Season 1 | Episode 3 

With a strong urge to change the world and have the biggest impact, Justin Borgman, the CEO & Co-Founder of Starburst, knew his calling as a teenager. In this episode of The Tech Icon, he shares how he stumbled upon his first startup idea while studying at Yale, the origins of Starburst, and his entrepreneurship journey.

Show Transcript

Chitra: Welcome to the third episode of The Tech Icon. Hi, my name is Chitra.

Aditya: Hello, my name is Aditya and we're going to be your hosts for the show.

Chitra: Our guest today is Justin Borgman, a fearless leader who defied all odds stacked against him to become a pioneer in the field of data and analytics. Justin is the CEO and co-founder of Starburst, a data lakehouse platform built on open source Trino. Starburst has raised a total of $414 million US dollars in venture capital over four rounds, with the latest one being a $250 million in Series D at a market valuation of $3.35 billion.

Before Starburst, Justin founded Hadapt that was later acquired by Teradata. He holds a bachelor's in computers and mathematics from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from Yale. Recently, Justin was named one of the most exceptional entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs, and we are thrilled to have him on the show. Justin, you are a technology icon. Welcome.

Aditya: Welcome to Episode #3 of The Tech Icon.

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Justin: Thank you both. Happy to be here.

Chitra: Awesome. So while we focus on your story, for the most part, let's begin by learning about Starburst. What is your vision for the company?

Justin: So our vision at Starburst is to turn the data warehousing industry upside down and really put the power back in the hands of the end customer. And we do that by removing vendor lock-in, allowing customers to analyze data that lives in a variety of different data sources, including storing data in open data formats, where the customer themselves truly own their own data. And that's a big distinction from the way that the data warehousing industry has grown up over decades. We feel good about putting that power back in the hands of customers.

Chitra: Very cool. We see that you got this cool universe theme going across your brand and naming convention, from Starburst to Galaxy to DataNova. Is there a story behind its genesis?

Justin: Well, the genesis of the name Starburst really goes back to when we were starting the company. The notion that we could query data wherever it lives, really drew us to this idea of star because in the SQL language, which is the language of databases, the star symbol, the asterisk symbol, basically means give me everything. So select star would mean give me everything from the database and pull it all. We felt like our technology uniquely allowed you to gain access to data that lives in a variety of databases and various storage formats. And so star had significance to us.

The other piece of it was we do that very fast. This technology just performs at an incredible speed. And so star and burst really conveyed, we can get everything very quickly for you. So that was the origin behind the name. Of course, there happens to be candy, also known as Starburst, which generally provides positive feelings to folks when they think about it nostalgically or what have you from their childhood. But that was the origin of Starburst.

And then from there, really, I mean, we're all a bunch of nerds here. I guess you could say it's Starburst. And we have a lot of former physicists, astrophysicists, and Starburst galaxies are a particular type of galaxy. So that got us kind of onto that universe theme, if you will, or astronomical theme, which has participated in pretty much every aspect of our product and our branding.

Chitra: That's really cool. So it actually originated from SQL really, which is the lingua franca of data. Awesome. Now, how is your company empowering the data tribe through federated access to secure data?

Justin: Yeah. So in our view, especially with all of the attention around AI, generative AI, data is the fuel for our AI-driven future, and we provide access to that data or that fuel. And again, we do that by providing connectivity to a wide variety of data sources, from data lakes to traditional databases, and we do that in a very secure way. And we really think that the future of data, the future of AI, is going to be a hybrid story where people will have data in a variety of sources and both on-prem, in the cloud, in multiple clouds. And we think we're very uniquely positioned to provide that level of access to our customers. Cool.

Chitra: Now for the next section, let's go back in time and inspire the world through your incredible journey of grit and determination and courage. Adi, you're up.

Aditya: Yeah, childhood experiences play such an important role in our lives. So let's get to know a bit about your early years. How would you describe your childhood?

Justin: I would describe it as a combination of a very happy early childhood, you know, growing up in a good suburban town outside of Massachusetts called Acton, which has a few other noteworthy people that have come from there, like Steve Carell, the great comedian, as well as actually Drew Houston of Dropbox. So we have a few alumni, I guess you could say. But overall, you know, it's a pretty middle class town, and for me, you know, the early part of my childhood was fantastic.

