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This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to change the way we think and use about Business Intelligence. My guest is Ryan Janssen, Co-founder and CEO of Zenlytic. Ryan is a serial entrepreneur and visionary leader in data analytics and AI. He brings experience from previous roles at Ernst & Young, McKinsey, Private Equity and venture Capital funds, and Ex Quanta: AI Studio, giving him a strong background in AI and data analytics. His time in the VC world likely gave him valuable insights into what investors look for, how to pitch effectively, and how to strategically scale a business. All his hands-on experience let him to co-found Zenlytic in July 2020. It's a BI tool for commerce brands and DTC businesses. Their mission: making data insights accessible and actionable for everyone. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Ryan to my podcast. We explore what's still broken in enabling non-data scientists to create unique insights to compete with the largest brands in the world. Ryan shares his big lessons learned in building a company that pioneered the promise of generative AI. He elaborates on his first principles around value creation and what he's doing differently to stay lean while delivering high performance as a business. Last but not least he shares his tips on being able to prioritize long-term thinking as the company grows and create a business that lasts. Here's one of his quotes I think the real winners will be the people that are building nimbly. The people that are applying creative uses of this tech and finding creative new ways to deliver value that doesn't look very much like the generation of software that preceded them. During this interview, you will learn four things: What you can do differently to ensure faster development and better quality with a lean team. Why you should break predictability to find new growth opportunities. How you can outcompete much larger big companies on their own strength. When you have lots of leads the challenge is not how to close them - but how you qualify them For more information about the guest from this week: Ryan Janssen Website: Zenlytic Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Summary The purpose of business intelligence systems is to allow anyone in the business to access and decode data to help them make informed decisions. Unfortunately this often turns into an exercise in frustration for everyone involved due to complex workflows and hard-to-understand dashboards. The team at Zenlytic have leaned on the promise of large language models to build an AI agent that lets you converse with your data. In this episode they share their journey through the fast-moving landscape of generative AI and unpack the difference between an AI chatbot and an AI agent. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management This episode is supported by Code Comments, an original podcast from Red Hat. As someone who listens to the Data Engineering Podcast, you know that the road from tool selection to production readiness is anything but smooth or straight. In Code Comments, host Jamie Parker, Red Hatter and experienced engineer, shares the journey of technologists from across the industry and their hard-won lessons in implementing new technologies. I listened to the recent episode "Transforming Your Database" and appreciated the valuable advice on how to approach the selection and integration of new databases in applications and the impact on team dynamics. There are 3 seasons of great episodes and new ones landing everywhere you listen to podcasts. Search for "Code Commentst" in your podcast player or go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/codecomments (https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/codecomments) today to subscribe. My thanks to the team at Code Comments for their support. Data lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst (https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst) and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Ryan Janssen and Paul Blankley about their experiences building AI powered agents for interacting with your data Interview Introduction How did you get involved in data? In AI? Can you describe what Zenlytic is and the role that AI is playing in your platform? What have been the key stages in your AI journey? What are some of the dead ends that you ran into along the path to where you are today? What are some of the persistent challenges that you are facing? So tell us more about data agents. Firstly, what are data agents and why do you think they're important? How are data agents different from chatbots? Are data agents harder to build? How do you make them work in production? What other technical architectures have you had to develop to support the use of AI in Zenlytic? How have you approached the work of customer education as you introduce this functionality? What are some of the most interesting or erroneous misconceptions that you have heard about what the AI can and can't do? How have you balanced accuracy/trustworthiness with user experience and flexibility in the conversational AI, given the potential for these models to create erroneous responses? