Revolutionizing Data Fabric: How Promethium Simplifies Analytics for Every Business

Kaycee Lai, CEO of Promethium, shares how his company is transforming data analytics through innovative data fabric solutions, empowering businesses to leverage their data effortlessly and affordably.

Written By: supervisor

0

Revolutionizing Data Fabric: How Promethium Simplifies Analytics for Every Business

The following interview is a conversation we had with Kaycee Lai, CEO and Founder of Promethium, on our podcast Category Visionaries. You can view the full episode here: $34.5 Million Raised to Make Building Data Products Easy

Kaycee Lai
Hey, thanks for having me, Brett. Pleasure to be here. 


Brett
No problem. So, to kick things off, could we just start with a quick summary of who you are and a bit more about your background? 


Kaycee Lai
Yes. 


Kaycee Lai
So, as you mentioned, I’m the Founder and CEO of Promethium. Started the company about five years ago because we just really wanted to make analytics a lot easier for everyone. And it’s something that’s very passionate to me because I’ve been on every side when it comes to analytics. I’ve been a consumer, a user of, been someone who’s built those products. I’ve been someone who sold and marketed those products, and so really have played a lot of different roles, which was very helpful when you’re starting out a company and youngest of four kids, so used to having to grind and bump elbows to make sure that you get your voice heard, which I guess is a great mentality to have when you’re starting a new company from scratch. 


Brett
One of the roles I want to ask about is the analyst role you were in at the Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco. So I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone who’s worked there that’s very close to where I live. So what was that experience like? 


Kaycee Lai
And I see that was in 1999 taking me back. Yes, it was the first job, and it was one of those things where I was confused why they called me. But apparently if you take a lot of statistics classes and math classes in college, the Federal reserve likes to talk to you. So that was a great job for me. Right out of school, you get to look at a lot of macroeconomic trends in terms of kind of how that affects different industries, economy and so forth. But also as a young person, I think that’s where you kind of get exposure to how a lot of different policies actually kind of shape our banking industry, which has broader impact on the rest of society. 


Kaycee Lai
So it was a great opportunity for me to exercise my analytical skills and really kind of see how that played out from a much bigger impact perspective. 


Brett
What were your thoughts back then, if you can recall, how you viewed tech in general? Because that was right when I guess, things were booming, but they were about to go really bad. Right. So what were your views then? Were you planning to go into tech? Were you not wanting to go into tech? What were your general thoughts? 


Kaycee Lai
It’s actually a good question because I think I did everything I could to learn as many tech skills as I could at the time, because you’re right. I think at that point, everything was tech, tech. And I felt, being just a math, econ and psych guy, that I didn’t have that background. And so I would hate projects for me at work where I would have to learn different programming languages, use different tools, et cetera. And so my view at that time was, and I still believe it today, the future of the business user or the knowledge worker is one that’s going to have to expose themselves to a broad range of technical skills as a foundation. And I think that’s definitely holding true. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
I think it’s very rare to say, hey, I’m going to do this job, and I know nothing about tech. I’m not going to use any tech tools at all. And so I think that was definitely at that precipice where a lot of folks like me were kind of thinking like, hey, we really need to make this as a foundation in order to make ourselves a little bit more marketable in the world, in the job market out there. And I’m glad that trend actually carried through. And if you look at the future, the current generation of kids coming out of school, I think they’re all super tech savvy, right? So I’m very happy that were one of the ogs. We kind of helped pioneer that wave, and everyone has actually kind of taken that on, and I think society is going to better for it. 


Kaycee Lai
So pretty happy about that. Nice. 


Brett
I love that. A few questions we’d like to ask. And the goal here is really just to better understand what makes you tick as a Founder. First one, what Founder do you admire the most, and what do you fire about them? 


