Kirkland-based data warehouse startup Firebolt is quietly growing its Seattle presence as it prepares to makes its technology general available.
Firebolt, which was valued at $1.4 billion after a $100 million raise in 2022, first opened its Kirkland office in 2021 and now has more than 30 of its 120 total employees here. Igor Stanko, vice president of product, and Eldad Farkash, co-founder and CEO, said Firebolt will likely double its headcount over the next year, and a large part of that growth will be at its Kirkland headquarters.
"Kirkland is not cheap," Farkash said. "People say it takes around $100 million to build a database. We had to do it with much less, but nevertheless we had to hire key talent. This is the place to hire key talent. When you hire someone from Google, and when you hire someone from Microsoft, it comes with a price tag, I've learned. We love it."
Firebolt, founded in 2019, makes data warehouses, which store large amounts of data from multiple sources for easier analytics. According to Firebolt, its product has lower latency that traditional data warehouses. The company has already been serving customers, including Similarweb and Primer, but the product becomes general available later this month.
Firebolt's headquarters are at the Emerald Building at 520 Kirkland Way, where the company has 7,150 square feet of space. The office can now hold about 60 to 70 people following a renovation and expansion, Stanko said. In addition to Kirkland, Firebolt has offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, where it was founded, and Munich.
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Farkash previously founded the analytics platform Sisense and spent more than 13 years with the company, according to his LinkedIn page. Stanko joined Firebolt in 2022. He spent 12 years at Microsoft in program manager roles.
Farkash said Firebolt Chief Technology Officer Mosha Pasumansky picked the Kirkland office location. Pasumansky joined Firebolt in 2021 after more than 10 years at Google, his LinkedIn page shows.
Firebolt employees in Kirkland tend to come into the office most days, Farkash said, though the company doesn't have specific guidelines around in-person work. To make the office experience fun, Firebolt has pingpong tournaments, game nights and a wheel employees can spin to determine where the team will get lunch.
The company also has a strong affinity for Harry Potter, with conference rooms, teams and projects named in honor of the famous children's fantasy series.
When he picked the name of the company, Farkash said he didn't know Firebolt was a high-end broomstick from the books. That said, when he saw a replica Firebolt broomstick on display in a shop in London while on vacation with his family, he asked if he could buy it. A store associate said no, but Farkash appealed to the owner, who was happy to sell it. The shop sent it directly to the Kirkland office, where it now sits in a conference room.
"The team connects with that," Stanko said. "What we're trying to do is magical. That has not been done before."
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