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen your AI agent used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on building an AI agent for business intelligence? When is an AI agent the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of AI in the Zenlytic product? Contact Info Ryan LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssenryan) Paul LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulblankley/) Parting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today? Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.__init__ (https://www.pythonpodcast.com) covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast (https://www.themachinelearningpodcast.com) helps you go from idea to production with machine learning. Visit the site (https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com) to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes. If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@dataengineeringpodcast.com (mailto:hosts@dataengineeringpodcast.com)) with your story. Links Zenlytic (https://www.zenlytic.com/) Podcast Episode (https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/zenlytic-self-serve-business-intelligence-episode-371) Attention is all you need (https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762) Transformers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_(deep_learning_architecture)) BERT (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BERT_(language_model)) The Bitter Lesson (http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html) Richard Sutton PID Loops (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional%E2%80%93integral%E2%80%93derivative_controller) AutoGPT (https://github.com/Significant-Gravitas/AutoGPT) Devin.ai (https://www.cognition.ai/introducing-devin) Google Gemini (https://gemini.google.com/) Anthropic Claude (https://www.anthropic.com/claude) OpenAI Code Interpreter (https://platform.openai.com/docs/assistants/tools/code-interpreter) Edward Tufte (https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi) Looker ActionHub (https://developers.looker.com/actions/overview/) OAuth (https://oauth.net/2/) GitHub Copilot (https://github.com/features/copilot) The intro and outro music is from The Hug (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Freak_Fandango_Orchestra/Love_death_and_a_drunken_monkey/04_-_The_Hug) by The Freak Fandango Orchestra (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Freak_Fandango_Orchestra/) / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Welcome to another episode of Predictable B2B Success, where we explore the insights and stories that propel B2B ventures to predictable growth. I'm Vinay Koshy, your host. In this episode, we're joined by an exceptional guest: Ryan Janssen, CEO of Zenlytic, a groundbreaking business intelligence tool at the cutting edge of self-serve BI technology. Get ready to explore the rapidly evolving data landscape as Ryan unveils the transformative power of modern data tools and how they're shaping the future of business intelligence. We'll delve into why understanding changes in business metrics prevents potential pitfalls and opens up opportunities for exponential growth through nuanced insights. Discover with us how small increments in data efficiency can lead to colossal impacts on a company's success and why the roles of data teams are shifting from mundane requests to strategic, high-leverage activities. Ryan also shares his journey from establishing a start-up to navigating the waters of venture capital and how staying technical with a passion for data helped him steer his company toward innovation. So tighten your seatbelts as we chart a path through the "decade of data," and prepare to be enlightened about the power and challenges of BI tools that are reshaping how companies leverage data for predictable success. This is not just an episode for the data-savvy; it's a vital listen for any B2B operator looking to harness the full potential of their data analytics. Some areas we explore in this episode include: The role of customer stories and social proof in driving SaaS growth and maturity.Strategies for driving disruptive technology adoption include leveraging early adopters and signing deals quickly.The transformative impact of artificial intelligence on business efficiency, creativity, and its underestimation due to past hypes.The evolution of data teams and the shift from handling ad hoc requests to higher-value analytics facilitated by modern data stacks and AI.The challenge of dashboards in traditional business intelligence and the push for reducing ad hoc data requests through new usage patterns.The emergence and capabilities of large language models (LLMs) in business intelligence reduce data requests by as much as 80-90%.The semantic layer is important in ensuring accuracy and context for both human users and language models when accessing and interpreting data.User-friendly data analysis using chatbots and guidance tools, like Zenlytic's Zoe, that emulate conversations with a data engineer.The significance of data skills and data-driven decision-making within businesses, along with the statistics surrounding BI usage and bad data costs.Ryan Janssen's background, the founding of Zenlytic, its fundraising success, and the vision for Zenlytic to make data analysis more accessible and intuitive.And much, much more ....