I think going into my teenage years, you know, our family had a number of challenges. And I think when you experience any kind of adversity, especially, you know, early on in your life, it teaches you something. I think it teaches you something about yourself, about what you can endure, and really teaches you, I think, the value of sort of grit and determination, and makes you feel, I think, more unstoppable as you experience adversity, undoubtedly, in your adult life. And so, you know, like many things in life, I guess there are pros and cons that come with those challenges. But ultimately, I think they've helped define who I am as an entrepreneur and how I approach the world.

Aditya: Yeah, those challenges are never easy, but it's cool how you were able to, like, turn them into life lessons, such as, grit and determination, like you said. Okay, what did you want to become growing up? Did you have a dream?

Justin: Yeah, for me, I think what was most inspiring was seeing all the challenges in the world and wanting to make the world a better place in some way, as cliché as that sounds. I think for me, it was like, how can I have the biggest impact? And, you know, I think when you're a kid growing up, it's like, well, who has the greatest power to change the world that we live in? I think you naturally think of maybe the President of the United States. And I think, you know, at some point in my childhood, that sounded like an interesting job. I'm not sure so much anymore.

But, you know, the other thing that really inspired me was watching all the entrepreneurs of that particular period, especially like growing up in the 90s and seeing the advent of the Internet or the World Wide Web and, you know, companies like Microsoft that were putting the power of PCs in the hands of everyone or Apple or Cisco, defining networking. I mean, there were just so many companies being born during that period of time that really fundamentally changed the way that we live as human beings on this planet. And that led me to the conclusion that actually, I might have a better chance influencing the world through technology entrepreneurship than politics. That sort of set me down this path of like, okay, I definitely want to start a company. And I wasn't sure what it would be, of course, at that point. But I just knew that this was an interesting occupation to pursue.

Aditya: Oh, so you knew like as a child that you wanted to become an entrepreneur one day?

Justin: I would say as a teenager anyhow, yeah. You know, where I was at that point in my life, there were a lot of things I wanted to see changed, both in the world and in my own world. And again, I was just inspired by what entrepreneurs were able to do to truly change the world around them and create a better future.

Aditya: What's one value that's most important to you?

Justin: One value that's most important to me, there are a lot, I guess I'm going to say, I'm going to say integrity. And the reason for that is it's something that, you know, you carry with you your entire life. It's sort of like how I judge myself, I guess you could say when I look in the mirror. I think it sort of goes down to what type of person do you want to be ultimately in the world? And to me, it's much more important than money or any material thing. I think, you know, having integrity and maintaining integrity is just something worthwhile. It actually takes a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice, but I think it's worth the investment.

Aditya: Very nice. Okay, let's dive into your educational journey and get some advice for students out there. Which high school did you attend?

Justin: So I went to Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, which is a public high school in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. And yeah, it had a phenomenal education there. It's a great public school. I'm a big believer in public schools in general as an opportunity to sort of uplift people and give people opportunities. It certainly did that for me!

Aditya: And then you went to University of Massachusetts and Yale. How was student life and were there any challenges you had to face either at school or college?

Justin: Yeah, UMass and Yale are very different schools. I feel very lucky that I got to experience both of them because they each taught me something about the world. I think in the case of UMass, what's so great about it is it's the largest public university in Massachusetts. And that lends itself very naturally to a very diverse population and diverse across every possible dimension, be it both ethnically but also socioeconomically. There are rich people, poor people, all of the above. I love that aspect of it, of getting to experience different points of view from a very diverse student body. I think my advice would be enjoy every minute of it and really try to experience as much as you possibly can.

Yale was a different experience. Obviously, it has some of the best and brightest students in the country. That created an incredible experience as well, being around such talented people was a humbling experience.

Aditya: Yep. Diversity from University of Massachusetts and then the bright minds at Yale.

Justin: Yep.

Aditya: Nice. Did you have a favorite teacher and did they have an impact on you?

Justin: Yeah, you know, I had a lot of favorite teachers, but I think one of them that certainly sticks out from my time at Yale was Professor Barry Nalebuff. He's noteworthy for a few reasons. He coined the term coopetition, if you've heard that term, which is a very popular concept and very applicable to a lot of different industries. But he was also an entrepreneur himself, and he actually founded the company Honest Tea. And so learning from him both as a professor — he actually taught our negotiations class, he taught on game theory — and then, as this entrepreneur at the same time was inspiring and I learned a tremendous amount from him. And by the way, negotiation is still that you end up using all the time in business as an entrepreneur.

