---
title: "The Most Important Thing Has Never Been the Numbers"
description: "Discover how Looker built a $30M Series B SaaS company with 400% growth by focusing beyond metrics to create an exceptional company culture and team."
categories: ["fundraising"]
keywords: ["Looker","SaaS growth","company culture","venture capital","startup success","team dynamics","customer success","business metrics","Tomasz Tunguz"]
ai_summary: "Explore how Looker's focus on culture over metrics led to $30M funding and 400% growth in the SaaS sector."
date: 2015-03-11
lastmod: 2026-07-31
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/surfboard-paella-motorcycles-looker/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/q_auto/f_auto/w_auto/looker_surf_board.jpg)

When you walk into [Looker's offices](http://www.officelovin.com/2015/02/22/look-inside-lookers-santa-cruz-office/), the first thing you'll see are the surfboards standing in a corner, still sandy from a morning's outing. Looking around, you'll notice the sunny outdoor patio where a chef once made enough paella in one enormous *paellera* for Looker's 100 employees, and you might sit at the long tables where they shared the feast. 

As you entered the building, you would have passed a motorcycle glinting in the sun, a gift from the company to an early engineer for his outstanding contributions to the business. Walking inside, you'll see all the Looker team members [wearing t-shirts of their customers](http://i2.wp.com/venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Looker-team-in-customer-shirts.jpg?fit=780%2C9999). All around the office, you can feel the culture Frank, Lloyd and the rest of the Looker team have imbued into company from the very earliest days.  

Today, [Looker is announcing a $30M round, 400% annual growth and an impressive customer list that includes  unicorns and publicly traded companies](http://www.looker.com/company/press/looker-closes-30-million-series-b-financing-led-by-meritech). As a student of SaaS companies, I can say with confidence the numbers behind the business and the company's progress are very exciting. 

But the most special thing about Looker isn't the numbers. Instead, it's the unique chemistry of the team who have built Looker into what it is today; it's this distinct culture that will accelerate and transform the business tomorrow. It's the company's relentless focus on defining its success by the success of its customers.

Days like this that remind me that the most important things for startups have never been the numbers; they've always been the people and the culture.