Unlock the potential of AI in the world of data analytics with Zenlytic's CEO, Ryan Janssen, as he takes us through a journey from collectible DataMons to the sophisticated integration of AI in business intelligence. Imagine transforming industry pros into trading cards – that's the kind of innovation we chat about, highlighting the whimsical yet calculated steps towards making data not just informative but downright engaging. Ryan recounts the evolution of Zenlytic, from its machine learning beginnings to its current status as a conversational analytics platform, opening up new avenues for how we interact with data.Data is the new gold, but only if you know how to mine it. This episode peels back the layers of complexity surrounding data modeling and the resurgence of semantic layers, unraveling the intricate dance of accessibility, maintenance, and user experience that businesses must perform. We discuss when your organization might be ready to embrace a semantic layer and the unmistakable signs that it's time to elevate your BI tools for a self-serve experience. Ryan and I also tackle the importance of iteration and soft skills in delivering successful data projects that are not just functional but mission-critical.As we wrap up, we cast an eye on the horizon of data analytics, where AI isn't merely a trend but a series of incremental innovations shaping the future of data products. From the significance of trust and compliance in AI adoption to the debate between building versus buying AI solutions, we cover the strategic moves companies need to consider. Listen in for a candid discussion on the dynamic roles of data teams, the transformative power of AI like Zenlytic's Zoe, and how different data structures can cater to the divergent engagement levels of users by 2025. After all, the future of data isn't just about numbers—it's about the stories they tell and the decisions they drive.What's New In Data is a data thought leadership series hosted by John Kutay who leads data and products at Striim. What's New In Data hosts industry practitioners to discuss latest trends, common patterns for real world data patterns, and analytics success stories.
Join me as we explore Zenlytic's infusion of AI into business intelligence, unpacking their recent $5.4M achievement, and gaining unique perspectives from CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley. Invest in AI Box: https://Republic.com/ai-box Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/ AI Facebook Community
In this episode, we navigate the symphony of AI with Zenlytic's $5.4 million investment, examining the harmonious integration into business intelligence. Join the conversation with CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley as we explore the notes of technological innovation in this transformative journey. Invest in AI Box: https://Republic.com/ai-box Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/ AI Facebook Community Learn About ChatGPT Learn About AI at Tesla
Immerse yourself in the world of innovation as Zenlytic secures $5.4M to integrate AI into business intelligence. Join this episode for a deep dive into the evolution of technology, challenges faced, and the potential impact on business decision-making with the integration of artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT: OpenAI, Sam Altman, AI, Joe Rogan, Artificial Intelligence, Practical AI
Venture into the tech frontier as Zenlytic secures a $5.4M investment, marking the shift towards AI-driven business intelligence. Join CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley in this episode to explore the frontiers of technology, gain insights into challenges faced, and discuss the potential advancements in AI-infused analytics.
Envision the future of business insights as Zenlytic's $5.4M funding sets the pace for AI-infused intelligence. Join this episode for insights into the strategic considerations, challenges overcome, and the reshaping of the business analytics landscape in the era of artificial intelligence.
Join the revolution in business analytics as Zenlytic secures a $5.4M investment, driving the integration of AI into intelligence solutions. In this episode, hear directly from CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley as they discuss the pivotal role of AI in reshaping business intelligence and the journey ahead.
In this episode, we explore the game-changing success of Zenlytic securing $5.4M and how their AI integration is reshaping the landscape of Business Intelligence. Join me as I discuss the journey with Zenlytic's CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley. Invest in AI Box: https://Republic.com/ai-box Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/ AI Facebook Community Learn About ChatGPT Learn About AI at Tesla
In this episode, we dive deep into Zenlytic's pioneering use of AI in business intelligence, unraveling their $5.4M milestone, featuring insights from CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley. Invest in AI Box: https://Republic.com/ai-box Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/ AI Facebook Community
In this episode, we examine Zenlytic's innovative move to integrate AI into business intelligence, buoyed by a $5.4 million investment. We explore the vision of CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley for this tech integration. Invest in AI Box: https://Republic.com/ai-box Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/ AI Facebook Community Learn more about AI in Video Learn more about Open AI
This episode navigates through Zenlytic's pioneering journey securing $5.4M funding, detailing their artful incorporation of AI into Business Intelligence, featuring illuminating discussions with CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley. Invest in AI Box: https://Republic.com/ai-box Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/ AI Facebook Community Learn more about AI in Video Learn more about Open AI
When you're a startup, it is usually difficult to sell. But the truth is, you can definitely compete against other brands, and you're going to learn how if you tune in to this episode. Today, Drew Goulart, who currently leads growth at Zenlytic, unravels the secret for startups to compete against other brands and sell without a brand. As a startup, you should remember to understand the target buyer because it can help you in multiple ways. Drew also shares the startup and selling process and his wins and mistakes along the process. His experience provides the right flavor of success in competing in the market. So, don't miss this insightful opportunity with Drew Goulart. In this episode, you will learn:How to compete against other brands.How you can position your business to sell without a brand.The startup and selling process.Learn more about Chatterboss and schedule your free 30-minute consultation call HERE.