Aditya: Yeah, wait, I'm just wondering, what is coopetition?

Justin: Coopetition is a situation where you may have, you know, two companies that in certain cases are cooperating to perhaps expand the pie, like grow a market together, but then are also competing to fight for their share of that pie. And so there are a lot of examples, a great example is Amazon Web Services. We partner with AWS, but they also have competing products where we end up competing. So we do a lot to work together to serve joint customers. And then, you know, there are specific product groups where we're fighting for our slice of the pie. I think AWS today probably cooperates, if you will, with many of the companies in the world.

Aditya: I see. And your professor coined that term?

Justin: He did. He wrote a book about it. And the term really stuck and became very popular.

Aditya: Cool. What do you call yourself, an introvert or an extrovert?

Justin: Definitely an introvert. And that sometimes surprises people because the nature of my job is very external. I have to speak a lot either publicly or even within our company to our 500 employees. But the truth is, that is not something that comes naturally to me at all. It was really something that I had to kind of push myself to get better at over time. You know, in my natural habitat, I would be much happier by myself with a book than I would surrounded by hundreds of people.

Aditya: Yeah. And surprisingly, everyone we've asked has also said they're an introvert. I wonder if that's a pattern or something.

Justin: Maybe there's a correlation.

Aditya: OK. And finally, what is your advice to students who are struggling with the pressure? I know you said really try to enjoy it. Do you have like anything you want to add on?

Justin: I think the hardest thing for young people to understand at the time, and I remember this being very true myself, is you feel a very natural sense of urgency, like, oh, my God, everything is important and it's important right now. And I'm going to screw it all up if I don't get it all right. Reality is, you're going to be on this Earth long enough to make lots of mistakes. And in fact, those mistakes are going to teach you probably more than your successes. So having some degree of patience with yourself is really valuable.

I've had great periods of my life. I've had challenging periods of my life, but they've all taught me something. Having that sort of peace of mind of knowing, like, you know, this is just one piece of my life. And I think that's so true, especially for a high school student. Like, it's four years that are going to go by overnight, you know, are not going to change your life in one way or another, as much as you may think that they will at that moment in time. Like, you know, there are people who have had tremendous success, who didn't go to college, or didn't go to the school that they wanted to, or whatever the case may be. So you get many chances at this game of life, and don't feel like this is your only chance.

Aditya: Any advice to parents?

Justin: Maybe that's good advice for them as well, not to put too much pressure on your kids. I think it's great to teach them, you know, a work ethic and how to be responsible, and, you know, especially values, like we were talking about before, like, you know, being a good person. Those are all great things to spend time investing in. But at the end of the day, you know, just as I said, I think your kids are going to find many opportunities to find their way in the world. And probably the most important thing is that they find something that aligns with their actual passion.

You know, I'm genuinely passionate about starting companies. Like the idea of creating something from nothing and building that is my way of changing the world in some small way. And that's incredibly motivating for me. I think for each person, there is something out there that motivates them. I wouldn't force it. Let folks have the latitude to sort of find that passion.

Aditya: Yep. Finding that passion it is. Those are some great tips. And I hope students and parents are listening. I'll pass it over to my co-host to cover the next segment, entrepreneurship, the segment you've all been waiting for.

Chitra: All right. So how did entrepreneurship happen?

Justin: This was something that I was inspired by early on, really in my teenage years, probably partially born out of a desire to change the world, change my world, change the world around me, seeing a whole host of injustices and wanting to maybe correct some of those wrongs. And for me, entrepreneurship seemed like a vehicle to do that. So the idea of entrepreneurship, I guess, was planted pretty early for me. But then it became a question of how and when and what is that idea? And that was more serendipitous. That was much more about timing and luck and opportunity.

I think my advice there, by the way, for other potential want-to-be entrepreneurs that don't know what they're going to do, like what that business is going to be, my advice would be just be open-minded and be opportunistic. And I think there are opportunities all the time if you're actually open to them. In my case, that opportunity arose in the first semester, actually, of graduate school at Yale, when I did a small internship with the Technology Transfer Office at Yale. I was helping them identify Yale research that might have commercial potential. So I was doing this mini internship while I was in class, and along the way, came across a research paper by a professor named Daniel Abadi, who had written this paper called HadoopDB.

