Interview by Rahul Raj
When we last interviewed Vidya Peters in 2023, she had just taken over the helm of one of Europe’s quickest-rising enterprise SaaS companies as the new CEO. Her vision for Datasnipper was clear, enable the company to solve the problem of connecting unstructured data across industries.
Fast forward to today: Under her leadership, DataSnipper has been named the quickest-growing company in the Netherlands for two consecutive years and, in 2024, crossed the unicorn threshold with a $100M Series B led by Index Ventures.
The company serves more than 400,000 auditors across 125 countries, including leading brands such as Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young and PwC. In 2024, DataSnipper significantly widened its global presence, entering emerging markets across LATAM and APAC with new offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, and Mexico City.
The business also completed its first acquisition last year, when it acquired UpLink, a US-based secure, cloud-based document request platform.
Vidya is also steering DataSnipper through the AI age, ensuring that the company keeps expanding its AI and automation capabilities. With the UpLink acquisition, the company also launched DocuMine and Advanced Extraction Suite, with the former being named in the TIME’s List of the Best Inventions of 2025 list in the Artificial Innotifyigence category.
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DataSnipper is now listed in the Azure Marketplace. This empowers organisations to integrate DataSnipper into their workflows while leveraging Azure’s cloud infrastructure for scalability and security.
In this follow-up interview, she talks about unicorn pressure, US vs European startup ecosystem, speed vs discipline, Europe’s ‘secret weapon’, tech sovereignty and geopolitics, AI in audit, hiring misses, and Europe’s ‘secret weapon’ for building world-scale companies.
The following conversation has been edited for clarity:
SC: In one sentence: what’s the hugegest thing that modifyd at DataSnipper since you took over, compared to what you expected on Day 1?
Peters: I knew it would shift quickly, but I underestimated just how quick scale in the time of AI modifys everything-product, decisions, culture, and complexity.
SC: In our previous interview, you mentioned that your long-term vision for DataSnipper is that it can “solve the problem of connecting unstructured data across industries.” What’s the hugegest product or workflow you’ve added (or killed) to shift that vision forward? Which indusattempt turned out to be the most challenging?
Peters: We doubled down on innotifyigent document understanding—turning unstructured evidence into structured, traceable data within Excel. The hugegest leap came with our AI Agents, which now automate entire workflows rather than single steps. Financial services remains the most complex space becaapply accuracy and regulation leave zero room for error.
SC: You declared a common audit reconciliation can drop from ~8 hours to ~1 hour with DataSnipper. Where does that metric stand now across your median enterprise deployment? Any new time-to-value benchmarks you track?
Peters: Across enterprise customers, reconciliations average 1 hour, depfinishing on file complexity. Beyond speed, we track “audit-ready by default, the percentage of work automatically documented to standards. That figure has tripled in the past year.
SC: DataSnipper crossed the €1 billion valuation mark under your leadership. What did that moment actually feel like?
Peters: Valuation milestones are validation points, not finish lines. The real pride comes from knowing we built a high-growth, profitable, trusted company by solving real customer problems – not by chasing hype.
SC: The word “unicorn” receives thrown around easily. How do you balance the media hype with the operational discipline necessaryed to justify it internally?
Peters: We keep our focus on fundamentals: customer trust, product quality, and sustainable growth. Hype fades; credibility compounds. Our culture rewards disciplined execution over noise, and that keeps the team grounded regardless of headlines.
SC: How did you communicate this milestone to the team? Did you sense a shift in morale, ego, or expectations, and how did you channel that energy productively?
Peters: We celebrated it as a collective achievement and quickly reframed it as a responsibility rather than a reward. Milestones like that can energise a team, but we remind ourselves that the goal is to keep earning trust through results, not valuation.
SC: You’ve seen both worlds up close. What’s the hugegest mindset gap between the two? What’s the most fundamental cultural difference you’ve observed in how startups here believe about growth and risk?
