In March 2021, nine years after he started DataRobot, Jeremy Achin was pushed out as its chief executive by the board. CNBC later reported that the split was partly over his resistance to taking the company public.
To understand what he lost, go back to a contest. Around 2011, Achin and Tom de Godoy, who had met as students at the University of Massachusetts about two decades earlier, entered a Kaggle data science competition as a team. They had two weeks to build a solution. They placed sixth. De Godoy later told Vulcan Post: 'It was during the competition that we had the idea for DataRobot.' They kept entering, and won a streak of top-three finishes. Both once ranked as high as 20th on Kaggle.
What those months cost them in savings or sleep is not documented in anything found for this piece, and it would be dishonest to guess.
Both were also working data scientists at the insurer Travelers. Achin, who studied math, physics, computer science and statistics at UMass Lowell, is described in one profile as director of research and modeling there. What they saw from inside was a gap. Businesses piled up data, yet few could use it for prediction, because the work needed highly trained specialists. Their plan was to automate the specialist.
Getting anyone to listen was harder. The founders have said that pitching investors was a struggle: around 2012, many people still thought of AI as science fiction, and they felt their vision was well ahead of its time. A $3.3 million seed round led by Atlas Venture came in April 2013. What those months cost them in savings or sleep is not documented in anything found for this piece, and it would be dishonest to guess.
The product tried many modelling approaches on its own and handed back the best. It grew. The company bought a rival, Nutonian, in 2017, and by 2022 it had raised about $1.1 billion, reported more than a million AI projects, and signed a five-year, $249 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Then came the board's decision. Dan Wright had taken over as an operating chief in 2020; Achin left in March 2021. Four months later, a $300 million Series G valued DataRobot at $6.3 billion, with Tiger Global and Altimeter back in the round. The other founder, CTO de Godoy, left as well.
No newer priced round has been found, so that figure is now more than five years old. An aggregator puts 2024 revenue at $285 million, which is unconfirmed.
Two people proved an idea in a two-week contest and then built a company on it. Years later they could not keep it. The people who start a machine and the people who decide when it goes public can want different things, and the argument tends to surface just when the company looks strongest.