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> I just can't think of any examples My first thought is specific business industry analysis data. I've often been an hour into an online deep-dive only to hit

by jb775 7y ago

> I just can't think of any examples My first thought is specific business industry analysis data. I've often been an hour into an online deep-dive only to hit a paywall related to this. However, I'd think it would be hard to acquire the valuable aspects of this data without some kind of insider access (compared to web scraping, creative api mining, etc). New data source needs seem to popup out of nowhere - what about building a platform that would facilitate the "collect, clean and analyze data" aspect of this for non-technical business owners?

AznHisoka 7y ago
Can you be more specific as to what you mean by industry analysis data?
- reggieband 7y ago
  Not OP but I think he means market research data. I've thought about this as well. You pay some researcher some money to write a report on growth of a particular segment of an industry. Trade groups often do this and you hear stats like "Mobile usage expected to grow by X% in developing countries over the next Z years". But it is a multi-page report, probably including graphs, on some particular topic. It matches roughly the kind of data I was talking about. It is expensive to generate since you have to pay a researcher some amount of money to write the report. The resultant report generally can be re-sold multiple times. My problem with this kind of data is that you will be competing against AIs pretty soon which will drive the cost to generate such reports down. And the price you can charge per report will be tied to how good a report you are capable of generating. It is also a saturated market already so the real play is driving the cost of generation down, not what I want.
  - AznHisoka 7y ago
    Instead of selling reports, would it make more sense to create dashboards that let users slice + dice data and view the insights? In other words, instead of being a Gartner, focus on being a Crunchbase. That way, you can sell to both the end users of these insights (the companies in these industries) as well as the market research companies, themselves.
reggieband 7y ago
> what about building a platform that would facilitate the "collect, clean and analyze data" aspect of this for non-technical business owners? One of the problems with this is how custom each data set for each client would be. My mind has been on this topic since the a16z article on "The new business of AI ..." [1] which was posted to HN in the last couple of days. The key idea is the question of how to decouple the process of collecting, cleaning and analyzing data from the process of acquiring customers for that data, and not how to solve the problem of collecting, cleaning and analyzing data. Developers want to solve the technical challenge (how to build the processes) but not the business challenge (how to find customers willing to buy the resultant data). I do believe there is a market for start-ups to partner with exiting companies to help them wrangle their data. It just isn't the market I'm thinking of. 1. https://a16z.com/2020/02/16/the-new-business-of-ai-and-how-its-different-from-traditional-software/ https://a16z.com/2020/02/16/the-new-business-of-ai-and-how-i...
- jb775 7y ago
  Sounds like you're thinking of creating a gold-mine business model for data....do the hard searching/digging up/processing of rare and valuable data, then sell it at a premium. A few questions: What types of businesses would be "customers of that data"? Brainstorming all potential customers separated by industry would be a good start. Are there any "data purchasing" trends you've seen lately?
  - reggieband 7y ago
    > What types of businesses would be "customers of that data"? That is the exact question! That is the wall we hit. If I could consistently answer that question then there is a business to be had. Who is willing to pay for that kind of data? I actually considered getting together a larger group of friends to do that exact brainstorm. But even then I'm not sure it is such an easy question to answer. Also a bit funny you called it a gold-mine business. I called data that meets that criteria Goldilocks data.

by jb775 7y ago

AznHisoka 7y ago

Can you be more specific as to what you mean by industry analysis data?

reggieband 7y ago
Not OP but I think he means market research data. I've thought about this as well. You pay some researcher some money to write a report on growth of a particular segment of an industry. Trade groups often do this and you hear stats like "Mobile usage expected to grow by X% in developing countries over the next Z years". But it is a multi-page report, probably including graphs, on some particular topic. It matches roughly the kind of data I was talking about. It is expensive to generate since you have to pay a researcher some amount of money to write the report. The resultant report generally can be re-sold multiple times. My problem with this kind of data is that you will be competing against AIs pretty soon which will drive the cost to generate such reports down. And the price you can charge per report will be tied to how good a report you are capable of generating. It is also a saturated market already so the real play is driving the cost of generation down, not what I want.
- AznHisoka 7y ago
  Instead of selling reports, would it make more sense to create dashboards that let users slice + dice data and view the insights? In other words, instead of being a Gartner, focus on being a Crunchbase. That way, you can sell to both the end users of these insights (the companies in these industries) as well as the market research companies, themselves.

reggieband 7y ago

> what about building a platform that would facilitate the "collect, clean and analyze data" aspect of this for non-technical business owners? One of the problems with this is how custom each data set for each client would be. My mind has been on this topic since the a16z article on "The new business of AI ..." [1] which was posted to HN in the last couple of days. The key idea is the question of how to decouple the process of collecting, cleaning and analyzing data from the process of acquiring customers for that data, and not how to solve the problem of collecting, cleaning and analyzing data. Developers want to solve the technical challenge (how to build the processes) but not the business challenge (how to find customers willing to buy the resultant data). I do believe there is a market for start-ups to partner with exiting companies to help them wrangle their data. It just isn't the market I'm thinking of. 1. https://a16z.com/2020/02/16/the-new-business-of-ai-and-how-its-different-from-traditional-software/ https://a16z.com/2020/02/16/the-new-business-of-ai-and-how-i...

jb775 7y ago
Sounds like you're thinking of creating a gold-mine business model for data....do the hard searching/digging up/processing of rare and valuable data, then sell it at a premium. A few questions: What types of businesses would be "customers of that data"? Brainstorming all potential customers separated by industry would be a good start. Are there any "data purchasing" trends you've seen lately?
- reggieband 7y ago
  > What types of businesses would be "customers of that data"? That is the exact question! That is the wall we hit. If I could consistently answer that question then there is a business to be had. Who is willing to pay for that kind of data? I actually considered getting together a larger group of friends to do that exact brainstorm. But even then I'm not sure it is such an easy question to answer. Also a bit funny you called it a gold-mine business. I called data that meets that criteria Goldilocks data.