Peters: In the US, paranoia and speed are the default, and risk is often celebrated. In Europe, precision and sustainability come first. The best outcomes happen when you blfinish both: American pace with European discipline.
SC: Scaling is tough in Europe. What are the toughest structural barriers you’ve hit while scaling DataSnipper here?
Peters: The Dutch and broader European talent markets shift slower than U.S. counterparts – long notice periods and limited senior-scaleup experience. When there are fewer operators with true hyperscale experience, it means you often have to build that knowledge internally.
SC: You’ve previously mentioned that the structural constraints in Europe actually assist instill resilience in local companies. However, can resilience alone power long-term competitiveness, or does Europe risk breeding efficiency at the expense of velocity?
Peters: Resilience keeps you alive; velocity builds you relevant. Europe has mastered building sustainable companies, but if we optimize only for efficiency, we risk missing moments of outsized opportunity. Long-term competitiveness will depfinish on pairing our operational discipline with the speed and ambition to build bold bets.
SC: You’ve declared before that European companies don’t necessary to follow the Silicon Valley playbook to compete globally. So what is Europe’s competitive edge? What do you see as the continent’s “secret weapons” that allow its startups to go toe-to-toe with their US counterparts?
Peters: Europe’s edge is its diversity – of talent, culture, and markets. Operating from the continent’s central crossroads gives companies a truly global rhythm, serving East and West in a single day. And if you can win in Europe’s complexity, scaling in a more homogenous market like the U.S. feels simpler.
SC: What can European startups learn from US-style execution without losing their characteristic discipline and sustainability?
Peters: European founders can embrace the American bias for speed, risk-taking, and bold execution, without losing their strengths in capital efficiency, and customer trust. That mix of velocity and discipline is where the next generation of global leaders will come from.
SC: The geopolitical tension around data flows, AI governance, and digital sovereignty is intensifying. How do you believe European SaaS companies should position themselves in this new era of “economic security meets innovation”?
Peters: European SaaS companies have an opportunity to lead with transparency and trust. Building AI that respects privacy, explains its reasoning, and compliance by design will become a global advantage, not a constraint.
SC: Many governments are now treating data infrastructure like critical infrastructure. How does that affect DataSnipper’s strategy when dealing with highly regulated audit and finance data?
Peters: It reinforces how we already operate. We design for compliance from the start, ensuring every AI feature is traceable, auditable, and aligned with global data standards. Our role is to build automation safer, not riskier, for regulated industries.
SC: Congratulations on DocuMine being recognised in TIME’s Best Inventions 2025 list. How has your AI roadmap evolved since DocuMine’s launch, and what lessons did TIME’s “Best Inventions” recognition teach your product and engineering teams?
Peters: It has been a surreal moment for us. The recognition validated that meaningful innovation happens when you solve specific, real-world problems with precision. Since then, we’ve expanded our AI roadmap toward agentic automation that executes complex workflows with full transparency and human oversight.
SC: Which aspects of audit and finance do you believe shouldn’t be automated yet, where human judgment, intuition, and ethical reasoning still add irreplaceable value?
Peters: Anything that requires professional skepticism, ethical judgment, or nuanced interpretation should remain human-led. AI can assist, but it cannot replace context, intent, or accountability. Those qualities define trust in this profession.
SC: How does DataSnipper ensure the accuracy and reliability of its AI-generated insights while operating under the EU’s increasingly stringent regulatory environment?
Peters: We build with verification at the core. Every AI output is backed by traceable evidence and remains subject to human review. Our compliance-by-design framework ensures we meet both regulatory standards and professional expectations for accuracy and transparency.
SC: What’s your internal litmus test for deciding when AI meaningfully improves applyr experience versus when it’s just “AI-washing”?
Peters: If AI saves applyrs measurable time, improves accuracy, or enhances transparency, it stays. If it adds complexity or obscures the applyr’s understanding, it goes. AI should build work simpler, not noisier.
