A look at the transformative power of Big Data

In the age of Big Data, figuring out the best ways to store, move, analyze and make sense of data can be everything for a company. Or, all the data at a company’s disposal could amount to nothing if the business doesn’t know what to do with it. “People can ask about things like supply chains and sales pipelines and very specific areas,” said Frank Bien, chief executive of Big Data analytics company Looker. “But when they want to ask more broad, ad hoc questions in every department in a company, it’s very difficult. And what we’re trying to do is make that less difficult.” Bien says that in helping Looker’s clients find the value in all of their data, his 400-person company has “a focus on boring stuff that works, as opposed to being flashy and getting headlines while doing little to transform a business.” Based in Santa Cruz, Looker has so far received the backing of $180 million in funding from CapitalG (formerly called Google Capital), Redpoint, First Round Capital and Kleiner Perkins.