Join Matt DeCoursey and Ryan Janssen, CEO and founder of Zenlytic, as they talk about pre-seed funding. Explore key tips and preparations for founders venturing into their pre-seed funding journey. Matt and Ryan also touch upon alternative pre-seed funding options, the art of finding the perfect funding match, and the importance of being poised to seal the deal. Find Startup Hustle Everywhere: https://gigb.co/l/YEh5 This episode is sponsored by Full Scale: https://fullscale.io Learn more about Zenlytic: https://www.zenlytic.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
AI Applied: Covering AI News, Interviews and Tools - ChatGPT, Midjourney, Runway, Poe, Anthropic
In this exciting episode, discover how Zenlytic raised a whopping $5.4 million to revolutionize Business Intelligence by integrating cutting-edge AI. Join us as CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley share their insights, breakthroughs, and the future of data-driven decision-making. Tune in for an exclusive look at the AI-powered transformation of the BI landscape! Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/Join our ChatGPT Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/739308654562189/Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaeden_ai
ChatGPT: News on Open AI, MidJourney, NVIDIA, Anthropic, Open Source LLMs, Machine Learning
Discover how Zenlytic secured a significant $5.4 million investment to advance the integration of AI into the realm of Business Intelligence. Join host [Your Name] in an insightful conversation with CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley as they delve into the fascinating world of AI-powered data analytics and its implications for businesses. Gain valuable insights into the cutting-edge technology shaping the future of data-driven decision-making. Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/Join our ChatGPT Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/739308654562189/Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaeden_ai
Using innovative marketing ideas is very important in the current business landscape. It gives your business a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. Creative marketing can engage your target audience better, possibly leading to stronger customer loyalty. What's more, it helps you adapt to changing consumer trends and technologies, keeping your brand up to date. Colin Dougherty is the Director of Marketing at Zenlytic, a cutting-edge software company that offers businesses robust data insights that empower them to enhance decision-making and reach their objectives more effectively. His expertise in marketing allows him to craft highly effective campaigns that deliver substantial results. Today, Colin will talk about data warehousing, leveraging data effectively, and various strategies for growing and selling companies. Stay tuned! Resources Zenlytic Site Colin Dougherty on Linkedin
AI Hustle: News on Open AI, ChatGPT, Midjourney, NVIDIA, Anthropic, Open Source LLMs
In this episode, we delve into the world of cutting-edge AI-driven business intelligence with Zenlytic, a dynamic startup that just secured a whopping $5.4 million in funding. Join us as we sit down with Zenlytic's CEO, Ryan Janssen, and CTO, Paul Blankley, to explore how their innovative AI solutions are revolutionizing the way businesses harness data for smarter decision-making. Get ready to uncover the secrets behind their success and gain valuable insights into the future of business intelligence in this engaging conversation. Get on the AI Box Waitlist: https://AIBox.ai/Join our ChatGPT Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/739308654562189/Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaeden_ai
In this episode, we dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Colin Dougherty, the founder behind the groundbreaking data analytics tool, Zenlytic. Colin shares his roller-coaster ride from college failures to founding successful companies, highlighting the critical lessons learned along the way. His story is one of relentless determination and a willingness to bet it all on his dreams.Colin reveals the inspiration behind Zenlytic, a platform designed to make data analysis accessible to everyone, even those without a technical background. He discusses the fusion of AI, specifically Chat GPT, with their proprietary semantic layer, creating an accurate and user-friendly data interaction tool.The conversation delves into the importance of company culture at Zenlytic, where a small, tight-knit team of experts collaborates with global contractors to achieve their ambitious goals. Colin emphasizes the power of patience when dealing with language barriers, which can yield incredible results.Learn how Zenlytic uses its own tool to streamline data processing and communication within their organization, allowing them to save time and resources while staying agile and efficient. Colin also shares compelling success stories from their clients, showcasing how Zenlytic has transformed their data analysis processes.Key Takeaways: Colin's journey from college failures to successful entrepreneurship. The birth of Zenlytic and the vision behind making data analysis accessible. The fusion of AI and a semantic layer for 100% accurate data interaction. The power of patience and global collaboration in building a strong team. Streamlining data processing with Zenlytic's self-serve analytics tool. Real-world success stories from Zenlytic's satisfied clients.Whether you're a data enthusiast, an aspiring entrepreneur, or a business leader seeking efficient data solutions, this conversation offers invaluable insights.