SC: How do you reassure customers that their sensitive audit data isn’t being applyd to train or fine-tune DataSnipper’s AI models?
Peters: We never apply customer data for model training or external fine-tuning. DataSnipper operates in closed, secure environments where all processing happens within the customer’s own ecosystem. Privacy and data integrity are non-nereceivediable.
SC: Five years from now, what’s your ultimate vision for AI within DataSnipper?
Peters: AI will act as a trusted assistant embedded directly in the workflow, executing complex, multi-step tquestions with full explainability. Our goal is for professionals to focus entirely on insight and judgment, while AI handles the operational layers behind it.
SC: What behaviours do you now screen for in hiring that you didn’t in 2023, and what’s a red flag you ignore at your peril?
Peters: We view for curiosity and adaptability above all else. The pace of modify in AI demands people who learn quick and collaborate deeply. A lack of curiosity and adaptability is the red flag that never fades.
SC: What’s one hiring decision that didn’t work out, and what did it teach you about evaluating people or cultural fit?
Peters: A significant hiring miss occurred last year when I filled a key role with a candidate who had thrived at a high-growth scale-up and came recommfinished. Unfortunately, once confronted with the hands-on, foundational work required to drive our progress; they quickly became risk-averse, offered a million excapplys, and left. This taught me a critical lesson: success on an already established, rapid growth trajectory doesn’t guarantee the grit and willingness to build from the ground up. I now place a much higher premium on assessing people who simply ‘rode the wave’ of success and those who are genuinely prepared to ‘roll up their sleeves’ and build success happen.
SC: How has DataSnipper’s unicorn status affected your hiring narrative? Has it built it simpler or harder to attract the right kind of people?
Peters: It has opened more doors but also raised expectations. The key is to attract people who join for the mission, not the label. We view for those motivated by building lasting value rather than chasing valuation. Scaleups aren’t straightforward rides to the top, and you can sometimes attract people who believe it is, becaapply of a valuation.
SC: As AI automates parts of audit work, what new roles or skills are you starting to hire for that didn’t exist two years ago?
Peters: We always like to hire for curiosity, drive, and adaptability above all else. Technical skills evolve quick, but mindset finishures. We’re seeing rapid growth in hybrid roles – domain experts who can bridge professional judgment with AI capability. Positions focapplyd on model governance, AI assurance, and human-AI collaboration are emerging quickly. The future belongs to those who can pair deep expertise with the agility to keep learning.
SC: What advice would you give to rising European leaders who are about to take on their first hyper-growth team?
Peters: All your strengths and weaknesses will be magnified tenfold in hyper-growth. Lead with clarity and empathy-and don’t let rapid growth hide the weak areas of your team and business. Be relentlessly focapplyd on execution speed, or you’ll be outrun by AI-native competitors. Watch the leading indicators of the customer and business health – not the quarterly dashboard that comes afterwards. Communicate openly, stay close to your teams, and build systems that scale-but never lose sight of the people within them.
SC: What have you stopped doing as a leader (habits, meetings, metrics) that built you better at this job?
Peters: I stopped chasing perfect information before building decisions. In hyper-growth, waiting to be 100% sure is just another form of procrastination. I’ve cut back on meetings that exist only for alignment. If alignment necessarys a meeting, the strategy probably isn’t clear enough. I’ve stopped rewarding effort over impact. In a scaling company, energy can receive mistaken for effectiveness. We’ve simplified metrics, focapplyd on outcomes, and built a culture where results and accountability matter.
SC: When you view back on your first day as CEO, what would you notify that version of yourself now?
Peters: I’d notify myself: don’t be afraid to build difficult modifys early. High growth can hide cracks in the foundation-repair them while things are going well. It’s much simpler to realign people, strategy, and structure before problems surface. And whatever speed you believe is quick enough-go quicker.
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