Software Spotlight: Observable
Company Snapshot
Founded: 2016
Employees: 32
Funding: $46M
Valuation: NA
Stage: Series B
Locations: San Francisco, Remote
Company Overview
Observable simplifies how data is gathered, analyzed, and shared.
Tell Me More
Observable is the modern data platform for collaborative analytics and data science. Observable brings together data scientists, operations personnel, and leadership for cross-functional analysis in whatever format suits their needs. The platform allows users to run exploratory analysis to create analysis and share data across the organization.
Traditionally, data scientists work in online notebooks like Jupyter, where they can build SQL queries and enter Python code to organize it, chart it and so forth. Instead, Observable is creating a super-charged notebook that lets users pull a data set from Snowflake or Amazon Redshift directly into their notebook to analyze, format, and share the data in an easy way. Users can drag and drop components from the notebook page to quickly build visualizations for ongoing analysis and presentation.
Unlike other products in the space, the company isn’t targeting a specific group of highly trained data scientists — it is attempting to reach a much broader group of users who are analytically savvy but lack the full data science skill set. Additionally, Observable is for intra-business analysis and has created an open database of data sets and visualizations for anyone to begin working with.
Market Opportunity
We all know the power of data. We’ve seen the scale that big-tech has been able to reach through programmatic advertising and monitoring our every click. However, not everyone has the same resources as FAANG companies. A 2019 Forrester study found that between 60% and 73% of all data within an enterprise goes unused for analytics. Additionally, McKinsey estimates that 80% of the world’s data is locked in unstructured formats. With only 20% of a company’s data available for analysis, it’s important that we arm data scientists and analysts with the right tools to make data-driven decisions.
The promise of platforms like Observable is in helping companies realize the value of the data that they already have and operationalizing it. In a Deloitte report, 49% of companies that have implemented data observability platforms say that analytics helps them make better decisions.
Why I like the company
Strategically, Observable has built a collaborative workbook and continuous education platform to power the next generation of data scientists. The company’s multi-user notebook allows users to leverage pre-built and community generated visualizations for their own business needs. Previously, the only data sets available to data scientists were limited to a company’s internal data and whatever the analyst could generate from the internet. With Observable, data scientists are encouraged to share public data sets, leverage each other's models, create visualizations and tweak deliverables to fit their business needs.
Perhaps most exciting aspect of Observable is its positive feedback loop:
The Observable team is led by Cofounder and CEO, Melody Meckfessel. Melody spent 18 years at Google as VP of Engineering for Google’s Cloud Platform. A majority of the team also hails from Google, a testament to Melody’s strength pulling top talent from one of the top companies to work for.
For a small team of just 32, Observable boasts over 180 enterprise customers.
Observable’s Hiring Corner
Similar Companies
Reminder
As always, you can find the abbreviated list of companies we’ve already talked about here. Below are links to the previous posts