EPISODE SUMMARYStarting a business is like embarking on an exhilarating journey full of challenges, triumphs, and learning experiences. This is especially true for software startups, where the landscape is constantly evolving, and innovation is the name of the game. In this week's episode of Scale Your SaaS, we'll dive into the insights shared by Ryan Janssen and Drew Goulart from Zenlytic, as they discuss their journey from a small team to startup success with host and B2B SaaS Sales Coach Matt Wolach. PODCAST-AT-A-GLANCEPodcast: Scale Your SaaS with Matt WolachEpisode: Episode No. 279, "Niche Down, But When to Niche Up - with Ryan Janssen and Drew Goulart"Host: Matt Wolach, a B2B SaaS sales coach, Entrepreneur, and InvestorGuest: Ryan Janssen, Co-Founder & CEO and Drew Goulart, GTM Lead at ZenlyticTOP TIPS FROM THIS EPISODETight Feedback Loops and Agile AdvantageNiche Market DominanceAdapting to Expanding MarketsEPISODE HIGHLIGHTSThe Early Days: Focusing on Solving a ProblemThe Transition to AI and MLTOP QUOTESRyan Janssen & Drew Goulart[12:59] "The challenge of finding the world's first self-serve AI tool, and why it was not technically possible for 25 years."[20:23] "Advice to new software leaders and founders, focus on solving a problem first, because the platform shift to AI is the latest platform shift."Matt Wolach[26:26] "I was gonna say on that point, too, I think that goes back to what you guys talked about earlier, get to know your customer have those conversations, and they would have known that that's not a problem, instead of seeing a cool new piece of tech and say, Hey, let's just throw this out there and see what happens."LEARN MORETo learn more about Writerly, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zenlytic/about/You can also find Ryan Janssen and Drew Goulart on LinkedIn.For more about how host Matt Wolach helps software companies achieve maximum growth, visit https://mattwolach.com/Get even more tips by following Matt elsewhere: Sales Tips LinkedIn Twitter Instagram
AI Chat: ChatGPT & AI News, Artificial Intelligence, OpenAI, Machine Learning
In this episode of "Zenlytic," CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley dive deep into the transformative power of integrating AI into Business Intelligence. Discover the challenges, breakthroughs, and the future potential of this innovative synergy as they share their insights from the frontlines of technology and business.
Prepare to embark on a journey into the fascinating world of LLMs (Large Language Models) and their transformative influence on data utilization. In this episode, we sit down with Ryan Janssen, CEO of Zenlytic, and Paul Blankley, Founder/CTO at Zenlytic who shed light on how LLMs are revolutionizing how companies interact with and extract insights from data. Discover how LLMs pave the way for new interfaces that lower barriers to gaining valuable insights. We'll also explore the critical challenge of hallucination and the strategies to mitigate it, ensuring responsible data utilization. Get ready to learn how LLMs empower self-serve capabilities, driving efficiency and agility across organizations.
