Founders: Natan Linder, Rony Kubat
Founding: 2014
Mission: Democratizing technology and empowering those closest to operations to solve problems
Employees: 300+ & ~50% Local
Workplace: Hybrid
Stage & Capital Raised: Series C & total $153M raised
Investors: Insight Partners, Pitango Growth, TIME Ventures, DMG MORI, NEA, Vertex Ventures
Key Customers: Stanley Black & Decker, Johnson & Johnson, DMG Mori, Vertex
Glassdoor Rating: 3.8
Valuation (estimated): $750M+ (assuming average equity dilution in the 2021 $100M Series C fundraise)
^ this is a useless number from MGMT Boston. There is no tangible valuation until the business is sold or goes public. Don’t forget it!
Tulip is building a frontline operations platform to help deskless workforces create and manage applications without writing code. They are helping discrete manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and other physical businesses improve productivity and streamline operations to more effectively grow.
This late stage startup was founded out of MIT’s Media Lab in 2014 by Natan Linder & Rony Kubat with the goal of transforming manufacturing into composable operations. Natan was the previous founder of 3D printing startup Formlabs and leveraged his hardware expertise to reimagine how frontline operations could be run. The duo teamed up to close the gap between traditional manufacturing processes and build a more technology forward, IoT native, no-code frontline operations platform.
1 in 5 global workers are deskless operators who represent a $150B modernization opportunity (src). Traditional manufacturing environments struggle with limited real-time production visibility, failed modernization initiatives, and slow-moving infrastructure that impedes innovation and efficiency. TLDR? The most complex tasks are still being performed by people, with limited visibility into their execution.
Tulip has been on a mission to build a human centric, flexible platform to address these challenges at “the edge” of computing. Their core offering is a cloud-based, no-code frontline operations platform which is integrated by Tulip’s Edge Devices (IO & MC) into a wide array of hardware.
Upon integration, Tulip allows their customers to build apps to see real time, customizable production insights from “shop floor” data. Their use cases include general manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and warehousing. Discrete manufacturers build dashboards to understand the status of work orders & equipment. Pharmaceutical companies release batches faster with apps that streamline data capture. Medical device companies can bring their products to market faster with enhanced specification & quality controls. Pharmaceutical customers have reported a 75% reduction in time spent reviewing detailed logbooks and 30% faster processes with digital guidance and audit trails (src).
Composable architecture enables customers to rapidly assemble and customize apps without being tied to traditional rigid systems, digitizing workflows and collecting actionable data. Edge connectivity – interacting with machines, sensors, and other hardware in real time – enables comprehensive data collection and analysis to support multiple use cases with minimal latency.
Tulip offers specialized capabilities like their Composable MES App Suite for regulated industries, offering pre-built apps and a common data model providing intuitive, electronic batch record functionality. Their platform also features governance and validation tools for companies operating under GxP requirements. Frontline Copilot can now ask and receive answers to questions about data and documents, translate apps, extract text from images, and create analytics that drive insights with plain language prompts.
Tulip works with customers all over the world, with a customer base including several Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders such as Terex, Delta Faucet, Outset Medical, Stanley Black & Decker, DMG Mori, and Johnson & Johnson. The startup is headquartered in Somerville with European offices in Germany and Hungary. Their international presence supports hundreds of global enterprise customers spanning more than 35 countries.
Tulip was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, identified as a Challenger on the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Manufacturing Execution Systems, a Frost and Sullivan Entrepreneurial Company of the Year, and an IDC Innovator. Most recently, Tulip ranked 220th on the 2024 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, highlighting revenue growth of 536% over the past three years.
Tulip is backed by Insight Partners, Pitango Growth, TIME Ventures, DMG MORI, NEA, and Vertex Ventures.
Operators to Know (Locally):
- Yael Agmon, Head of GTM Strategy & Operations
- Matthew Aldrich, Head of Engineering
- Kimberly Andersson, Head of Design
- Gillian Catrambone, Head of Operations
- Jennifer Dyment, Product & Solutions Marketing Lead
- Nicholas Erickson, GTM Operations Lead
- Sean Halloran, Manager, Regional Sales
- Elise Jones, Head of Corporate Marketing
- Michael McCarthy, Head of FP&A
- Rich O’Connell, Software Engineering Lead
- Shay Pletcher, Lead Software Engineer
- Ayana Reiner, Chief of Staff
- Misha Rutman, Senior Engineering Group Lead, Build
- Stephen Sanfilippo, Director of Regional Sales
- Katie Scherbel, Head of Revenue Marketing
- Chris Shepard, Product
- Sara Taylor, Software Engineering Manager
- Merrill Waters, Head of Digital Marketing and Operations
My investigative powers continue to need work so apologies to the Tulip team I know I missed many up & coming operators internally
Key Roles To Be Hired (Locally):
- Head of Channel
- Digital Transformation Engineer
- Customer Success Manager, Life Sciences
- Demand Generation Manager
- Head of Marketing Intelligence & Strategic Communications
- Product Marketing Manager
- Director of Platform Engineering
- People Operations Generalist
If I were interviewing here are some questions I’d ask:
- Could you share some details about the onboarding process & training?
- What are the biggest challenges as you scale the team past 300 employees?
- What is the long term vision for the company?
- What are the most important roles you’ll be looking to add in 2025 // teams that need the most help?
We’re optimizing for readability here so to learn more about Tulip you’ll have to D.Y.O.R. I’m excited to watch this team bring more front line manufacturers into the age of AI. All producers applaud your efforts. See you around town!