by Fiona Gordon & Sarah Burnett | Co-Founders, Dub Dub Data

TL;DR

Entrepreneurship in data consulting is about resilience, partnerships, and vision. Dub Dub Data brings this to life by curating world-class talent instead of scaling a traditional team, giving organisations in Australia, New Zealand, and beyond access to tailored expertise without the overheads. From navigating cultural differences to preparing for Tableau Next, Dub Dub Data helps clients accelerate their analytics journey with agility, trust, and future-ready solutions.

Introduction 

Starting a company is never just about a logo or a launch. It is the courage to leave certainty, the judgment to pick the right partners, and the patience to build momentum one decision at a time. Dub Dub Data was born from that mix. This piece explores how we are shaping a boutique, partnership-first model, what we are seeing across the analytics market, and why the future of Tableau looks more conversational, more semantic, and more human. If you are a data leader who wants less noise and more outcomes, you will find practical ideas here, plus a clear path to go deeper with the full podcast episode and a consultation tailored to your organisation.

🎧 Want to hear the full episode?
Listen to unDUBBED: Why Founders Say No A$$hole Policy Works + Other Startup Lessons - Hosted by Matthew Miller here

Lessons From Startup Life and the No Asshole Rule

Entrepreneurship often starts at the dinner table. For some, it is growing up in households where risk-taking and problem-solving were normalised. For others, it is sparked later in life through a mix of necessity and opportunity. The story behind Dub Dub Data is built on both early lessons from family businesses combined with a leap of faith to move from stable corporate roles into building something unique.

The path wasn’t straightforward. From learning resilience during financial crises to spotting opportunities in unexpected places, the founders of Dub Dub Data carried forward key lessons: stay agile, never take no for an answer, and always keep an eye on the people who help make a vision real.

This is where the no asshole rule becomes more than a catchphrase. It is a cultural guardrail that prevents toxic behaviour from creeping into the workplace. As Stanford professor Bob (Robert) Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide, argued, certified assholes can derail effective organisations quickly. For startups, which operate under pressure and uncertainty, even one person’s disrespect or rude interruptions and subtle digs can fracture trust.

From Corporate Comfort to Startup Drive

One of the most striking elements of Dub Dub Data’s journey is the transition from corporate certainty into entrepreneurial ambiguity. Large organisations provide structure, safety nets, and resources like legal or finance departments. A startup strips that away, replacing it with the constant need to learn, pivot and grow.

This shift requires not only professional capability but also mindset adaptation. Instead of working within predefined roles, entrepreneurs must wear every hat, whether it’s sales, operations, delivery, marketing. It is messy but it builds resilience and forces clarity on what truly drives value.

For Dub Dub Data, the move was never just about leaving corporate jobs. It was about building a vehicle for impact. That purpose became the anchor point for all decisions, even the uncomfortable ones. Learn more about our company culture and values.

Partnership Dynamics in Startup Growth

A business partnership can be the greatest asset or the fastest downfall of a startup. The dynamic at Dub Dub Data demonstrates the power of complementary strengths.

One partner brings deep attention to detail and a determination to move obstacles, no matter how immovable they seem. The other has an innate ability to connect with people, spark curiosity, and draw them into a shared vision.

What makes the partnership sustainable is the willingness to switch roles when needed. Sometimes one leads as the visionary, other times as the operator. This fluidity, combined with open conversations about fears, failures, and wins, creates trust and adaptability.

For other entrepreneurs, the lesson is simple: choose partners not just for skills, but for shared values and the ability to lift each other when energy or confidence dips. Every company must be clear on its company values and align them with the company’s mission and vision to keep friction healthy rather than destructive.

Industry Trends: Where Data is Heading

The analytics landscape is shifting rapidly. Traditional tasks like manual data preparation, repetitive calculations, and rigid dashboards are being reshaped by automation and AI.

Key trends shaping the industry include:

• The rise of the semantic layer: Analysts must now define business rules and field meanings with precision so models can respond to natural language queries accurately. 
• Human-centred dashboards: Overstuffed dashboards are giving way to cleaner, streamlined visualisations supported by conversational queries.
• Evolving analyst roles: Soft skills like stakeholder engagement and business translation are becoming as important as technical skills.
• The impact of Tableau Next: Moving beyond Classic, Tableau Next is browser-first, simplified, and heavily invested in conversational analytics. 

