> 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.
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?
> 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.
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-i...