# Sameer Al-Sakran

> Sameer Al-Sakran is the co-founder and CEO of Metabase, the open-source business intelligence tool that grew into an 8-figure ARR company used by more than 70,000 organizations. He spent four years building Metabase without charging a dollar, then turned it into a product-led growth case study by burying a single call-to-action deep in the admin panel and letting the software sell itself. A career machine-learning and data person, he worked in data science, engineering, and venture before deciding the world needed a simpler way to ask a database a question.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Metabase
- **Organizations:** Metabase, Expa, Metamorphic Ventures, General Catalyst, Blackjet, imeem
- **Education:** Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and scaled Metabase to 8-figure ARR and 70,000+ companies., Built one of the most widely adopted open-source business intelligence tools in the world., Pioneered a much-cited product-led growth playbook with effectively zero sales and marketing in the early years.

## Career timeline

- **pre-2011** — Worked in machine learning, data science, and engineering, including roles at imeem (Senior Manager of Engineering) and Estarta Solutions (Software Engineer).
- **2011-2012** — Data Scientist in Residence at General Catalyst (GC Seed).
- **2012-2013** — CTO at Blackjet.
- **2014** — Joined Expa as CTO; started building Metabase as an internal side project to answer simple questions from a database.
- **2015** — Spun Metabase out of Expa and raised a ~$2M seed round.
- **2017** — Raised a second seed of roughly $2.5M.
- **2021** — Raised Series B (latest funding ~$30M); total funding reported around $51M.
- **present** — CEO of Metabase, ~100-140 employees, 8-figure ARR, 70,000+ companies.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and scaled Metabase to 8-figure ARR and 70,000+ companies.
- Built one of the most widely adopted open-source business intelligence tools in the world.
- Pioneered a much-cited product-led growth playbook with effectively zero sales and marketing in the early years.
- Raised approximately $51M in total funding across seed and Series B rounds.

## Latest updates

- **2024-12** — Appeared on Software Engineering Daily to discuss open-source data analytics and the Metabase journey.
- **2021-08** — Metabase's most recent reported funding round (Series B).

## Links

- Website: https://metabase.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salsakran/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sameer_alsakran
- GitHub: https://github.com/salsakran
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/metabasedotcom/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sameer-al-sakran
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-06