Meet Nicolas Orban, CEO and co-founder of Conduktor – a data management platform designed to simplify and optimize the streaming of real-time data. In 2024, RTP Global led Conduktor’s $30B Series B funding round, with Ansa, M12 and Accel.
We sat down with Nicolas to dive into his founder journey, uncover the lessons he learned from fundraising in the 2021 tech boom, and understand the challenges of expanding into the US.
Hi Nico! So let’s start at the beginning…
I’ve always known I’d start my own company. My parents had friends who had done it, and I was always interested in their stories. But before I started my own business, I needed to better understand how to actually grow start-ups. So I decided to join fast growing start-ups where I could learn as much as possible. I had the opportunity to join both Deliveroo and Meero at their Series A and saw their growth until their Series C.
How did you come up with the idea to build Conduktor?
After Deliveroo and Meero, I felt it was the time to try it on my own. I met my co-founders Stéphane Derosiaux and Stéphane Maarek through a common friend in Paris. Both of them had first-hand experience of the data streaming challenges and frustrations many developers face.
As I looked into the market, I realized that every company was undergoing digital transformation and was collecting so much data. I truly believed that, as businesses continued to gather more and more data, streaming would become essential for all companies – and that would create an infinite, growing market.
So, what started as a side project for the three of us quickly pivoted into Conduktor, a VC backed company that could be built to scale and address this massive opportunity.
What factors came into play when deciding on which VCs to bring on?
Let’s be honest, building a VC-backed company is like putting it on steroids — how can we go from seed to a public company in 10 years? VCs are there to help you reach that goal within that timeframe.
My rule of thumb is to have a blend of investors: well-known investors with a strong brand to help with hiring, experience and credibility, and investors where I’m more interested in the person than the investment firm itself. It’s not just about the investor; it’s a lot about the person who will be on your board and be by your side.
I believe it’s important to have ‘experienced’ investors who’ve been through ups and downs alongside young, hungry investors who are eager to prove themselves. These investors will fight next to you because their success is tied to your success. I’ve had a few invaluable investors who, when I ring them, say straight away “hey, how can I help you?”
You raised your Series A in 2021 and experienced the highs and lows that come with ‘growth at all costs’. What did you learn during that time?
The biggest learning was that, as a CEO, you’re the captain of your boat. You must always focus on what’s best for you and your company. In 2021, the market was growing so fast and money was so cheap. Everyone was giving money to everyone and I got influenced by that. The market has a lot of sway but, as a founder, you must protect your company and be realistic about what it can do.
I learned this the hard way. In 2022, we had to let go of nearly 50% of our team. It was tough but, as a leader, you can’t show it. You have to stay positive and reassure the team that you will weather the storm.
Of course, people automatically think “he just didn’t care at all about letting go of all of those people”. But you care deeply and having a co-founder to call on for moral and emotional support was so important during those difficult times. You quickly realize you don’t – and can’t – do this journey alone.
Another lesson was learning to balance growth with financial efficiency. Whereas, before, it was growth at all costs, it’s now about sustainable, efficient growth. I have become much closer to our finance team and focused on KPIs as a result.
Lastly, I’ve learned that if your product is strong, it can drive growth even in tough times. 2022 was difficult for a lot of companies. For us, though, we released new products which were well-received and helped us grow and later raise our Series B. If your product works really well, it brings people together and helps you thrive, even when times are tough.
Let’s discuss the platform more, and how its user base has evolved over time.
From the start, we knew we’d be working with large enterprise companies; 80% of the streaming market is Fortune 500. So, we’ve always had enterprise logos. But the key shift has been the evolution of who we bring value to – and that has been driven by customer feedback.
Initially, our user base was developers and developer managers, helping them stream data more efficiently. We got a lot of love – and validation – for the product from the developer community. Which isn’t easy to do.
But feedback from our customers highlighted a need to support central teams with managing data pipelines and ensuring more secure and reliable data streaming operations.
With this feedback, we saw an opportunity to deliver greater value to the business itself. Conduktor essentially acts as a data management platform for all your data streaming empowering central teams, sec ops and data architects to realize the full potential of their real-time data. As a result, teams can build real-time products more easily, unlock new revenue opportunities and drive data adoption across the company.
The value of Conduktor is no longer just felt by developers; the user base is much more far reaching now. And while this shift means we now sell to many more stakeholders and the sales cycles are longer, the reward is much higher.
The US is a crucial market for Conduktor – and it’s why you’re setting up shop there. As a European founder, how have you found this transatlantic move?
Today, around 40% of our revenue comes from the US. However, more than 65% of the market is in that region and we only have around 4% penetration in that market. So, for me, it was a no brainer; the US is where we need to be.
Hiring in the US is a tricky one, especially for a European founder. We’ve definitely made mistakes along the way – you have to make those mistakes to realize it.
US candidates, for example, are great at selling themselves while Europeans tend to be more candid and honest about their mistakes. So you need to understand how you navigate this and really understand what ‘good’ looks like.
In my experience, the best approach has been hiring one or two key senior people and spending a lot of time with them in person to assess everything. Hiring Quentin Packard as our VP of Sales was a game-changer. His experience at Splunk and Hashicorp, plus his incredible network, has been invaluable in helping us avoid hiring missteps.
And I’ve found that you need to physically be there. There’s just no way that you can successfully build in the US without being there – which is why I’m relocating to New York in 2025.
And what are you excited about for the year ahead?
I’m really proud of how we’ve positioned our product and the positive market response to our data management platform.
Now, I’m really excited about building the team in the US and penetrating the US market even more – distributing our platform to even more customers, getting even more feedback, and continually improving our product.
Want to know more about Conduktor? Visit their webite here.