In this episode, we dive into the world of data analytics and artificial intelligence with Ryan, the CEO, and Paul, the CTO of Zenlytic. Having graduated from Harvard and with extensive backgrounds in venture capital, consulting, and data engineering, Ryan and Paul provide valuable insights into their journey of building Zenlytic, a cutting-edge analytics platform. Join us as we explore how Zenlytic's natural language interface enhances user experiences, enabling seamless access and analysis of analytics data. Discover how their self-service platform empowers teams to leverage business intelligence effectively, and learn about the unique features that set Zenlytic apart from other analytics platforms in the market. Delve into the crucial aspects of data security and privacy while granting team access, and find out how Zenlytic's analytics capabilities have transformed companies into data-driven decision-makers, ultimately improving their performance. References Zenlytic Website: https://www.zenlytic.com/product AI Will Save the World (a16z): https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/ Llama AI (ai.meta.com): https://ai.meta.com/llama/ "Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models" (arxiv.org): https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.09288 "GPT-4 Technical Report" (arxiv.org): https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08774
You are probably wondering about Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, and their impact on you, your business, and the world. In this episode, I chat with Paul Blankley and Ryan Janssen about LLMs, AI, and the semantic layer - where they were in the past, what they are doing today, and their impact on our future.Paul and Ryan are the Co-founders of Zenlytic, the world's first self-serve BI tool. Paul is the Co-founder / CTO of Zenlytic, a self-serve BI tool that uses LLMs to provide a simple chat interface to complex business data. He's worked in data for 7+ years and is passionate about all things data and AI. He has a master's from Harvard in Data Science, and he lives in Denver, CO, where he spends his free time snowboarding, running, and rock climbing.Ryan is the CEO of Zenlytic. Prior to co-founding Zenlytic, he worked as a software engineer and a venture capitalist and private equity investor. He has a masters degree from Harvard in computational science and an MBA from Oxford. Fun fact: Ryan has lived in 4 countries across 3 continents.Other Resources Mentioned in the Episode:Finding Asteroids Down the Back of the Couch: A Novel Approach to the Minor Planet Linking ProblemOffice of Planetary DefenseAttention is All You Need WhitepaperChelyabinsk EventSemantic Layer ExplainedLump of Labor Fallacy
In this episode I talk to Ryan Janssen and Paul BLankley, the founders of Zenlytic, a company that strives to bring the world Generative-AI-powered self-serve business intelligence. But what does that even mean? How does it work? And most importantly - will it make the Analyst Role obsolete in the future? Join us as we discuss the problem that Zenlytics aims to solve, how LLM's understand your business data, how they will affect the role of the data analyst in the organization and where data products are today in the innovation cycle. You can learn more about Zenlytic at: https://www.zenlytic.com/ You can reach Ryan at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssenryan/ You can reach Paul at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulblankley/
In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Ryan Janssen, CEO and Co-Founder of Zenlytic, a business intelligence tool for commerce brands that's raised $5.4 Million in funding, about why siloed data can obscure all kinds of critical business insights, and how automation with a human touch can help everyone get a better idea of what's going on. With an easy-to-access portal for deep diving into a company's data, assisted by Zoe the natural language interface, Zenlytic promises enterprise-grade business intelligence and insights you can really trust. We also speak about why Ryan considers himself a true nerd, his career moving back and forth between the engineering and venture investment space, having a front-row seat for the development of today's large language models, why Zenlytic decided to target primarily commerce-oriented companies, and why getting their product in front of people as quickly as possible is the core of their sales strategy. Topics Discussed: Ryan's background between software engineering and the venture capital space, and why he considers himself a true ‘nerd' Studying at ‘AI school,' and having a front-row seat for the development of today's iconic large language models Why data is only as good as the tools you have to make sense of it, and the Zenlytic value proposition as a business intelligence platform Zenlytics AI-powered data analyst and the advantage of having a fully accessible business intelligence system available 24/7 Why getting their product in front of people with a demo is Zenlytic's preferred sales strategy, and how they make it happen Favorite book: The Lean Startup
