Since taking the helm of DataSnipper in 2023, Vidya Peters has steered the Dutch enterprise software company through a remarkable trajectory. The firm achieved unicorn status in 2024 with a $100 million Series B round led by Index Ventures, was named the Netherlands' fastest-growing company for two consecutive years, and now serves over 600,000 auditors across 175 countries—including Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and PwC.

The company's expansion accelerated dramatically last year. DataSnipper entered emerging markets in Latin America and Asia-Pacific, opening offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, and Mexico City. It also completed its first acquisition, purchasing UpLink, a US-based secure cloud document request platform. Following that deal, DataSnipper launched DocuMine and the Advanced Extraction Suite—with DocuMine earning recognition on TIME's List of the Best Inventions of 2025 in the Artificial Intelligence category. The platform is now available on the Azure Marketplace, allowing organisations to integrate DataSnipper into their workflows while using Azure's cloud infrastructure.

In a follow-up conversation with Silicon Canals, Peters reflects on the pressures of unicorn status, the contrasting startup cultures of Europe and the US, and how European companies can compete globally without abandoning their core strengths.

The speed of scale in the AI era

When asked what changed most since her first day as CEO, Peters acknowledged the pace of transformation. "I knew it would move quickly, but I underestimated just how fast scale in the time of AI changes everything—product, decisions, culture, and complexity," she said.

The company's core mission—connecting unstructured data across industries—has evolved significantly. DataSnipper doubled down on intelligent document understanding, converting unstructured evidence into structured, traceable data within Excel. The biggest breakthrough came through AI Agents, which now automate entire workflows rather than individual steps. Financial services emerged as the most complex sector, where accuracy and regulatory requirements leave virtually no margin for error.

The productivity gains are substantial. Across enterprise deployments, audit reconciliations that once took approximately eight hours now average one hour, depending on file complexity. Beyond speed metrics, DataSnipper tracks what Peters calls "audit-ready by default," measuring the percentage of work automatically documented to professional standards—a figure that has tripled over the past year.

Unicorn status: validation, not finish line

Reaching a €1 billion valuation brought validation but not complacency. "Valuation milestones are validation points, not finish lines," Peters explained. "The real pride comes from knowing we built a high-growth, profitable, trusted company by solving real customer problems—not by chasing hype."

Managing the psychological impact of unicorn status internally required deliberate communication. Peters celebrated the milestone as a collective achievement, then reframed it as responsibility rather than reward. "Milestones like that can energise a team, but we remind ourselves that the goal is to keep earning trust through results, not valuation," she said.

The challenge lies in filtering hype from operational discipline. "We keep our focus on fundamentals: customer trust, product quality, and sustainable growth," Peters noted. "Hype fades; credibility compounds. Our culture rewards disciplined execution over noise, and that keeps the team grounded regardless of headlines."

Europe's edge: diversity and complexity

Peters has observed stark differences between European and American startup ecosystems. "In the US, paranoia and speed are the default, and risk is often celebrated. In Europe, precision and sustainability come first," she said. "The best outcomes happen when you blend both: American pace with European discipline."

Scaling in Europe presents structural challenges. The Dutch and broader European talent markets move more slowly than their US equivalents, with longer notice periods and fewer operators with true hyperscale experience. This forces companies to build expertise internally—a constraint that paradoxically builds resilience.

Yet resilience alone cannot sustain long-term competitiveness. "Resilience keeps you alive; velocity makes you relevant," Peters said. "Europe has mastered building sustainable companies, but if we optimize only for efficiency, we risk missing moments of outsized opportunity. Long-term competitiveness will depend on pairing our operational discipline with the speed and ambition to make bold bets."

Europe's true competitive advantage lies in diversity. "Europe's edge is its diversity—of talent, culture, and markets," Peters explained. "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."

For European founders seeking to adopt American execution speed without sacrificing their strengths, Peters offered clear guidance: "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."

Data sovereignty and AI governance

Geopolitical tensions around data flows and AI governance are reshaping how European SaaS companies position themselves. Peters sees this as an opportunity rather than a constraint. "European SaaS companies have an opportunity to lead with transparency and trust," she said. "Building AI that respects privacy, explains its reasoning, and compliance by design will become a global advantage, not a constraint."

Governments increasingly treat data infrastructure as critical infrastructure, a shift that reinforces DataSnipper's operational approach. "It reinforces how we already operate," Peters said. "We design for compliance from the start, ensuring every AI feature is traceable, auditable, and aligned with global data standards. Our role is to make automation safer, not riskier, for regulated industries."

On customer data protection, DataSnipper maintains strict boundaries. "We never use customer data for model training or external fine-tuning," Peters stated. "DataSnipper operates in closed, secure environments where all processing happens within the customer's own ecosystem. Privacy and data integrity are non-negotiable."

AI in audit: what should remain human

The recognition of DocuMine on TIME's Best Inventions list validated DataSnipper's approach to AI innovation. "It has been a surreal moment for us," Peters said. "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."

Not all audit work should be automated. "Anything that requires professional skepticism, ethical judgment, or nuanced interpretation should remain human-led," Peters explained. "AI can assist, but it cannot replace context, intent, or accountability. Those qualities define trust in this profession."

Peters applies a straightforward test to AI features: "If AI saves users measurable time, improves accuracy, or enhances transparency, it stays. If it adds complexity or obscures the user's understanding, it goes. AI should make work simpler, not noisier."

Accuracy and reliability remain paramount under the EU's regulatory framework. "We build with verification at the core," Peters said. "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."

Looking ahead five years, Peters envisions AI as deeply embedded in professional workflows. "AI will act as a trusted assistant embedded directly in the workflow, executing complex, multi-step tasks with full explainability," she said. "Our goal is for professionals to focus entirely on insight and judgment, while AI handles the operational layers behind it."

Hiring for the AI age

As DataSnipper scales, hiring priorities have shifted. "We look for curiosity and adaptability above all else," Peters said. "The pace of change in AI demands people who learn fast and collaborate deeply. A lack of curiosity and adaptability is the red flag that never fades."

A significant hiring mistake last year taught Peters a critical lesson. She filled a key role with a candidate who had succeeded at another high-growth scale-up and came well-recommended. "Unfortunately, once confronted with the hands-on, foundational work required to drive our progress, they quickly became risk-averse, offered a million excuses, and left," Peters recalled. "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 make success happen."

Unicorn status has changed the hiring narrative in mixed ways. "It has opened more doors but also raised expectations," Peters said. "The key is to attract people who join for the mission, not the label. We look for those motivated by building lasting value rather than chasing valuation. Scaleups aren't easy rides to the top, and you can sometimes attract people who think it is, because of a valuation."

New roles are emerging as AI transforms audit work. "We're seeing rapid growth in hybrid roles—domain experts who can bridge professional judgment with AI capability," Peters noted. "Positions focused 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."

Leadership lessons from hyper-growth

For rising European leaders stepping into hyper-growth roles, Peters offered direct advice: "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 focused 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."

Peters has deliberately abandoned certain leadership habits. "I stopped chasing perfect information before making decisions," she said. "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 needs a meeting, the strategy probably isn't clear enough. I've stopped rewarding effort over impact. In a scaling company, energy can get mistaken for effectiveness. We've simplified metrics, focused on outcomes, and built a culture where results and accountability matter."

Reflecting on her first day as CEO, Peters would offer her younger self a single piece of counsel: "I'd tell myself: don't be afraid to make difficult changes early. High growth can hide cracks in the foundation—fix them while things are going well. It's much easier to realign people, strategy, and structure before problems surface. And whatever speed you think is fast enough—go faster."

Source: Silicon Canals