“Building a data team is like building a startup. If you're not obsessively focused on your users, you're doing it wrong.”

Why I'm writing this

Over the past few weeks, this newsletter has gained a lot of new subscribers - so first of all, welcome. I’m glad you’re here. 🙏

Second, I thought it might be time to reintroduce myself properly. Because if you’re going to keep getting insights from me every week, you deserve to know who’s behind them, and why I care so much about helping data leaders build impactful teams.

Third, today is my 45th birthday and it's always a good time to reflect! 🎉

So here’s the honest story. Not the polished LinkedIn version, but the real one.

I Was 29, Had No Idea What I Was Doing, and Took on a Giant Mission Anyway

Back in 2010, at the age of 29, I stumbled into my first data leadership role.

The company? Rocket Internet - at the time the largest venture builder in the world.

If you haven’t heard of them, you’ve probably heard of some of the companies they launched and scaled:

• Zalando (Europe’s leading fashion e-commerce platform)
• HelloFresh (the world’s leading meal kit provider)
• Lazada (the Amazon.com of Southeast Asia, acquired by Alibaba)
• Delivery Hero (Leading food delivery platform)

Rocket’s model was to build fast-scaling consumer internet companies using a repeatable blueprint. My job? Build a repeatable blueprint for data infrastructure and data teams across all of them.

At 29. With no formal data background.

The truth is, I had no idea what I was doing. And my path to that role had been anything but linear.

The Crooked Path Into Data

Like many people in the data space, I didn’t plan to be here. I studied marketing in Germany and Australia, and after graduating, co-founded a marketing analytics consultancy in Singapore.

It failed. Or more precisely - I was fired. I didn’t have the experience or the technical skills to lead that kind of business yet. I was too green.

I went back to Germany, joined a data analytics boutique, and learned everything on the job: predictive models for ecommerce and insurance, data warehouses for telcos, everything thrown at me.

And somehow, all of that led to Rocket Internet.

Where I… stumbled again. But this time, it changed everything.

The Hard Lessons at Rocket Internet

We had everything: budget, a smart team, crazy work ethic, the latest tech. But we struggled to deliver actual business impact.

Dashboards went unused. Founders didn’t trust the numbers. Adoption was low. Stakeholders were frustrated.

I made every mistake a young data leader can make:

• I focused on tech first, people second
• I assumed business impact would just “happen” 
• I was chasing tools, not problems

I thought I was doing well. Leadership didn’t agree. I didn’t get the Director promotion I wanted. And honestly, I didn’t deserve it.

That’s when I went on a mission to fix the root problem.

The Quest That Followed: Building Data Teams That Actually Work

After Rocket, I dedicated myself to solving one problem:

How do you build a data team that consistently delivers business impact - without burning out, getting ignored, or constantly fighting fires?

I launched my own consulting company focused on VC- and PE-backed scaleups. Over the past decade, I’ve:

• Built data infrastructure and teams for 40+ companies
• Worked across every continent except Antarctica
• Focused on fast-scaling consumer businesses
• Built a repeatable, productized approach to setting up high-impact data teams

Along the way, I learned that the real key to success wasn’t tools or tech - it was building the data team like a startup.

The Shift: From Dashboards to Strategic Partners

At Rocket, I was lucky to have amazing mentors - product leaders, marketers, CEOs. They weren’t data people, but they saw my background and potential.

And they said something that stuck with me:

“Build your data team like a startup. Not like a reporting factory.”

That flipped everything.

I stopped obsessing over tech stacks and started obsessing over users:

• Who are they?
• What decisions do they need to make?
• What jobs are they trying to get done?
• What’s broken in their day-to-day experience with data?

And with that mindset shift, I developed a framework:

🎯 The Data Team Adjusted Lean Canvas

Inspired by the Lean Canvas, I built a one-page operating system to:

• Align your data work with real business goals
• Prioritize use cases
• Build data products that get adopted and create value

I teach this framework in my masterclass ​“From Dashboard Factory to Strategic Partner”​ , and I’ve implemented it in dozens of companies since.

But recently, something new has pushed me further.

The New Frontier: AI, and What Comes Next

AI has changed the game for me - again.

A few months ago, I asked myself two questions:

1. Can we finally crack conversational analytics? Not just tools that run SQL, but agents that understand business context, initiatives, and goals, and tailor insights accordingly?
2. Can I use AI to launch data infrastructure even faster? I already use blueprints - but what if I could reduce setup time and management time even further with intelligent automation and vibe coding?

Those questions led me to build a new layer into my productized consulting offering:

🚀 AI-Enhanced Data Foundations

• Context-aware analytics agents that reduce friction between business and data
• Accelerated infra setup powered by generative tooling
• Systems that scale insights without inflating headcount

And this is where my newest project comes in.

The 10X Data Team Collective

To go even deeper into this journey, I’ve launched the ​10X Data Team Collective​ - a paid community for data leaders who share the same mission:

• Cut through AI hype and focus on practical implementation
• Build AI-first data teams and modern foundations
• Share tactics and playbooks that actually work

It’s a space for builders, not armchair theorists. And if that sounds like your vibe, you’ll fit right in.

Wrapping Up: Why I’m Here

I’m not a thought leader. I’m a builder who made a lot of mistakes early on and has been fixing them one company at a time ever since.

If you’re a:

• Data leader trying to scale your team the right way
• Analyst who wants to break out of the report factory
• CDO thinking about how the AI-first data team of tomorrow looks like

Then this newsletter is for you.

And I’m excited to have you here.

More frameworks, stories, and tactics coming soon.

Cheers,

— Sebastian Founder, Data Action Mentor and 10X Data Team Collective