GTM 169: How Airbyte Hit $1B: The Open-Source, Community-First Playbook

Michel Tricot is the co-founder and CEO of Airbyte, the open-source data movement platform he launched in 2020. Before Airbyte, Michel led integrations and served as Director of Engineering at LiveRamp, where he scaled the teams and pipelines that synced massive data volumes. He also helped build rideOS as a founding engineer and Director of Engineering. Michel has spent 15+ years in data infrastructure, with a focus on commoditizing data pipelines and giving teams control and sovereignty over their data. Discussed in this episodeWhy Airbyte launched open source first (catching engineers “at the search”)Project-market fit vs. product-market fit, and why they’re differentThe content engine: founder-led writing, shipping slides, and radical transparencyTurning interest into community: 25k+ Slack, champions, and hiring from withinThe near-misses: hiring ahead of PMF, support-heavy community, cloud complexityGoing upmarket: enterprise motion, longer cycles, and team ramp realitiesAI wave → agents as “data consumers” and what it means for pipelinesReplatforming for control & sovereignty, not just “more connectors”This episode is brought to you by our sponsor: ZoomInfoZoomInfo is the GTM Intelligence Platform built for sales, marketing, and RevOps.By unifying data, workflows, and insights into a single system, ZoomInfo helps revenue teams find and engage the right buyers, launch go-to-market plays faster, and drive predictable growth. With industry-leading accuracy and depth of data, it gives your team the intelligence advantage to win in competitive markets.It’s trusted by the fastest-growing companies and has become the category leader in GTM Intelligence.Learn more at zoominfo.com.Follow Michel TricotLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheltricotX (Twitter):https://x.com/MichelTricotWebsite:https://airbyte.com/AirbyteHost linksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/X (Twitter): https://x.com/sophiebuonaNewsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/Website: https://gtmnow.com/Where to Find GTMnowWebsite: https://gtmnow.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowX (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowPodcast Directory: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcastThe GTMnow Podcast The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.