Invited Panel -- Big Data Needs Big Dreamers: Lessons from Successful Big Data Investors

Tuesday 1:45PM - August 16, 2016 - Yosemite Room - Hilton San Francisco

By Evangelos Simoudis  (@esimoudis), Usama Fayyad (@usamaf), & Rajesh Parekh (@rgparekh)

Applied Data Science - Invited Talks Track Co-Chairs, KDD-2016

The introductory article in this blog series can be found here.

On our second day the Applied Data Science Invited Talks Track Talks we will be holding a panel on venture investments in big data startups.  

The potential of big data and its exploitation using machine intelligence has captured investor imagination in the same way it continues to capture the imagination of consumers and business executives. As a result, hundreds of startups have already been funded by institutional investors and many more have received funding from other sources, including corporations. New opportunities for startups that provide solutions to important consumer and enterprise problems continue to emerge, and institutional investors remain eager to support great entrepreneurs ready to tackle them.

Like in every field that attracts strong investor attention, while we are seeing many ideas that may not warrant institutional investment, we are also seeing some really great venture investment opportunities that have VCs trampling over themselves to invest in them.

For Tuesday's invited panel in KDD’s Applied Data Science Invited Talks Track we have assembled a group of four very experienced investors with strong experience and track record investing in big data opportunities:

• Mark Gorenberg, Founder and Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners
• Tim Guleri, (@timguleri), Managing Director at Sierra Partners
• Matt Ocko, (@mattocko), Founder and Managing Director at Data Collective
• Greg Sands, (@gsands), Founder and Managing Director at Costanoa Venture Capital

The panelists will help me answer questions relating to what are compelling big data opportunities and how entrepreneurs should go about creating winning startups that address these opportunities. I feel fortunate to have my fellow panelists as friends and often co-investors.

Please come with your questions or send them to me in advance.

See you tomorrow at 1:45PMTuesday August 16, 2016 at the Yosemite room.

Usama, Rajesh and Evangelos - co–chairs of Invited Talks Track

Usama Fayyad, President & CEO, Open Insights  (formerly Barclays CDO)
Rajesh Parekh, Analytics Director, Facebook
Evangelos Simoudis, Founder & Managing Director, Synapse Partners

Read the next Blog in the series by clicking HERE

Read about the Invited Panel: The Myths & Reality of BigData Tools