On this episode, host Sima Vasa welcomes Rick West, Co-Founder and CEO of Field Agent. They delve into Rick’s journey from a significant tenure at Procter & Gamble to establishing Field Agent, a company at the forefront of retail and consumer data innovation. The discussion uncovers how Rick’s strategic use of corporate severance as seed money laid the foundation for Field Agent’s success, the company’s growth through acquisitions and the pivotal role of technology in reshaping retail analytics. Rick’s insights provide a comprehensive look at the evolution of consumer data collection and its impact on retail strategies. Key Takeaways: (02:15) Rick West reflects on the leap from Procter & Gamble to entrepreneurship. (05:40) Insight into FieldAgent’s innovative start and market impact. (11:20) Rick discusses using severance as seed money for business ventures. (15:30) Expansion of FieldAgent through strategic acquisitions and technology. (20:45) The crucial role of consumer engagement in data collection. (25:50) Adaptation of retail to technological advancements and consumer expectations. (30:10) The importance of mobile tech in enhancing retail experiences. (33:25) Rick emphasizes the value of real-time data in retail decision-making. (35:40) Looking ahead: The future of retail analytics and consumer data. Resources Mentioned: Field Agent Procter & Gamble Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX #restech

On this episode, host Sima Vasa sits down with Chris Havemann, CEO of RealityMine, to explore the evolution of data collection and its impact on market research. Chris shares experiences gained from his journey in the insights industry, highlighting the shift from survey data to behavioral data collection. Key Takeaways: (01:18) The beginnings of Chris Havemann’s entrepreneurial journey. (02:12) Chris transitioned from a corporate career to starting his own business and pivoted from the mobile channel to Research Now. (03:09) The growth and success of Research Now and Chris’s personal break before joining RealityMine. (08:27) RealityMine’s focus is on revealing real-life behaviors through passive metering technology. (10:04) The significant role mobile device usage plays in understanding consumer behavior. (14:05) Discussion on the insights industry’s approach to respondent experience and the potential for AI to transform data analysis. (17:25) RealityMine appoints a chief AI officer and the impact of AI on the insights industry. (21:04) Scenario planning for the future use of AI and synthetic data in market research. (23:01) Chris Havemann’s perspective on the future of advertising and the concentration of media power. Resources Mentioned: RealityMine Website Research Now Website Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX #Restech

On this episode of Data Gurus, Sima Vasa and Patrick Comer, Co-Founders of restecher, delve into the intricacies of the Restech industry. They discuss how it’s reshaping market research, integrating new technologies and influencing business strategies. Their conversation highlights the impact of the Restech landscape on traditional research methods and the emerging role of AI in decision-making processes, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and market insights. Key Takeaways: (01:24) Highlighting the growing importance of Restech in market research. (02:14) Recent developments in mergers, acquisitions and funding in the Restech arena. (03:05) Restech has played a significant role in redefining the market research industry. (06:09) Company roles and identities within the Restech space continue to evolve. (07:59) Reinforcing the value of traditional market research in the face of technological advancements. (10:01) AI exhibits potential — but also challenges — in market research and insights generation. (12:37) What impact has AI had on brand and research agency relationships? (14:26) How veteran research agencies can adapt and utilize historical data in the AI age. (17:33) Continuous technological advancements and their implications in market research. (19:13) Precise decision-making is critical in an AI-influenced research environment. Resources Mentioned: Restech Landscape Restech Website Post your thoughts, using hashtag #restech. Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX #restech

On this episode, host Sima Vasa sits down with Arman Eshraghi, CEO and Founder of Qrvey, for an in-depth conversation about revolutionizing data analytics through seamless integration of collection, analysis and automation processes. Arman unveils the unique capabilities of Qrvey, highlighting its role in enhancing SaaS applications with advanced embedded business analytics. Key Takeaways: (01:15) Sima Vasa introduces Qrvey’s transformative role in data analytics. (05:20) The pivotal role embedded analytics plays in SaaS application insights. (10:30) The advantages of Qrvey’s OEM model for external analytics. (15:45) Overcoming in-house development challenges with Qrvey. (20:55) Tailoring analytics solutions to industry-specific needs. (25:40) Analytics as a strategic tool in SaaS decision-making. (30:50) Success stories from businesses that have adopted Qrvey. (35:30) Qrvey’s vision for the future of data analytics. Resources Mentioned: Qrvey Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX

