Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Stew Langille, CEO of Visual.ly (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I am surprised and also happy that you mentioned those names. How is it that you are suggesting that Tableau is not in the visualization field? There are [data] visualizations there.

Stew Langille: They are. But [that type of] visualization is really an explanatory and an analysis tool. Visualization is an output that shows the results of your explorations. If there is anything worthwhile in the data, it is further digging into it. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Stew Langille, CEO of Visual.ly (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: According to you, you are operating at the very end of the big data spectrum. There are infrastructure players that provide the infrastructure for big data to be processed and researched. Then there are the applications that provide the domain knowledge and the logic based on such data. You provide the presentation layer on top of all that to present the data in a such a way that it can easily be digested.

Stew Langille: That is 100 percent correct. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Martin Smith, SVP, Ad Platforms and General Manager, TruEffect (Part 1)

Martin Smith is senior vice president of ad platforms and general manager of advertising technology company TruEffect. Martin has more than 29 years of technology experience in the U.S. and the U.K., having worked for Apple and for hardware and software provider Zones. In this interview Martin talks about how TruEffect uses big data to optimize advertising, his insights into how the market will develop over the next few years, and how consumer data will be used and administered in the future.

Sramana Mitra: Martin, let’s start with some context about TruEffect and you. Our audience would like to hear a little bit about the company. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Stew Langille, CEO of Visual.ly (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What I have understood is that the members of your user community belong to various categories. You talked about data scientists, bloggers, business users, and so on. Help me to understand where your real business is. Who are the paying customers?

Stew Langille: The platform is driven by the community. That is why I mentioned it. The community primarily involves the designers of the visualization. The other people are involved in its creation. The interesting thing about creating infographics and visualizations is that you need more than just someone designing them. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Stew Langille, CEO of Visual.ly (Part 1)

Stew Langille is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Visual.ly. Previously Stew was director of marketing at Mint.com, where he built that company’s data business. He is a pioneer in the use of data as a marketing vehicle for both publishers and brands. In this interview Stew talks about how Visual.ly applies big data to visualize content in a cost-effective and practical way and gives insight into how to become a player in the big data visualization space.

Sramana Mitra: Stew, let’s start with a bit of context about Visual.ly. Could you introduce the company to our readers and explain what you do and how you do it?

Stew Langille: We are the largest platform and community for data visualization on the web. We are composed of a group of 50,000 community members, who are information designers (that is, designers who are interested in information and data visualization), journalists, developers, and data scientists. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Derek Rodner, Vice President of Product Strategy, Agilence (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: And what is happening in the financial sector?

Derek Rodner: That was the third sector I was thinking about. So again, the three are genomics, meteorology, and finance. Dealing with global markets, dealing with statistical analysis, the intern space, which is a part of finance – all of those areas are definitely big players in the big data space. Coming out of my area, where I live, there is a kind of a mash-up between the pharmaceutical companies and the finance companies. There is a lot going on in this space in terms of big data as well. When you think about the players that invented this space, those are the three categories I would think of.

SM: Do you have any other thoughts about the field we are covering in this conversation? >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Derek Rodner, Vice President of Product Strategy, Agilence (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You are primarily involved in the retail space, but what other industries are potentially big adapters of big data in regards to video analytics?

Derek Rodner: Any public sector area. I am talking about airports, train stations, subway stations, and so on. [Governments are actually using this] now in city and state parks. There is a lot of video analysis going on [under the larger umbrella of] big data. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Dale Skeen, CTO of Vitria (Part 7)

Dale Skeen: I agree. You have these areas of capability, and in each one you are finding increasing refinement of the domain knowledge. Offering [our product] as an SaaS offering makes sense because you are dealing with smaller businesses that typically have less IT capability. The SaaS mode is typically the least costly way for an entrepreneur. It is a win–win situation for both sides.

Sramana Mitra: Great. Is there anything else you would like to add?

DS: I want to encourage all entrepreneurs to listen to this. I think there are a few basics to being a successful entrepreneur. You have probably heard these, but I would like to repeat them. The first one is: never give up. Follow your dream rationally – you have to be realistic about it. If you don’t succeed at first, keep trying. You will find that people who are determined eventually become successful. The second thing is to know your customer. Our team can come up with great ideas. But great ideas can only be tested in the marketplace with actual customers. The more customer intimacy you can get, the better off you are. Last, I would like to add that the time has never been better for entrepreneurs. With new models, SaaS models, and new opportunities, there are now platforms for you to get started rapidly and bring your ideas to market. These platforms and models also enable you to fail rapidly. This is why it is necessary to be smart and try again. I believe the time could not be more exciting for young entrepreneurs.

SM: I would like to comment on what you said about being rational. I find there is a fine balance between being rational and being irrational. There is the rational part that needs to take the market into account and pay attention, but at the same time, when the market says no, perhaps you have a fundamental vision or conviction that tells you internally that you have a different gut reaction from what the market is saying. Maybe the thing to do is persist and look for the segment where the answer lies. The market could be saying no for many different reasons. You are going to have to experiment and tweak. The first no should not cut you off.

DS: That is true. To be an entrepreneur, you have to be passionate about what you are doing, and you need to be persistent. With that being said, you need to periodically look at the progress you are making and readjust. You may have a great idea, but the timing may not be right.

SM: Absolutely. Timing is another very important factor. Sometimes, in my experience, timing is a matter of staying in power. If you are late in the market, it is something else. But if you are early in the market – I had this tendency of being early in the market, and I got the timing wrong several times – you can only win by making staying in power work in your favor.

DS: That is correct. In the end, as an entrepreneur, you have to follow your heart. If you feel passionate about something and you can see intrinsic value in it, then you make course corrections but you stay true to your heart. That works for me.

SM: Great. It was wonderful talking to you. Thank you very much.

DS: You, too. Thank you.