After a stellar Q1/2018 the market has finally found its love for Tableau (DATA) with the stock rallying a monstrous 56% YTD and rising 27% compared to its pre-earnings closing.
Source: YCharts
Having crushed the psychological $100 barrier for the second time after its IPO the stock is closing in on its all-time high of around $130.
The financials are showing that the business is growing fast but I believe only when taking a user's perspective investors can truly understand the value Tableau offers and why its moat will reign supreme.
What makes Tableau so special?
Happiness: Tableau users are happy users as the software is intuitive, well-designed, powerful. The only limit is your own creativity. Here are three unique aspects about it
- In the pre-Tableau world everyone was only talking about charts and diagrams when it came down to visualizing data in business. Sure, there were very sophisticated infographics but those were neither easy to produce nor meant for dynamic reporting. With Tableau we are no longer viewing standard and overwhelmingly ugly Excel charts but instead we are looking at "vizzs", that is visualizations and the possibilities here are endless. Tableau Public hosts a gallery showcasing the most stunning visualization examples created by the community and Tableau employees. The breadth and depth here is truly staggering. Below is a viz that recently won a so-called "Iron Viz" competition (more on that later):
Source: Tableau Public Gallery
2. Tableau is intuitive. When I opened it for the first time (I have an analytical background and used Excel and PivotTables every day) it immediately felt like something where you just know how to start. You load your Excel data into, click around, drag and drop and quickly get a sense of how that is all working. And in case you have never ever got in touch with data or