Paul Blankley and Ryan Janssen are the co-founders of Zenlytic. They started a BI company with an LLM-first approach (back before LLM's were insanely cool). We talk about the future of BI, and how LLM's will change the face of data and analytics. Zenlytic: https://www.zenlytic.com/ Paul's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulblankley/ Ryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssenryan/ ----------------------- If you like this show, give it a 5-star rating on your favorite podcast platform. Purchase Fundamentals of Data Engineering at your favorite bookseller. Subscribe to my Substack: https://joereis.substack.com/
Ryan is an entrepreneur, data scientist, engineer, and former VC. He is the co-founder and CEO of Zenlytic, a SaaS business that makes a next-generation AI-powered BI tool that uses LLMs and Semantic layers. He previously co-founded Ex Quanta AI Studio, a full-service data consultancy. Ryan started his career as a software developer in his native Canada, before moving to the UK. He then worked with London's AGC Equity Partners venture capitalist and private equity investor, investing in technology businesses with check sizes of $1-$50m. He has also worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. and Ernst & Young. He has master's degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Alberta. Paul is the Co-founder / CTO of Zenlytic, a self-serve BI tool that uses LLMs to provide a simple chat interface to complex business data. He's worked in data for 7+ years and is passionate about all things data and AI. He has a master's from Harvard in Data Science, and while there, he worked with the Minor Planet Center on algorithms to detect if previously untraceable asteroids were going to hit the Earth. Before Harvard, he worked for Roche developing algorithms that run hand-held blood glucose meters. He lives in Denver, CO, where he spends his free time snowboarding, running, and rock climbing. Zenlytic has raised seed round funding from Sequoia Capital and Bain Capital Ventures among others for over $6M. It is revolutionizing how AI is changing the business analytics and visualization powered by plain self-serving chats with its AI assistant Zoe. transcript 00:00 Intro 02:15 Zenlytic, Dashboards and Self-serve Tools 04:42 PowerBI, Tableau & Why Another Tool 06:29 Semantic Layer on LLMs and Self-Serve Analytics 13:00 Replacing BI Analysts, Yann Lecaun & LLM Hallucination 15:19 Zoe, Zenlytic AI Assistant & Use Cases 23:24 Chat-based KPI Dashboard Making 26:312 Meeting at Harvard & Friendship outside Harvard 30:00 Role of Ivy League Network in securing VC Funding 34:50 Ingredients for landing VC Funding 37:32 Webapps vs Mobile Apps & Slack Integration 43:20 Cloud vs On-Prem, Security vs Flexibility 47:03 Snowflake vs Databricks 51:12 Cost per Acquisition & Burn Rate for Start Ups 57:01 No-code vs Code, Bubble for Web Design 01:01:31 AI doomerism and Future of Work 01:08:22 Grad School Project on Telescopes Monitoring Asteroid 01:11:00 Horse betting and Gambling Algorithms 01:19:30 AI race between US & China and its Impacts 01:34:50 EU AI Act, Regulation vs Innovation, Prevention vs Experiment 01:39:10 Generative AI and Societal Challenges 01:45:14 Start-Up Hiring and Quality of University Grads and Education 01:57:00 Future of Zenlytic & Upcoming Features Guest links: Ryan Janssen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssenryan/ Paul Blankley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulblank... Zenlytic: https://www.zenlytic.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/minhaaj/message
Startup Acquisition Stories with Colin Dougherty, Director of Marketing at Zenlytic Founder Guest: Colin Dougherty https://twitter.com/ColinDougherty_ https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-dougherty-b1766217b/ https://www.camskns.com/ (Sold) Host: Andrew Gazdecki - https://twitter.com/agazdecki https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/ https://acquire.com
Summary Business intellingence has been chasing the promise of self-serve data for decades. As the capabilities of these systems has improved and become more accessible, the target of what self-serve means changes. With the availability of AI powered by large language models combined with the evolution of semantic layers, the team at Zenlytic have taken aim at this problem again. In this episode Paul Blankley and Ryan Janssen explore the power of natural language driven data exploration combined with semantic modeling that enables an intuitive way for everyone in the business to access the data that they need to succeed in their work. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management RudderStack helps you build a customer data platform on your warehouse or data lake. Instead of trapping data in a black box, they enable you to easily collect customer data from the entire stack and build an identity graph on your warehouse, giving you full visibility and control. Their SDKs make event streaming from any app or website easy, and their extensive library of integrations enable you to automatically send data to hundreds of downstream tools. Sign up free at dataengineeringpodcast.com/rudderstack (https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com/rudderstack) Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Paul Blankley and Ryan Janssen about Zenlytic, a no-code business intelligence tool focused on emerging commerce brands Interview Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you describe what Zenlytic is and the story behind it? Business intelligence is a crowded market. What was your process for defining the problem you are focused on solving and the method to achieve that outcome? Self-serve data exploration