Tableau Software, the market-leading choice for modern business intelligence, makes it easier for people to explore and manage data, as well as faster to discover and share insights that can change businesses and the world. Everything they do is motivated by their mission of assisting people in seeing and understanding data, which is why their products are designed with the user in mind—whether they are an analyst, data scientist, student, teacher, executive, or business user.
Since their inception, they have consistently invested at an unrivaled rate in research and development, developing solutions to assist anyone working with data in getting answers faster and uncovering unexpected insights.
The Story Behind Tableau Software
Tableau was founded in January 2003 by Pat Hanrahan, Christian Chabot, and Chris Stolte, and relocated its headquarters the following year to Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. Since then, the company has expanded its Fremont headquarters and announced plans for an auxiliary campus in Kirkland, Washington, in 2016. In March 2017, a new headquarters building near Gas Works Park in Wallingford opened, followed by a new building in Fremont in 2018.
Tableau announced in August 2016 the appointment of Adam Selipsky as president and CEO, effective September 16, 2016, succeeding co-founder Christian Chabot. Tableau acquired Empirical Systems, an artificial intelligence startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June 2018, with plans to integrate the company’s technology into the Tableau platform. As a result of the agreement, Tableau plans to open an office in Cambridge.
Some of their Products
Tableau capitalizes on people’s natural ability to recognize visual patterns quickly, revealing both everyday opportunities and eureka moments. With Tableau Server, you can extend the value of your data across your entire organization. Give your company the freedom to explore data in a secure environment, without restricting them to pre-defined questions, wizards, or chart types. Tableau Prep alters the way traditional data preparation is done in an organization.
Tableau Prep makes it easier for analysts and business users to start their analysis faster by providing a visual and direct way to combine, shape, and clean data. Tableau Prep is made up of two products: Tableau Prep Builder, which is used to create data flows, and Tableau Prep Conductor, which is used to schedule, monitor, and manage flows across the organization.
Tableau Online is your cloud-hosted analytics platform. Create dashboards and share your findings with anyone. Invite colleagues or customers to investigate hidden opportunities using interactive visualizations and up-to-date data. All of this is easily accessible via browser or on the go with our mobile apps.
Tableau Public is a free online platform for exploring, creating, and sharing data visualizations. Tableau Public facilitates the development of data skills by providing access to the world’s largest repository of data visualizations.
The Founders of the Company
Tableau’s Chief Scientist is Pat Hanrahan. He also teaches computer graphics as the CANON Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Pat is the recipient of two Academy Awards in Science and Technology, the Spirit of America Creativity Award, the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award, the SIGGRAPH Stephen A. Coons Award, and the IEEE Visualization Career Award. He is a National Academy of Engineering and an American Academy of Arts and Sciences member.
Founders: Chris Stolte, Christian Chabot, and Pat Hanrahan
Tableau Software’s Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder is Christian Chabot. Christian previously worked at Softbank Venture Capital, where he specialized in enterprise software. Christian was previously the CEO and co-founder of BeeLine Software, a pioneer in next-generation digital mapping technology that was acquired by VicinityCorporation.
Chris Stolte is a Tableau co-founder who now works as a Technical Advisor for the company. Chris was also the CTO and co-founder of BeeLine Systems, a visualization software company that created a revolutionary map rendering system before being acquired by Vicinity Corporation. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University and his B.S. in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University.
Adam Selipsky, CEO of Tableau Software
Tableau’s former President and CEO is Adam Selipsky. Selipsky spent over a decade developing Amazon Web Services, one of the world’s most successful technology platforms. His leadership aided in the growth of AWS from a start-up to a multibillion-dollar company, establishing it as the undisputed market leader in cloud computing.
Selipsky was AWS’s Vice President of Marketing, Sales, and Support. Prior to joining Amazon, he was a senior executive at RealNetworks, where he oversaw the video subscription and media player divisions. Prior to that, he was a Principal at the strategy consulting firm Mercer Management Consulting. He graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in government and an MBA.
