experience. For him, success isn’t measured solely by fundraising milestones but by their platform’s tangible impact on customers’ businesses.

Viraj is proudest when clients tell him that Astronomer’s platform is mission-critical, enabling them to hit key targets or avoid regulatory issues. He explains that they are in the growth stage and consistently thinking about scaling and turning the wheel faster by building technology.

Astronomers focus on working backward from the customer experience and determining the primary objectives, regardless of how to achieve them. Processes can be done manually or automated, but ultimately, the customer experience matters.

Company Culture at Astronomer and Personal Growth

Astronomer currently employs more than 250 people and is growing quickly. Its culture is possibly one of the most collaborative, as people who work here often opine. Viraj takes pride in never tasking a particular worker to solve a problem alone.

Although everyone is competent and focused, asking for help is encouraged. That’s the core tenet of the company’s stature today. Asked about his personal growth in keeping pace with the company, Viraj underscores that growth is never linear but happens in spurts.

He has had his share of struggles and challenges but hasn’t hesitated to get help when needed. In his experience, the most crucial driving force behind growth is learning to approach things with general curiosity.

Building startups is hard, and Viraj has dealt with hiring issues, dissatisfied customers, and emotional fluctuations, which are only human. As he says, it’s essential to step back, ask why, and keep a curious mindset.

As the interview winds up, Viraj gives a last shout-out to the other early founders at Astronomer, whose hard work has made the company what it is today.

Closing Thoughts

Viraj Parekh’s journey with Astronomer is a testament to the power of adaptability, customer focus, and bold pivots. By embracing open-source technology and betting on Apache Airflow, he transformed Astronomer from a struggling startup into a powerhouse in data orchestration.

Viraj’s journey underscores that the entrepreneurial path is rarely straightforward but that listening to customers and adapting to their needs can be the key to long-term success. With $290M raised and a growing influence in data orchestration, Astronomer’s future looks promising.

For Viraj, the real reward is seeing Astronomer help customers bring their data to life, one orchestration at a time.

Listen to the full podcast episode to know more, including:

• Product pivots often reveal themselves through direct customer feedback, as Viraj discovered when demand for Apache Airflow exceeded interest in their original product.
• Success rarely follows a rigid plan; flexibility and responsiveness to market signals are essential in entrepreneurship.
• Creating value by simplifying complex processes, like Astronomer’s managed Apache Airflow, can be a winning strategy for startups.
• While large fundraising numbers are impressive, they should be used to deliver real value to customers and support long-term growth.
• Building a company where smart, motivated people thrive is key to fostering innovation and resilience in a high-growth environment.
• Prioritize process automation and scalable solutions only if they enhance the customer experience and reduce manual work effectively.
• Investors are drawn to companies with a clear vision that addresses genuine market needs, which helps secure funding even outside traditional tech hubs.

 

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