Out of beta and into the wild: Weld is now free to use and faster than ever to set up
Hi, I’m Jonas, one of the co-founders at Weld. It’s been a little over a year since we started the company, and it’s already been quite a journey. Like any great adventure, there have been twists and turns along the way — and we’re really proud of how far we’ve come.
We recently made a big move that marks our official launch out of the beta stage: Weld is now available free of charge, and new users can sign up directly through the website.
To celebrate this milestone, I wanted to reflect back on everything that got us to this point, take stock of where we are today, and look forward to where we’re headed next. I had a conversation with my co-founders Jakob and Jake about our accomplishments and ambitions, and I’m sharing some of our insights in this piece.
- We’ve grown from 2 to 40 employees, and we have 6 internal departments working to build the future of Weld.
- Our team has built 30+ native connectors, and is currently working on several more to stream data in and out of the warehouse.
- We went from a reverse-ETL-only tool to an end-to-end data platform — with ELT, data modelling, SQL editor, lineage, and managed data warehouse functionalities.
- Our head office in Copenhagen is a hub for our global team, and we’ve also opened an office in Montreal, Canada.
- We have more and more happy customers using Weld, including SEON, Contractbook, Juni, Son Of A Tailor, Planday, and Monta.
How it started
Weld’s journey began when Jake, Jakob and I ran into a problem while working at our previous company. Working hard to unify data from 100+ SaaS tools and systems and start getting real business value from the company data, we quickly realized this was much easier said than done. Even with a fully-stacked team of experts and a top-notch Modern Data Stack, it was still a challenge to start turning data insights into action and achieve truly data-driven growth.
And so we decided to start Weld. The vision was clear: we wanted to help companies become data-driven faster and easier than ever before with an extreme focus on business value. But figuring out the best way to actualize a dream takes time — and testing.
“Figuring out exactly the product that we wanted to build and what market to build it for has been a fun challenge. When you are in this early stage, your team needs to be super aligned and agile. As your team grows this becomes increasingly harder. If you haven't found a good product-market fit as you start scaling, pivoting your messaging or experimenting with new things in your product just becomes so much harder. You suddenly need to get more buy-in from your team and align more stakeholders. This has been a big challenge but it also feels amazing when you find the right mix.”
– Jake Kristensen, Co-Founder of Weld
How it’s going
Today, we’ve successfully built not only our product but our brand, our team, and our company culture. We’ve achieved a lot in a short period of time, and we’re savouring every moment of these early days. Things still feel fresh and exciting, and anything feels possible.
“We are still at a very early stage. To me this is probably one of the most fun and exciting phases of a start-up. You still have a small close-knit team, there's so many unknowns and challenges that need to be figured out. At the same time it feels like your team can move mountains. Every day we learn so much more about our business and directions.”
– Jakob Skytte, Co-Founder of Weld
Our product development has come a long way. Weld is an end-to-end data platform that brings all the core functions of your company’s data operations together in one space. Rather than patching together various data tools and spending valuable time and resources maintaining a custom solution, organizations can quickly get up and running with Weld. This supports our broader vision of helping companies make better and faster data-driven decisions, and get real business value out of their data — no matter their stage, size or resources.
How our customers are succeeding with Weld
- Weld saves SEON tens of thousands of euros by reducing the need for in-house data expertise.
- All of Monta’s core company metrics are clearly defined and governed, creating alignment across the company.
- Juni's engineers save 10 hours every week building and maintaining the company's data infrastructure.
- “Before Weld, there was no data setup,” says Jakub Czapski, Senior Manager of Data & Analytics at Planday.
The team behind Weld
Of course, Weld would be nothing without the people building it. Our team has grown from 2 to 40, and we’re working in 6 dedicated teams, each of which own an essential company domain. What does our company culture look like? We work hard, have fun, and live by our core company values.
With a distributed workforce (1/3 of our employees work remotely across various time zones), these guiding principles are always something we can align around. They help everyone feel connected, even when working at a distance.
What’s next?
Weld’s journey has only just begun. While we’ve built a strong foundation, it’s important to continue to test new things, iterate, and adapt as we go. Our mission is to reduce the barrier to entry to becoming data-driven, and we’ll continue to approach our ambitions with curiosity and open minds. With everything we’ve accomplished in just over one year, we’re very excited about what we’ll do next.
“Seeing how far we have come in such a short time, I can't wait to see where this path will take us in the next 12 months. It feels like every corner we turn new paths reveal themselves. This is both incredibly challenging but also what makes it fun.”
– Jake Kristensen, Co-Founder of Weld
One thing’s for sure, we’ll continue to put our people first and place an emphasis on team-building and stronger collaboration. Making sure our company culture stays healthy and engaging is essential to our success, and we’re lucky to have a team of high performers who will continue to drive us in the right direction.
“To me, it’s all about continuing to focus on the team, and doubling down on our people. They are the ones who will make these decisions easy. Being able to give them the adventure I was lucky enough to be a part of in my previous company is super motivating — both the good times and the challenging.”
– Jakob Skytte, Co-Founder of Weld
Closing remarks
Weld started from a real problem we encountered at work, and we’ve come to learn that many other organizations face the same challenges in deriving value from their data. We picture a future where becoming data-driven is easier and more exciting, rather than difficult and tiresome.
As we strive towards this vision and focus on the future, it’s important to also take a moment and look at how far we’ve come. I’m happy to say that we’ve been very successful in our journey so far, and the future looks bright.
The Weld platform is free to use and quick to set up, so why not sign up and give it a try? If you’d like to learn more about achieving your data goals with Weld, book a call with one of our in-house experts.
Continue reading
How to create a Shopify dashboard in Looker Studio with Weld
Using Weld's pre-built template, you can have your dashboard up and running in no time. This guide will walk you through the process step by step.
How Female Invest centralized data management and saved resources with Weld
Learn how Female Invest centralized data manegement, made significant cost savings, and improved effieciency with Weld.
Top 5 ways to use data to grow your ecommerce business
We’ve asked Shopify users for their top 5 data use cases in e-commerce, and here’s what they shared.