ClickHouse CEO, Aaron Katz: The AI Bubble Is Wrong | AI Margins Need to Improve | Revenue Concentration Should be a Concern

20VC

Aug 31, 2026

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Aaron Katz is the Co-Founder and CEO of ClickHouse, the real-time analytics database powering companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Tesla and Microsoft. ClickHouse just surpassed $350M in ARR and raised over $1B from investors including Dragoneer, Khosla Ventures, Coatue, 20VC and Benchmark. Previously, Aaron was CRO at Elastic, where he helped scale revenue from approximately $5M to $500M and led the company through its IPO. Before Elastic, he spent 12 years at Salesforce, working alongside Marc Benioff and helping transform it from a 200-person startup into a global software giant.

In Today's Show:
  • Are we in an AI bubble?

  • How does software change when agents—not humans—make buying decisions?

  • Will 90% of tokens flow through open models; can enterprises trust them?

  • Why did ClickHouse sponsor Fulham; and could sports teams become $20B assets?

  • When will ClickHouse hit $1B ARR?

  • Can startups still win elite talent from OpenAI? Biggest remote work mistake?

  • Is zero-to-$100M ARR now table stakes; or is durable growth what matters?

  • Is college still worth it; which jobs will survive AI?

  • When will ClickHouse go public; and why not next year?

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