Alongside this year’s Silicon Gorge: Autumn Edition we’re publishing profiles of a few of the companies that have made it through to the heats. This week it’s Bristol-based data agency Data3.
Here to answer our questions is Data3 Founder and CEO Helen Tanner.
What does your company do?
We’re Data3, the award-winning UK data agency – we’ve delivered 55+ data projects for 35+ clients since we opened for business in 2017.
Now we’re launching our exciting new product – myDATA3.
myDATA3 is the all-in-one-place plug & play business dashboard. Do you have islands of data in Google Analytics, MailChimp, LinkedIn, Hubspot, Xero & the rest? Using myDATA3 you can:
- Plug in your data from Google Analytics, MailChimp, LinkedIn, Hubspot, Xero & the rest
- See dashboards in minutes
- Get your data into one place, so you have a single source of truth
- Benchmark your business vs other businesses
- Interrogate your data using natural language
What problem are you trying to solve?
EVERY business has disparate, disconnected data sources. As EVERY business uses third party tools for their website (eg Google Analytics), customers (eg Hubspot, Salesforce), emails (eg MailChimp), social media (eg LinkedIn, Twitter), finance (eg Xero, Quickbooks) & more. So, they’re missing a single source of truth.
On top of this challenge, many people struggle to understand data and are baffled by all the data jargon. But business owners/leaders don’t need to be data experts, they need to be experts in their business or trade. So, they need data to be made simple for them.
myDATA3 is designed to make data simple and accessible for SMEs and non-data experts…there’s no need for IT teams or data analysts to get involved. We’ve developed a simple tool for SMEs, all over the world, based on our experience as a successful data agency. SMEs can now plug & play, use natural language to search their data, and benchmark their business for the very first time. We’re democratising access to business data. SMEs should be able to use smart data tools, in the same way as enterprises. myDATA3 will enable SMEs to make data-driven decisions in a quick, easy, and low-cost way.
What makes your solution unique?
Whilst there are tons of BYO DIY dashboard tools out there, myDATA3 is the only one that:
- Enables you to plug & play, to see dashboards in minutes
- Allows you to search data using natural language, to get instant answers to simple questions
- Compares your business to other businesses, on an anonymised, aggregated basis
myDATA3 is also unique in that it’s specifically targeting SMEs. Most BYO DIY dashboard tools are used by enterprises as they need data experts to set them up. myDATA3 is designed for non-data experts so it can be used by anyone.
We’re also planning to scale myDATA3 by offering a white-label solution for SME organisations, such as VCs, accelerators, business coaches and agencies. These SME organisations ask for business data every month and often collect it manually from the business owners, without being able to verify the data is correct. Using myDATA3, businesses can give access to their data to the VC/accelerator/similar of their choice, removing the need for manual reporting. The SME organisation, such as the VC/accelerator, can then look at their portfolio of SMEs and startups, to view trends and ranked performance across their portfolio. This is unique.
What are you most proud of so far?
Keeping in business! Being a solo founder/owner of a tech business is far harder than I imagined. It’s relentless, tough and doesn’t get any easier as you grow. So, navigating our way through COVID, where we’ve lost clients and had to adapt to a 100% remote-working world, is my biggest challenge so far. Despite the challenges, in 2020 we’ve successfully launched our beta version of myDATA3 and we’ll double our revenue from last year.
How much are you raising and what do you want to use investment for?
We’re raising £400k for investment into myDATA3’s technology. We currently have 10+ businesses using myDATA3 beta. We’re looking for investment to develop our beta into our 1.0 release. In our beta version, we have 5 data connectors (Google Analytics, Hubspot, MailChimp, LinkedIn & Quickbooks). We’ll add 25 data connectors into our 1.0 release. We’ll add the portfolio view of SME organisations such as VCs, accelerators, business coaches and agencies. We will invest in the UX/UI so the user experience is as slick and intuitive as it can be. Plus we’ll invest in dedicated sales & marketing resource to drive fast adoption.
We’re targeting a £5m ARR business in 2025 so we’re offering investors a > 10x return in 5 years.
What tools/people/services/organisations helped you most?
I’m a member of SETsquared and in the alumni of Natwest Accelerator – both of which have added enormous support, value, connections and advice, both on a personal and a business level. In addition, I have benefitted from support from ICE, Business West, Innovate2Succeed and Innovate UK. Beyond that, I’m often humbled by the support I receive from my team, friends, colleagues, clients and partners. It takes a village to raise a business!
More generally, the start-up and tech community in Bristol and the South-West is incredibly supportive, helpful and provide fantastic camaraderie and support.
Where can we find out more about you?
Check out our website – https://data-cubed.co.uk/
Connect with me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/helentanner/
Or email me at helen@data-cubed.co.uk