has been attempted in myriad ways over successive generations of BI and data platforms. What are the barriers that have been the most challenging to overcome in that effort? What are the elements that are coming together now that give you confidence in being able to deliver on that? Can you describe how Zenlytic is implemented? What are the evolutions in the understanding and implementation of semantic layers that provide a sufficient substrate for operating on? How have the recent breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) improved your ability to build features in Zenlytic? What is your process for adding domain semantics to the operational aspect of your LLM? For someone using Zenlytic, what is the process for getting it set up and integrated with their data? Once it is operational, can you describe some typical workflows for using Zenlytic in a business context? Who are the target users? What are the collaboration options available? What are the most complex engineering/data challenges that you have had to address in building Zenlytic? What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Zenlytic used? What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Zenlytic? When is Zenlytic the wrong choice? What do you have planned for the future of Zenlytic? Contact Info Paul Blankley (LinkedIn) (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulblankley/) Parting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today? Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.__init__ (https://www.pythonpodcast.com) covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast (https://www.themachinelearningpodcast.com) helps you go from idea to production with machine learning. Visit the site (https://www.dataengineeringpodcast.com) to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes. If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@dataengineeringpodcast.com (mailto:hosts@dataengineeringpodcast.com)) with your story. To help other people find the show please leave a review on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/data-engineering-podcast/id1193040557) and tell your friends and co-workers Links Zenlytic (https://zenlytic.com/) OLAP Cube (https://analyticsengineers.club/whats-an-olap-cube/) Large Language Model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_model) Starburst (https://www.starburst.io/) Prompt Engineering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prompt_engineering) ChatGPT (https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt) The intro and outro music is from The Hug (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Freak_Fandango_Orchestra/Love_death_and_a_drunken_monkey/04_-_The_Hug) by The Freak Fandango Orchestra (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Freak_Fandango_Orchestra/) / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Sam Toole, Principal at Primary Venture Partners, talks about opportunities for building healthcare solutions, and how building a healthcare business is different from other businesses. Sam also highlights common mistakes that founders make when engaging with pre-partner level investors.In this episode, you'll learn:[6:02] Regulatory and infrastructure changes that are accelerating opportunities for tech-focused founders focused on healthcare[10:53] What does your impatience to solve the problem mean to investors?[15:22] How to ensure that your relationships with pre-partner level venture capital investors result in good outcomes for your startup.Non-profit organization that Sam is passionate about: Surfrider FoundationAbout Guest SpeakerSam Toole is a Principal at Primary Venture Partners, where he spearheads new enterprise and healthcare investments. Before making the shift to investing, Sam was an operator and entrepreneur for 10 years. Most recently, Sam was General Manager at Nomad Health, a healthcare labor marketplace. He started at Nomad Health as their sixth employee on the sales side, helping the company build relationships with hundreds of healthcare organizations. In college, Sam launched two businesses: a surf school and an e-commerce company.About Primary Venture PartnersPrimary Venture Partners is a New York-based venture capital firm focused exclusively on investing in NYC founders creating transformational startups in the healthcare, e-commerce and fintech sectors. Primary's portfolio includes ARK, Balanced, Bedrock, Bravely, Black Crow, Bravely, Dandy, Flock, Fly Machine, Jukebox Health, K Health, Lili, Marker, Olive, Perry, ROUND, Spark, Upfront, Zenlytic, Jet, Chief, Mirror, Noom, Latch, Alloy and many more.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode that will drop next Tuesday. Follow Us: Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook
The world's fastest growing businesses all share the same superpower: they understand, in a data-driven way, how customers use and buy their products. How can the rest of us build this superpower? Ryan is a tech entrepreneur, investor, and data scientist. He's a co-founder and CEO of Zenlytic, a tool that helps eCommerce businesses understand and improve their changing KPIs. Prior to Zenlytic, Ryan was a VC with London's AGC Equity Partners, and a consultant with McKinsey's “Fuel by McKinsey.” Ryan has masters degrees from Harvard and Oxford. Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssenryan/ Learn more about his business here: https://zenlytic.com/about