4 ms·

I really enjoyed that article. The active M&A in business intelligence software companies shows just how big Big Data is for business, and how big the market i

by physcab 17y ago

I really enjoyed that article. The active M&A in business intelligence software companies shows just how big Big Data is for business, and how big the market is for new startups to tailor specific techniques for niche industries. However, now that the secret is out, its going to be more difficult to prove that your secret sauce is superior than your competitors. The winners in this market will be those who can deliver results fast, and be nimble enough to account for the elastic nature of Big datasets.

paloalto80 17y ago
You'll probably need quite a bit of money backing your startup if you're going to be handling enterprise data to let them know you'll be around years from now. Enterprises need that assurance before they'll even deal with you.
tom_b 17y ago
BI software and enterprise software in general is a huge opportunity for startups - I know PG and YC had it as one of the RFS listings at one point. I'm not sure that the winners will be those can deliver results fast and exhibit quick adaptability. In general, I agree that the Hacker News community is more than technically capable enough to do better than the big BI offerings. But I've been surprised (or shown my naivete if you prefer) at how much "old school" networking still accounts for sales in this space. To succeed, you are aiming at mid-level and higher execs who are used to (seriously) being wined and dined in a way that I think most hardcore tech companies would be surprised at. Figuring out how to circumvent the normal sales channels is probably at least as important as whatever tech you put in front of people for enterprise software. I've seen how successful some companies are at simply pushing software out to their existing customer channel and making $$ off of that. All that said, and I still have my eye on a little slice of that pie chart . . .

by physcab 17y ago

paloalto80 17y ago

You'll probably need quite a bit of money backing your startup if you're going to be handling enterprise data to let them know you'll be around years from now. Enterprises need that assurance before they'll even deal with you.

tom_b 17y ago

BI software and enterprise software in general is a huge opportunity for startups - I know PG and YC had it as one of the RFS listings at one point. I'm not sure that the winners will be those can deliver results fast and exhibit quick adaptability. In general, I agree that the Hacker News community is more than technically capable enough to do better than the big BI offerings. But I've been surprised (or shown my naivete if you prefer) at how much "old school" networking still accounts for sales in this space. To succeed, you are aiming at mid-level and higher execs who are used to (seriously) being wined and dined in a way that I think most hardcore tech companies would be surprised at. Figuring out how to circumvent the normal sales channels is probably at least as important as whatever tech you put in front of people for enterprise software. I've seen how successful some companies are at simply pushing software out to their existing customer channel and making $$ off of that. All that said, and I still have my eye on a little slice of that pie chart . . .