For professionals, the shift is clear: technical depth will remain important, but the ability to bridge the gap between data and decision-making will define the leaders of the future. As one Bob Sutton noted in an episode of the Culture First podcast, “good friction drives creativity, while bad friction breeds burnout.”

The Dream Team Vision

Every entrepreneur imagines their “dream team”. The first hires that will take the business to the next stage. For Dub Dub Data, this dream team blends technical brilliance with commercial strength.

Invest in Your People for Sustainable Success

• A world-class sales leader to unlock growth.
• A CTO-level strategist to scan the horizon for technology trends and shape the roadmap.
• Trainers and enablers who can multiply impact by lifting client capability.
• Designers and developers who combine technical mastery with user empathy.

The key isn’t just technical competence but cultural fit. The business is anchored in a “no-asshole” policy, protecting culture even as it scales. Startups that invest in their people early are better placed to scale without turning good people into jerks.

Partnerships Over Scale

Rather than building a bloated in-house team, Dub Dub Data has taken a different approach. By partnering with solopreneurs and specialist consultancies globally, they assemble bespoke teams for each engagement.

This model gives clients access to world-class expertise without the overheads. It also empowers independent specialists to thrive while contributing to larger projects. In essence, Dub Dub Data acts as the gateway to a curated, private marketplace of trusted talent.

This strategy positions them as agile orchestrators rather than rigid service providers, a valuable edge in a fast-moving industry. Leaders must become friction fixers, reducing toxic behaviour while keeping the kind of friction that fuels creativity.

Cultural Differences in Data and Business

Working across borders doesn’t just mean managing time zones. It also means adapting to very different cultural approaches to work, communication, and problem-solving. For Dub Dub Data, this has been one of the more interesting lessons learned while partnering with clients and collaborators in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.

The Kiwi Approach: Direct but Collaborative

In New Zealand, workplace culture tends to value blunt honesty. If there is a problem, it is surfaced directly and treated as something the team can fix together. It is rarely personal. That willingness to call out issues early often means projects can move faster because there is less hesitation to tackle obstacles head-on.

This style of communication can sometimes be surprising to international partners who are used to more formal or diplomatic approaches. Yet for many Kiwi professionals, it is simply about cutting through noise and getting the work done.

The Australian Style: Straightforward with a Sense of Humour

Australia shares similarities with New Zealand, but adds its own flavour. Australians are typically straightforward in business, but there is also a strong tendency to defuse tension with humour. This mix of candour and light-heartedness helps maintain momentum without letting disagreements derail collaboration.

There is also a pragmatic streak in Australian workplaces: a focus on finding workable solutions quickly rather than over-engineering the perfect answer. That mindset fits well with the entrepreneurial, fast-moving projects Dub Dub Data takes on.

The US Context: Cautious Communication

By contrast, in the United States, calling out problems directly is often seen as risky. Employees may hesitate to raise concerns out of fear it could be perceived as criticism or even jeopardise their position. The cultural expectation is to remain positive, sometimes at the expense of discussing issues openly.

For Dub Dub Data, this means adjusting communication styles when working with US partners. Instead of the blunt honesty that works in New Zealand, or the pragmatic humour of Australia, conversations often require more framing and reassurance to keep discussions constructive.

Why Cultural Nuance Matters

These differences may seem subtle, but in data and analytics projects, they can have a major impact. Miscommunication about requirements, hesitancy to flag issues, or different comfort levels with directness can all affect delivery.

By recognising and respecting these cultural nuances, Dub Dub Data is able to adapt its approach: blunt when it helps, diplomatic when it matters, and always focused on building trust. For global clients, this cultural agility is as valuable as technical expertise.

The Future of Tableau

The conversation inevitably turns to Tableau - a tool that has shaped careers and communities. While Tableau Classic remains central today, the real excitement lies in Tableau Next.

By rebuilding from the ground up in a browser-first environment, Tableau is addressing long-standing complexities. The semantic model, conversational analytics, and tighter integration with platforms like Snowflake hint at a future where insights are more accessible and intuitive.

Yet, technology alone isn’t the differentiator. What has always made Tableau special is the community of passionate people around it. Supporting that community and investing in R&D will be critical to its long-term success.

