This is part two of a two-part story. If you missed part one, you can read it here.

Something had shifted in Houston.

I didn’t resign the next day. I didn’t tell anyone. I just carried it with me through the rest of the Ironman and the flight home, turning it over quietly.

Over the summer, while I was on sabbatical after Annika was born, Eva and I kept coming back to the same question. If not now, when?

I joined Dan Martell’s coaching program. I started getting serious about what building my own training business might actually look like. And slowly, the idea that had clicked in Houston started to feel less like a dream and more like a plan.

By June 2023, I had made my decision. I was leaving.

The only thing left was telling Tom.

I travelled to London in September. The night before I was due to meet him, I barely slept. I had helped build The Information Lab and The Data School from the inside. These weren’t just colleagues. They were people I genuinely loved working with, and a company I was proud of. Walking away felt enormous.

Then Tom canceled our meeting. He was playing pickleball.

So I had another night to sit with it.

When we finally met, we went for a walk. I told him I had something I needed to say. And then I told him I was leaving.

He asked if there was anything he could do to change my mind.

I told him no.

He didn’t miss a beat. He turned to me and said, “Well, what can I do to help you?”

That moment told me everything I needed to know about the kind of person Tom is. We still talk regularly. I still see him as one of the best entrepreneurs I know.

​Next Level Tableau officially launched in January 2024.

The Data School had changed my life. But it had a ceiling. Eight people per cohort. Location dependent. Hundreds of analysts every year who wanted that level of training and simply couldn’t access it.

NLT exists to remove that ceiling.

If you are an analyst who is ambitious, who has stopped growing, who knows there is another level but cannot find a way to reach it, you are who I built it for.

If this resonated with you, I’d love to have a chat. Let’s figure out together if NLT is the right next step for you.

-Andy