The Data Stack Show - The PRQL: Building a Future-Proof Data Stack from Day Zero? Featuring Peter Chapman

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

In this bonus episode, Eric and Kostas preview their upcoming conversation with Peter Chapman, a GTM consultant.

Welcome to the Data Stack Show prequel. This is a short bonus episode where we preview the upcoming show. You'll get to meet our guest and hear about the topics we're going to cover. If they're interesting to you, you can catch the full-length show when it drops on Wednesday. Peter, welcome to the Data Stack Show. Great to be here. All right, give us a quick background of your, I guess, data history, data journey. I can't think of a catchy term.

Well, it started at a company called Roku, where I joined as Roku was just starting to build its business function. And I ended up building the data and revenue operations teams there. And spent some time there, had a two-year stint in venture. And since there have been, I guess the term is a fractional data and revenue leader for a bunch of developer tool startups. Awesome. Very excited to chat with tool startups. Awesome. Very excited to chat with you today. Likewise.

Yeah. And now it's based on the script, like my turn to talk, but you know, one of the things that I've learned and I got introduced to from Peter is improv actually. So I'm going to change a little bit like the script and I have like to add something here. So Peter, actually like the reason that I first came to San Francisco and he was, when he was at Heavy Beats, he was a customer actually.

Although I think you were not paying, but it worked with ads because, you know, we're good at the rev up share and like reporting of Glendo. And I remember like talking with him and he was like the person who actually encouraged me like to come to San Francisco in the Silicon Valley. Like until that time I was like, Oh, like, okay. What's that's like a, I, we're just like a tiny thing in the other side of the world

that probably nobody cares about. So what I'm going to do there? So that's how I came the first time. And actually, I spent a lot of time at the Heavy Beat offices. I had like a couch there. I was very cozy. The street out there was also very interesting for me.

That was on the 9th, right? In San Francisco. Yes. It was like deep Soma, I would say. Yeah, deep Soma. Anyway, so I'm really happy to have him here also because of that, like the personal connection I have with him. But also, he's a person who has like an extremely deep knowledge of how data is actually

used to deliver value to companies. Starting from Heroku, which was a company pretty much ahead of its time. From what it seems, seeing like how things like come back today and like companies are like, oh, we're going like to rebuild Heroku in 2023. Now that Salesforce decided that they don't need it. So he has like a very deep knowledge of that. And like, I'd love to hear and talk more about like the connection of data, how the need for data emerges in a company and how it gives like sparks, let's say, like different functions inside like revops, hear about PLG, what it is and why it is important and understand better what it is. And also talk a little bit of like how things have changed

from Heroku to AI craziness that we have today, right? Because things change, but also remain constant in a way when it comes to business. So it's great to have like someone we have seen things in so many different like contexts, like from Heroku to today and compare and like learn from that. So that's what I have in my mind. I'm sure we're going to come up and improve a little bit with the questions, hopefully. What about you, Peter? What

you would like to talk about? Well, I'm always excited to talk about PLG. And question for you, have we beaten this topic to death on this show or do we think that the audience is excited to learn what PLG means and what a PLG stack looks like? I don't think we've ever talked about it.

Okay, great. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, I think what we always try to do is we try to drive the conversation based on the curiosity of my curiosity and Eric's curiosity. So we'll see. I'm pretty sure that at some point we will divert.

But I definitely want to learn more about PLG. It is like one of these things that remains kind of abstract, but it feels important to me. So, yeah, I'd love to hear like from you, like how you think about it and how you implement it also, because you've done that. I'm always excited to talk about PLG and desirable tools and how you actually make money off these things. What do you think, Eric? Should we go on and record? I'm ready. I'm ready.

Yeah. Let's do it. All right. That's a wrap for the prequel. The full-length episode will drop Wednesday morning. Subscribe now so you don't miss it.