Mozart Data was established by Peter Fishman and Dan Silberman, who share a two-decade friendship and a history of collaboration across numerous startup ventures, including even co-founding a hot sauce business. Observing the repeated cycle of companies constructing their own data infrastructure, these technologists resolved to offer a pre-built solution, leading to the creation of Mozart Data.

The company successfully completed the Y Combinator Summer 2020 program in August and has now secured $4 million in seed funding. This investment round was spearheaded by Craft Ventures and Array Ventures, with additional participation from Coelius Capital, Jigsaw VC, Signia VC, Taurus VC, and a group of individual investors.

Despite their brief foray into the culinary world, both founders dedicated much of their careers to data-related work, developing firm convictions regarding the ideal structure of a data stack. According to Fishman, in a statement to TechCrunch, their aim was to “make available more broadly the same stack that we’ve been building at all these different startups.”

Their vision of a contemporary data stack incorporates a variety of databases, software-as-a-service applications, and data sources. Mozart Data consolidates these elements, processes the information, and prepares it for use with any business intelligence platform. Fishman explained, “We do all of the parts before the BI tool. So we extract and load the data. We manage a data warehouse for you under the hood in Snowflake, and we provide a layer for you to do transformations.”

The service primarily targets technically proficient individuals with SQL knowledge, such as data analysts, data scientists, and professionals in sales and marketing operations. The company was initially funded by the founders’ personal resources and entered the Y Combinator program in June. Currently, they serve approximately a dozen clients and employ six individuals, with plans to expand their team by 10-12 members in the coming year.

Fishman stated that their initial hires were largely drawn from their existing professional networks, but they are now broadening their search to prioritize diversity in their recruitment efforts. He expressed confidence that a robust and inclusive recruitment process will yield positive results, noting, “I think if you spend a lot of energy in terms of top of funnel recruiting, you end up getting a good, diverse set at the bottom.”

The company’s ability to launch and grow during the pandemic was facilitated by the founders’ established network, which allowed them to effectively introduce their product. However, they recognize the need to extend their reach beyond this initial circle and intend to leverage their own experiences as users to communicate the value proposition of their service.

“I think talking about some of the whys and the rationale is our strategy for adding value to customers [...], it’s about basically how would we set up a data stack if we were at this type of startup,” Fishman elaborated.