For Dub Dub Data, being at the frontier of these changes is both exciting and essential. Helping clients navigate the transition from Classic to Next will open opportunities to reshape how data informs decisions at every level of business.

Why This Matters for You

Entrepreneurship isn’t just about building companies. It’s about shaping industries, rethinking how partnerships work, and preparing for the future of tools like Tableau.

For organisations, the key question is this: are you ready to move beyond surface-level analytics into an era where AI, semantic modelling, and cultural nuance shape how data drives value?

Dub Dub Data has built its reputation on helping clients stuck in the middle of their data journey break through those barriers. Whether it’s a Tableau migration, a data governance challenge, or a new strategy for scaling analytics, they bring the mix of entrepreneurial grit and industry expertise needed to deliver results.

If your organisation is ready to unlock more value from data, now is the time to act. Book a consultation with Dub Dub Data to explore tailored solutions, learn how to future-proof your analytics, and see how partnerships with world-class talent can propel you forward.

unDUBBED Podcast - D24  Why Founders Say No A$$hole Policy Works + Other Startup Lessons - Hosted by Matthew Miller

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🎙️ Unscripted. Uncensored. Undeniably data.

Summary

In this episode of unDUBBED, the tables are turned! Matthew Miller - Vice President of Product Management at Salesforce and long-time champion of the Tableau community - takes over as guest host to interview Sarah Burnett and Fiona Crocker, the co-founders of Dub Dub Data.

Together, they explore their entrepreneurial roots, early business lessons, and the defining moments that shaped their careers. Expect stories of selling chocolate bars at boarding school, running nightclubs, and rediscovering your superpower in business. The conversation dives deep into:

• Cultural contrasts between New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S. - and how they shape communication and collaboration.
  
  
• Client relationships that thrive on trust, transparency, and shared problem-solving.
  
  
• The evolution of the data analyst - from dashboard designer to semantic-layer strategist.
  
  
• How AI, Tableau Next, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) are reshaping the future of data visualisation.
  
  
• The no-asshole policy behind Dub Dub Data’s culture - and what happens when values truly drive growth.
  
  
• Dream hires, lessons from corporate life, and how they’d spend a $5M seed fund.
  
  

Matthew draws out the personal and professional threads that make Dub Dub Data tick - from Fiona’s unrelenting problem-solving and deal-making to Sarah’s people-first storytelling superpower. It’s part origin story, part strategy masterclass, and 100% heart.

Takeaways

• Matthew Miller hosts the episode, flipping the script on the usual format.
• Sarah and Fiona share their entrepreneurial backgrounds and influences.
• Fiona's early experiences include selling chocolate bars and tinting eyelashes.
• Sarah's entrepreneurial journey began later in life, inspired by conversations with Fiona.
• Both co-founders identify their superpowers in business and how they complement each other.
• They discuss the importance of client relationships and the type of clients they seek.
• The conversation touches on the evolution of the analyst role in data analytics.
• Cultural differences between New Zealand and Australia are explored.
• Fiona shares lessons learned from her childhood entrepreneurial experiences.
• The duo discusses their vision for Dub Dub Data and their approach to funding.
  
  
  

Links

LinkedIn - Connect with Matthew Miller 

Tableau Medium Data - Tableau

Tableau Next Hackathon Entry - Craig Bloodworth

Model Context Protocol with Tableau - Darragh Murray - 

LinkedIn - Follow Geoffrey Smolders, CEO Biztory 

 Biztory 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Backgrounds

02:01 Entrepreneurial Roots and Early Experiences

04:13 Identifying Superpowers in Business

06:53 Client Relationships and Business Philosophy

08:50 Navigating Change and Market Adaptation

10:41 The Role of Analysts in Evolving Data Landscape

13:31 Cultural Differences and Personal Insights

28:20 Cultural Nuances in Problem-Solving

30:18 Lessons from International Experiences

30:36 Entrepreneurial Fears and Family Impact

35:03 Building the Dream Team

43:44 Funding Decisions and Company Ethos

49:07 R&D Focus and Future of Tableau

53:00 Data Visualization Insights

Keywords

unDUBBED, entrepreneurship, data analytics, Tableau, business philosophy, client relationships, cultural differences, funding, data visualization