On this episode, host Sima Vasa talks to Steve Phillips, Founder and CEO of Zappi, about pioneering automation and artificial intelligence in market research to enhance consumer insight efficiency and quality. Key Takeaways: (01:10) The origin of Zappi for efficient consumer insights. (02:22) Zappi’s evolution toward quality and meta analytics. (03:24) Strategy shifts addressing early challenges. (06:24) The transition to technology-driven solutions. (08:54) Their future as a SAS company with AI integration. (11:18) Managing innovation in a rapidly evolving industry. (13:32) Shifting to a data company for richer insights. (15:49) The future of primary research and consumer behavior understanding. (17:57) Broadening the definition of market research. Resources Mentioned: Zappi Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX

On this episode, host Sima Vasa talks with Amishi Takalkar, Co-Founder and CEO of NAILBITER, exploring the transformative role of video in capturing authentic shopper behaviors and insights. Key Takeaways: (01:30) Amishi journeyed from an aspiring VJ at MTV India to the CEO of NAILBITER. (02:17) Amishi’s career evolution, specifically her roles at Frito Lay and AOL, and how experiencing both client and supplier sides of the industry affected her. (06:03) The inception of NAILBITER, aimed at observing consumers’ decision-making processes in real-time. (08:14) Utilizing video as a primary tool for gathering unfiltered shopper insights. (10:06) NAILBITER’s unique approach in tagging and quantifying vast consumer data from videos. (14:00) Product placement and retail strategies significantly impact sales and consumer choices. (17:19) The shift in retailer dynamics and the increasing significance of shopper insights. (20:27) The evolving nature of consumer behavior in an omnichannel shopping environment. (24:31) The impact of COVID-19 on shopper behavior and the need for adaptable strategies. (26:19) The integration and challenges of AI in market research. Resources Mentioned: NAILBITER Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX

On this episode, host Sima Vasa welcomes Panayotis Gezerlis, Founder and President of Convert Group, to delve into the evolution of retail and e-commerce through data analytics and transparency. Key Takeaways: (02:25) The shift from consulting to data-driven retail strategies. (06:32) The importance of tactical decision-making in marketing and sales. (06:59) Budget redirection towards e-commerce in leading companies. (11:15) Retail media's influence on consumer behavior. (13:48) Utilizing retail media and basket information for customer targeting. (14:14) The critical role of sales decomposition in retail. (16:56) The future of retail with AI chatbot technology. (17:19) Launching user-friendly text advice platforms for retail decisions. Resources Mentioned: Convert Group Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX

On this episode, host Sima Vasa welcomes Ben Hookway, CEO of Relative Insight, who delves into the intricacies of leveraging language analytics and unstructured text data to drive business insights. Key Takeaways: (07:54) Exploring the innovation behind comparative linguistic analysis and its practical applications in various industries. (13:49) Comparing age groups uncovers critical differences in language. (17:25) Understanding the relevance of context in language and how it influences consumer interactions and behaviors. (21:45) The importance of guiding clients through integrating new technology and ensuring they derive value from data and solutions. (35:48) As technology becomes mainstream, there’s a need to balance cutting-edge solutions with basic, user-friendly applications to accommodate varying customer needs. Resources Mentioned: Relative Insight Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX

On this episode, host Sima Vasa is joined by Matt Britton, Founder and CEO of Suzy, for an enlightening conversation about the direction the market-research industry is headed and how leaders evolve with it. Sima and Matt discuss: - The lagging adoption of new technologies, and how resulting inefficiencies get passed on to the consumer. - Generational changes that signal a greater willingness to implement digital tools.  - How failure to evolve is often the result of current leaders’ resistance to change. - How AI will continue to shape the industry in new ways as technology improves. - How to maintain research integrity and methodological fundamentals while also allowing space for industry evolution. Matt’s startup experience demonstrates the delicate balancing act that current industry leaders must perform, avoiding the bleeding edge of innovation without being perceived as falling behind. Resources - Suzy - Infinity Squared - Infinity Squared - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions

In this episode, Francesco Guglielmino, CEO of Cuebiq, joins host, Sima Vasa, to discuss the evolution of location data and prioritizing consumer privacy. Key Takeaways: (03:49) Implementing a privacy framework with consent tracking and a withdrawal option, despite challenges. (12:22) How younger generations show greater willingness to use digital tools. (13:25) Doing the right thing and why it means making tough decisions without reward. (15:21) When products are free, users’ data is the product. (20:01) Why weaknesses in the anonymity of location data require solutions. (24:32) Deploying a system to remove all data of users potentially underage. (27:06) Why Francesco’s platform allows clients to customize analytics while protecting privacy. (30:04) Handling location data remains challenging and expensive. Resources Mentioned: Spectus Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation  #Acquisitions #MRX

On this episode, host Sima Vasa welcomes Basel Fakhoury, CEO and Co-Founder of User Interviews, for an enlightening conversation about Basel’s work in improving data acquisition specificity. During their conversation, Basel and Sima discuss: - Using data to uncover needs in the market to better cater products and services to a particular niche. - The lessons Basel and his team learned from their first failed startup, and how that experience helped build User Interviews. - How finding the right survey respondents, rather than using a random sample, can provide more substantive and relevant data. - Why AI is an aid to finding human respondents rather than a threat to human-centric data. - The potential for growth in the data research industry. Basel and his team’s journey is an excellent case study of both the power of data in the present as well as the industry’s future trajectory. Resources Mentioned: - User Interviews - Infinity Squared - Infinity Squared - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX

On this episode, host Sima Vasa is joined by Dr. Loubna Bouarfa, CEO and Founder of OKRA.ai and Member of the Board of Advisors of the Oxford Internet Institute, who shares her unique perspective on the ethical questions around the increasing capabilities of AI technology. Sima and Dr. Bouarfa discuss the following: - How different business models can leverage new technologies to either improve or harm society. - Why transparency in AI development and implementation is essential to maintaining consumer protections. - How aligning the incentives of regulatory bodies and technology developers can create natural safeguards against harmful business models.  - The neutral nature of technology and the potential it holds for both positive and negative implementation. Dr. Bouarfa’s work puts her on the frontier of technological development and gives her a unique insight into the future of data acquisition and consumer privacy as new AI tools are rolled out. - OKRA.ai - Oxford Internet Institute - Sima Vasa - Infinity Squared - Infinity Squared - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions

On this episode, host Sima Vasa is joined by Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy, Founder and CEO of Neurons, to hear how he and his team are using large data sets to build AI models that can predict human behavior. In their conversation, Thomas and Sima discuss: - How a public methodology can build consumer trust in the data acquisition industry. - The intersection of data science and neuroscience in building predictive AI models. - The differences between a predictive AI model and a generative AI model. - Divergences between data sets collected in a lab setting and data sets gathered in real-world situations. - Limits on what current AI technology is capable of, and the possible limits of future AI tools. - Ideal use cases for designers and marketers using different kinds of AI tools. Although the technology is still evolving, the methodology Thomas’ organization is using to push predictive AI forward holds a world of possibilities for data scientists and digital marketers. - Neurons  - Sima Vasa - Infinity Squared - Infinity Squared - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions

On this episode, host Sima Vasa talks to Rob Pace, Founder and CEO of HundredX, about using data in a mission-driven organization to drive positive outcomes for both the business and the community. Rob and Sima discuss the following: - A business has to be profitable to provide the resources needed to pursue goals aligned with its mission. - Outcomes-based systems are often more effective than product-based systems of organization. - Prioritizing short-term success will inevitably affect the ability to find long-term success. - Aligning the needs of the community with the incentives of the business provides common interests that drive organizational success. - In an environment of mistrust around data and privacy, community collaboration builds relationships between consumers and data organizations that benefit both parties. - Data collection businesses should work with their community partners, not against them. - HundredX - Sima Vasa - Infinity Squared - Infinity Squared - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions

On this episode, host Sima Vasa is joined by Chris Barry, CEO of HumanListening™ at The Evolved Group, who discusses the role of AI tools, specifically large language learning models, in data research. Chris and Sima discussed the following in relation to AI and data acquisition: - The ability of AI to elicit better responses from consumers than human surveyors. - Why feedback of extremes is easier to come by than more measured feedback. - How conversational AI can be used to explore the drivers behind customer responses. - Adaptive AI personas that can be rolled out to better engage with specific demographics. - The non-judgemental nature of AI chatbots that provokes better feedback on sensitive topics. - The relationship between AI research tools and the expertise and skill of human researchers. In the evolving digital landscape, the best researchers marry human expertise with digital efficiency. - The Evolved Group - HumanListening™ - Sima Vasa - Infinity Squared - Infinity Squared - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions

This episode features a conversation between Sima Vasa, CEO and Founder of Infinity Squared Ventures, and John Bremer, President of Phantom 4 Solutions, at a virtual event hosted by Numerator and moderated by Bob Fawson. John and Sima provide insights into the evolution of data collection and analytics in a rapidly-changing consumer landscape. They discuss: - How the real applications of new technologies often outpace their intended use cases, overextending these tech assets. - Human expertise can’t effectively be replaced by digital tools. - Shifting consumer preferences and behaviors continuously alter which data collection methods are most effective, and which ones are losing their usefulness. In an environment where technologies and standard practices are in constant flux, leaders in the data acquisitions space have to stay adaptable to find continued success. - Bob Fawson - Infinity Squared - Numerator - Numerator - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #M&A #Data #Strategy #Innovation

In this episode, host Sima Vasa is pleased to welcome Michalis Michael, CEO at DMR Group, who shares the work his organization is doing with AI to be more efficient in both gathering and analyzing market data. Michalis shared some important insights on the evolution of AI: - AI can be categorized into different types: Narrow AI and Strong AI. - Narrow AI includes machine learning models and is a useful data analytics tool. - Machine learning models are most effective when they’re trained from human inputs, which still leaves some room for subjectivity in the final results. - AI is not a silver bullet but a time-saving tool that more efficiently aggregates and categorizes massive amounts of data. As Michalis tells it, the best AI tools still require a human touch to implement them in a meaningful use case. - DMR - Sima Vasa - Infinity Squared - Infinity Squared - LinkedIn Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #M&A #Data #Strategy #Innovation

On this episode, Sima is joined by Anouar El Haji, Founder and CEO at Veylinx, a behavioral insights platform for answering critical business questions during all stages of product innovation. Topics discussed include: - Anouar’s background and career path. - The evolution of economics from being strictly theoretical to being scientifically tested. - The inherent bias in conducting hypothetical surveys as market research. - Measuring demand by studying subjects with a financial stake tied to their answers. - Why the good nature of humans is detrimental to conducting scientific research studies. - The ways AI could completely change the market research space without the industry proactively adding safeguards. Resources:  https://veylinx.com/ Thanks for listening to the Data Gurus podcast, brought to you by Infinity Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review to help get the word out about the show, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. #Analytics #M&A #Data #Strategy #Innovation #MRX 

Sima is delighted to talk with Gordon Allott today! Gordon is the President and CEO of BroadPeak Partners LLC, the company that developed the K3 software. Today's discussion takes a slightly different turn as we introduce Gordon, who is working on various aspects of data. The work done at BroadPeak brings a fresh perspective on the use of data in today's digital age. So, join us as we delve into Gordon's journey and learn about BroadPeak's unique approach to data integration and analysis! Gordon's bio Gordon Allott is the president and CEO of BroadPeak Partners, developer of the K3. K3 is software that takes data from anywhere, allows users to transform, filter, and unify through an intuitive UI, and send it anywhere. Before founding BroadPeak, Gordon was a consultant and attorney in the financial sector. That included advising a wide variety of bulge-bracket banks and hedge funds on derivatives trading. Gordon led the energy trading and risk groups for Sapient, delivering trading projects for Duke, Constellation, JPMorgan, Chevron, and others. Prior to Sapient, he was part of a startup (KWI), leading the USA as VP of Business Development and VP then Asia Pac (now Alstom). Gordon practiced as a derivatives attorney, has a JD from the University of Denver, and a BA from Drake University. About BroadPeak BroadPeak is a data integration consultancy that started in 2007. They specialize in extracting data from different systems, merging and blending data, and creating data pipelines. In 2013-2014, they created a data pipeline platform called K3, which allows employees to use a low-code approach to create connections to various data sources, merge, blend, and clean the data to make it analytically ready. K3 is now commercially available and used by 70 Fortune 500 companies.  BroadPeak’s area of focus Broadpeak focuses on helping large corporations extract data from old and painful systems to make it meaningful. They are continuing to move forward in the new data era. Their primary target Their primary target is operational people with real operational goals and the need to get things done for the enterprise. They offer low-code tools that democratize the data integration process enabling non-coders to connect to APIs and extract data from different systems. BroadPeak has a secret value proposition BroadPeak aims to solve the problem of IT teams building their own tools by putting the power in the hands of the people who need it most. They offer a solution through their K3 data pipeline platform, which allows companies to extract data without needing a developer. The platform is a secret value proposition for Broadpeak, as they aim to enable businesses to extract data quickly and efficiently without relying on IT teams. Examples of the various dimensions of work being done at BroadPeak One example is creating daily or hourly P&L reports, with explanations of changes, instead of waiting until the end of the month. Another example is marrying two sets or three sets of data together, which often runs into data quality issues. Their goal is to create an analytical or data control framework that can handle unknown challenges, such as cleaning up data or stitching it together. BroadPeak helps customers assess their challenges Gordon believes that many companies want to sell software without providing any ongoing support to achieve business outcomes. However, the pressure is on for teams to get answers quickly, and delays can result in missed opportunities. BroadPeak helps its customers assess their challenges and develop viable solutions using their platform, teaching them how to use it effectively. Once the customer learns how to use the platform, it becomes easy to move forward. A streaming rules engine BroadPeak has a streaming rules engine that creates case statements using WHEN THEN ELSE statements. That helps with edge cases that take up time,

