Christina Qi and team Databento know a thing or two about perservarence. Congratulations on ALL of your accomplishments! https://lnkd.in/g6Z3ZpEr
5 years ago, a role model in our industry told us that Databento would "never make it to launch" along with some other words that were difficult to stomach at the time. It took enormous conviction to keep going at the time. My team wanted me to post our Q1 growth. I feel like percentage (%) growth is a vanity metric even at the 7-digit revenue range. Thankfully, Databento has surpassed that range, into a territory where >30% M/M revenue growth puts us among Financial Times' fastest-growing companies across all metrics except for headcount - we are a tiny team. I won't pretend that the doubt never got to me. But somewhere along the way, the product started speaking for itself. Idk if this is oversharing, but I've cried more happy tears than sad tears this past year. At the end of the day, work is still work (trying my best not to subscribe to "hustle culture"), but I continue doing this because I genuinely love my teammates, our users, friends, investors, vendors, and supporters from near and far. To those founders in the trenches feeling the doubt: as they say in Gen Z terms: "keep cooking." It took us YEARS to get here.