Databricks co-founder and SVP of Field Engineering Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji shared tips for startups to win large enterprise customers at TechCrunch Disrupt, emphasizing that people and processes matter more than technology alone, and suggesting startups leverage partnerships with big tech firms like Microsoft for credibility and sales support.
Databricks announced on September 24 that it has acquired early-stage spreadsheet startup Row Zero. The deal amount was not disclosed. Row Zero was founded by former AWS and Tableau engineers and raised $10 million in May 2025. Databricks plans to combine it with its self-developed AI agent Genie, allowing users to securely query and analyze cloud data in spreadsheet form.
In a recent interview, Databricks CRO Ron Gabrisko reviewed the company's growth from under $1 million to over $7 billion in ARR, attributing it to bets on cloud, open source, and a unified data and AI platform. He said the enterprise AI moat lies in data context, governance, choice, and cost, and disclosed AI-related revenue of about $1.7 billion.