The "Small Data" problem

I have written about the need to consolidate the crazy amount of information available at our disposal these days. In fact, companies like Google make their living from analysing and “understanding” the ridiculous amount of information they gather, and this has led to some pretty powerful techniques and tools being implemented.

On the other hand, there are also instances where there is not enough data to analyse. Or worse, there is partial or incomplete data. Two instances of this are the medical industry (we are working on this at Klinify). The other is personal information.  Sure, there is enough information to track a person (and have everyone screaming about privacy), but if I want to objectively understand myself using data, do I have enough information to do it? There is a lot of focus on this and we are making progress with the surge of wearable technology, but the data gathered isn't really enough. I think it is something worth exploring!

We are now a funded startup!

We just raised our seed round at Klinify (http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/03/klinify-raises-600k-seed-round-to-build-an-evernote-for-doctors-in-south-asia/). It has been in the works for a while, nice to make it official now!

So what has changed?

1. I can stop freelancing / borrowing / begging to pay my bills and focus full time on Klinify. This happened a while ago, and it is very liberating to be able to put all your brain power into the 1 big thing you are building.

2. There are 3 big confidence boosters in a early startup - Convincing a customer to part with money to use your product, convincing someone experienced to join you full time, and convincing an investor to invest in you. And they vouch for different aspects of your business - it is reassuring to be able to check all three!

3. We can now think farther ahead. We can realistically look at 5-6 month plans, and even outline 1 year plans. And have the resources to fund them. This gives us much more flexibility into what we try and how we approach things - we can afford to take a step back and take bigger shots!

4. The stakes are bigger (you d be sinking a much larger ship if you crash), so the responsibility is bigger. It's a little scary but quite exciting too!

5. If people ask "Klini-who?", I can say "You don't know? Google it." And they'll see a Techcrunch article.

Most things haven't changed though. The objective is the same and the ride is as crazy, unpredictable and awesome as ever - just that the game just got a bigger!