Men of the Year 2019 - Frank Bien and Lloyd Tabb, Looker

Congratulations to Frank Bien and Lloyd Tabb, from Looker on being awarded the Men of the Year at the 2019 Santa Cruz County Chamber Awards.

In August 2011, Tabb started writing the first few lines of code for what would eventually become Looker. By experimenting with different delivery models and cultivating a small yet mighty fanbase of early customers, they were able to bootstrap until they raised their seed round in the summer of 2012, which was co-led by First Rounder Ben Trenchard. A few key early hires joined in the months that followed, and Looker emerged from stealth mode in March 2013 Several months later Bien came on as president and, after going shoulder-to-shoulder with Tabb on the fundraising frontlines in their Series A round, took over as CEO to firm up the sales motion and scale the business.

CEO Frank Bien stated, “On behalf of the entire Looker team, we accept this award knowing how much it means to be a part of the Santa Cruz tech community. We pride ourselves as a local Santa Cruz start-up with a global reach and this honor is a reflection of our home-grown Santa Cruz vibe.”

Fast forward ahead of these early markers to June 2019, Google Cloud announced its intention to acquire Looker inking a $2.6 billion deal. This is truly a major milestone for the Santa Cruz tech community. In a little more than seven years, Looker went from a single customer to more than 1700, from a small, scrappy team in Santa Cruz to a 700-person company spanning eight offices around the globe.