It was basically this idea of thinking about a data lake as a data warehouse. And this was like very early and pioneering at this time. The paper was written in late 2009. I discovered it in January of 2010. And I was like, this is super cool. It aligned with my computer science background. So I mostly understood what he was talking about. I went over there and started to develop a relationship with him and his PhD student, Kamil. And ultimately, we collectively decided to go start a business around that. So again, I think it was a situation of just being open-minded. I didn't go to grad school thinking I would become an entrepreneur, you know, in grad school. That was, again, still the long-term plan, but I didn't expect it to happen right then at that moment. But this opportunity sort of presented me, you know, landed in my lap, if you will. And after that, it was just being committed to it and running with it as hard as you possibly could.

Chitra: That is so cool. So you meet this professor, Dr. Daniel Abadi. He motivates you. In turn, you get him excited. And then he joins you in your venture. Like, how cool is that? How did that happen?

Justin: Yeah. So both he and Kamil were my co-founders in that company. And yeah, I think we motivated each other. Daniel was a brilliant young researcher at the time. We actually were about the same age. He had just gotten to Yale. And we were both, you know, maybe late 20s. And then Kamil also was like the same age. He was sort of like an older graduate student because he had worked prior to going to grad school. So we just naturally had a lot in common. I think we were at similar places in our lives, if you will. And we just sort of said, like, let's go for it. And that was really the beginning. We ended up raising about $17 million of venture capital at the time from Bessemer and Norwest, and built that business over four years. And then ultimately sold it to Teradata.

Chitra: Wow. And Justin, entrepreneurship is really hard, there are challenges and heartbreaks and rejections. And I'm sure you've had your share. How do you deal with something like that?

Justin: Yeah. So this is where I think the idea of grit and resilience and determination come into play, because you're absolutely right. There's going to be tons of rejection, tons of ups and downs. And you have to develop this mentality that, you know, no matter what, you're not going to stop and you're just going to keep pushing. I think that level of determination and stubbornness is one of the most common characteristics I find across successful entrepreneurs over a long enough period of time.

There are some entrepreneurs, don't get me wrong, who get lucky and get rich quick. But that sets the wrong expectation for people. If people think that's how this is going to work, because more often than not, it is a marathon, not a sprint. I got that advice very early on and I didn't fully understand what it meant when I first heard it, but now it's like so obvious to me. It's probably an Ironman Triathlon actually, maybe not even a marathon. And so you have to have that endurance. It's not a sport for the uncommitted. It's just, I think, a mentality of like, we're going to make this successful no matter what.

And then I think like, as you do it for a long enough period of time, maybe this sounds crazy, but I think there's an element of it where the pain and the challenge actually becomes part of the fun of the whole thing. It's sort of like that old Nietzsche saying, you know, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right? And I do think that's true. I think like every obstacle that you go through teaches you something and frankly makes you a more interesting person. You learn about yourself through that process. I would say, yes, it's hard. You have to have that determination, but that's also, pushing your way through it is where all the rewards really come from.

Chitra: Wow. So really a combination of grit, determination, perseverance, endurance, and integrity.

Justin: Yeah. I think those are all critical for making it over a long period of time anyhow.

Chitra: Absolutely. Next, we'd love some advice from you for our founder friends out there. You raised your Series D at a valuation of $3.35 billion when the market was relatively tight. How did you do it and what are your top three tips for founders out there?

Justin: The most important things are going after a big enough market, first and foremost. That's what at least venture investors want to see. The team itself, can this team actually execute? Do they know this stuff? Are they experienced? And then, of course, the product, but really the product comes in third place for the simple reason that that product may change ten times as you build that company. The market and the team are probably the more consistent things. And so, I think, investors appropriately weight those pretty heavily.

The other piece of advice that I would give entrepreneurs is that you should really evaluate the partner, not the firm. The firm matters to some degree. Yes, the brand helps. But at the end of the day, you're marrying that partner. That partner is the one that's going to join your board. The relationship that you have with that investor is going to play a huge role in your success. I was very lucky at Starburst that our Series A investor was Mike Volpi at Index. And I consider him one of the best in the business. Like an absolute legendary investor who taught me a tremendous amount and it was somebody that I trusted. And I think that's another really important thing for an entrepreneur, is finding somebody that you truly trust.

