The Exalead Mafia

April 10, 2016

I read “Stupeflix’s Acquisition by Go Pro: The First Exalead Mafia Exit.” The write up stated:

Acquired in 2011 by Dassault Systemes, Exalead was a power-house for big data & search talent in the mid 2000’s – specifically, out of Exalead Labs, their internal ‘playground’ – and the former employees (most of the engineering team left in the years following the acquisition) have gone on to start great startups: Algolia, Dataiku, OpenDataSoft – even Disclose, our own product, is built by our CTO Guillaume Esquevin, an Exalead alumnus – and, of course, Stupeflix. Cofounders Nicolas Steegman & Francois Lagunas met during their time at Exalead.

The PayPal mafia includes Peter Thiel and a handful of other Silicon Valley luminaries. The French version of the innovation gang has generated a winner.

I noted this statement:

For the rest of the Exalead Mafia, I’ll be keeping an eye out. Another round for Dataiku may be in the works – the startup just moved into some luxurious offices overlooking the Rex theater in the heart of Paris’ startup neighborhood. Algolia’s post-YC growth has been incredible, releasing feature after feature and wooing clients. Most recently they launched Super Bowl Search site where you can search all the ads that have ever aired during the Super Bowl. Expect more great things from the Exalead Mafia.

One point: My records show that Dassault acquired Exalead in 2010 for about $160 million.

Stephen E Arnold, April 10, 2016

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