Sima is happy to have Venkat Venkataramani joining her for today's episode of Data Gurus! Venkat is the CEO and Co-founder of Rockset.  Venkat shares his background, dives into the benefits of real-time data analytics and cloud-based infrastructure, and discusses the interesting work they are doing at Rockset. Biography Venkat Venkataramani is CEO and Co-founder of Rockset. In his role, Venkat helps organizations build, grow, and compete with data by making real-time analytics accessible to developers and data teams everywhere. Before he founded Rockset, he was an Engineering Director for the Facebook infrastructure team managing online data services for 1.5 billion users. These systems scaled 1000x during his eight years at Facebook, serving five billion queries per second at single-digit millisecond latency and five 9s of reliability. Before joining Facebook, Venkat worked on tools to make the Oracle database easier to manage. Venkat’s background Before he founded Rockset, Venkat managed online data infrastructure for Facebook between 2007 and 2015. He was fortunate to work with some amazing people and learned a lot from them. His team was responsible for building, scaling, and maintaining a set of services on which Facebook’s online products had been built. When he started, Facebook had around thirty or forty million monthly active users, and when he left, there were about a billion-and-a-half active users.  What makes Venkat the proudest What Venkat feels proudest of, having been part of the Facebook online data infrastructure, are all their product launches, and their transition from web to mobile.  Facebook’s Like button The load and demand on Facebook's data infrastructure were completely different before and after the installation of the Like button. So they had to keep on innovating and pushing the envelope. The Facebook Newsfeed Most people are surprised to hear that before 2008, the Facebook Newsfeed only got updated once a day! How real-time data has transformed business Real-time data allows people to know what is happening in the present moment. Before the advent of real-time data, strategic decisions were all intuition or experience-based rather than data-driven, and that caused many problems.  Facebook’s shift to real-time data During the eight years Venkat spent with Facebook, he saw the shift to real-time data happening across every aspect of the back end of Facebook. The benefits of the cloud The cloud allows everyone to have accessibility without having any specific kind of software or infrastructure within an organization. That enables every company to be a potential client.  Rockset’s orientation Rockset’s orientation is cloud, whereas other companies are still transitioning and moving toward the cloud. The benefits of cloud-only infrastructure Cloud-only infrastructure allows businesses to access fast and fresh real-time data analytics. The storage separation of the cloud makes it possible to build massively scalable and very efficient real-time databases and platforms that can be easily and cost-effectively scaled up or down, depending on the demand. About Rockset Rockset is cloud-only, so it requires neither downloads nor installation. All their customers have to do is create an account and explain where their data sources are, and Rockset will automatically transform their data into fast sequel tables.  Why do businesses prefer real-time data? Working with cloud-based real-time data streams makes it much quicker and simpler for businesses to scale, monitor their business metrics, eliminate risk, build better products for their customers, and save revenue that could potentially have been lost. Links: Email me your thoughts Sima@Infinity-2.com LinkedIn Twitter Infinity-2.com Venkat Venkataramani on LinkedIn Rockset