Then maybe the last piece of advice, and this is a little bit more tactical, but I believe, and certainly this is my style of fundraising, that you should be creating these relationships with potential investors all the time. You shouldn't just wait until that moment when you're going out to raise, you should be developing these relationships throughout. You should have them interested and engaged in tracking your business, because what that allows you to do, to your question directly about our last round of the financing, is that when you have those relationships already established and they already know who you are, and they're already interested, then when you do decide that you have to raise, and for us, we did that Series D because we knew the market was changing, as you pointed out.

It was changing from a period of 0% interest rates to a period of higher interest rates, and that was causing investors to pull back and for valuations to be impacted. We could see that shift happening in just a short few weeks, right? So it was a very, very instantaneous type of decision where we said, you know what, we don't need the money, but we know money is going to be a lot harder down the road. So let's go do that right now, real quick, before this whole market turns upside down. And we were able to do that because we already had those relationships in place. So nobody had to go learn the business from scratch in a short period of time. So those are just some pieces of advice.

Chitra: Very cool. Those are some really good tips. And now from funds to fun, I will pass it back to my co-host. Adi, go for it.

Aditya: Yeah, let's talk about some fun stuff now. Is there anything that keeps you up at night, like wondering?

Justin: I think the biggest thing that keeps me up at night, at this point, is making sure that this is a worthwhile experience for all of our employees. I think when you start to grow a business to hundreds of employees, or maybe even thousands of employees, there's kind of an implicit responsibility to all of those people that you've hired to make this meet their expectations. And in many cases, that may be financial, but it's also about career development. It's about having some fun while you're working as well. So I feel frankly a great obligation to the people that have chosen to leave whatever they were doing to come join Starburst and be part of this journey. And I want to make sure that it is worthwhile for them and meets their expectations. It probably keeps me up at night more than frankly, my own investors.

Aditya: Yeah, the pressure of founding a company. Yeah, and I guess that leads to my next question. What does it take on the part of your family to make you thrive?

Justin: I think it's a lot of understanding, first and foremost, that the demands on a founder are pretty unique, and that it's a job that doesn't end at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. or any hour, frankly, right? It's always on my mind, and I think that was probably harder early on, but at this point, everybody sort of understands that that just comes with the territory, that there may be moments where I'm staring into space, working through some hard problem. But I do the best that I can to try to compartmentalize that. And the weekends are largely dedicated to my family, and that's how we try to manage that balance.

Aditya: Very cool. We're now nearing the end of this amazing episode of The Tech Icon, and would love to get some final thoughts in this final segment. So back at you, co-host.

Chitra: Thank you, dear co-host. Justin, your story is so inspiring. What would you say to your younger self? Is there anything he would do differently?

Justin: You know, the only thing I would do differently is perhaps have started the entrepreneurial journey even sooner, frankly. I would say to my younger self, I guess, what are you waiting for? You know, go do it. Because I think the degree of learning that comes with this job is unlike anything else. And there is certainly value in having a normal career, if you will. You learn a lot in various positions. For me, you know, I began my career as a software engineer, so I certainly learned a lot in that role. But I think that just the sheer volume of learning, frankly, picks up by orders of magnitude when you go start something. And part of it is simply that I think the survival instinct kicks in and kind of wakes up every part of your mind and body to be really focused on trying to make this thing successful. And there are so many lessons to be learned along the way. So, that would be my advice. Just get after it and go for it.

Chitra: Absolutely. When you were growing up, did you know that one day you'll build this unicon and employ hundreds of individuals across the world?

Justin: No, certainly not at this scale. I could not have imagined that. I think for me, just starting a company in the first place was really the goal and I could not have expected that we would be where we are today.

Chitra: How does that feel?

Justin: Great. But again, with success or with that comes great responsibility. So we're not done yet. This is still just perhaps the middle of the journey, certainly not the end.

Chitra: All right. Any parting thoughts?

Justin: Follow your dreams and go for it. Have the courage to do it. You may fail, but again, the learning is guaranteed. And I think to me, those learnings are so valuable and will transform your life in a very positive way.

Chitra: Awesome. This has been great. Well, thank you very much for joining us in our mission of inspiring students and entrepreneurs across the board. We wish you the very best. Thank you.

Justin: Thank you.