Kaycee Lai
This is probably a little unconventional, but I’m going to say Martha Stewart. It’s because people may not know this, but Martha Stewart actually started out as an investment bank, as a very successful Wall street executive, and she saw an opportunity, right? She saw an opening a gap in a marketplace that wasn’t being addressed. And it’s one thing to say, I’m going to start a company, just hire people, build products and everything, but Martha Stewart is the center of her company. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And she became that Persona that she was marketing and selling to. And I think that’s a big part of the success of her company and her brand is know her customers see themselves in her. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And so I think I have a lot of respect for someone who was willing to give up that lucrative career saying, I’m going to start it from scratch, but then really being able to understand their customer, their Persona that they’ll go after and literally be that person on camera while running the business behind the scenes. So kudos, Martha. Lots of props. 


Brett
Somewhere on the wall behind me, I have the cookbook that a friend got me, and it’s Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. 


Kaycee Lai
There you go. 


Brett
I didn’t know that background, though. I didn’t know she was an investment banker. That, I guess, does connect the dots for me about the insider trading scandal that she had happen. Like, what is that? 


Kaycee Lai
I wasn’t where I was going. 


Brett
But you’re right, that makes more sense. So she wasn’t just like a chef who was doing some stock trading. She came from that background. That definitely makes a bit more sense. 


Kaycee Lai
I can neither confirm nor deny. 


Brett
Now, another question we like to ask about is books. And as you saw in video, I love books. I’m a big reader as well. So how we like to frame this, and this comes from an author named Brian Holiday. He calls him a quake book. So a quickbook is a book that rocks you to your core. It really influences how you think about the world and just how you approach life. Do any quake books come to mind for you? 


Kaycee Lai
I think lots of books kind of impact you at different points of your life, right? Be it long term or short term. And some have longer lasting impact and some don’t. There’s one book that I’ve read a few times, and it’s a very different experience every time I read it. And it’s actually the count of Monte Cristo. Right. It’s a classic. I’m a sucker for classics. And I think what I appreciate about that book is really about life. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And all the ups and downs that you can have in life. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
So the book resonates with me because it actually is a story about determination and grit. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
In addition to the harsh lessons of life around friendship, around betrayal, relationships. But I think one of the things that is definitely true and unholds across the different generations is that life is always going to throw curveballs. You can have ups and downs, you have things taken away from you, but if you remain focused and determined and you have a goal, then that can actually continue and give you the energy and give you the focus. And I think being an entrepreneur, I think we have our ups and downs every single day. And there are days where you get questions, right. Are we focusing on the right things? Are we focused on solving the right problems? 


Kaycee Lai
I think that book is a great example of someone who has that focus and that clarity of vision, using that to kind of guide them through challenging and choppy waters. And so I think because of that, it’s one of those books that I come back to time after time. 


Brett
How many times have you reread it? 


Kaycee Lai
Probably about six times. 


Brett
That’s what I should maybe start asking people on the podcast, what book have you reread the most? Because I think that’s everyone has probably, like, three or four books, right, where they just keep going back to them over and over again. So I may start to switch it up and ask that, because that could really. 


Kaycee Lai
It’s a good one, because I think as you change, as you get older, you see things differently. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
So what was cool when you’re young were the different stage in life may not be that cool. And what you didn’t really think about. Right, or didn’t pay attention to all jumps out at you later on. So I think that’s a good call. 


Brett
One thing I have found fun is I highlight books as I read them, and then I reread them again, and I try to use a different color, and it’s always interesting to me, looking back of certain things, like, how did I not highlight that before? It’s such a good takeaway. It’s such an important takeaway. But at the time when I read it had no relevance to me. It didn’t even get a highlighter, but all of a sudden, I read it this time, and that jumps out. So it’s fun kind of going through those different phases. And what I’ve been doing is trying to write the date now of, if it’s a highlighter, it was done on this date. And I think at some point, I’ll look back at that when I’m 80, or my kids will look back at it. Fun to read. 


Kaycee Lai
Whoever picks it up is going to need, like, a Codex ring, right? There’s a color codex, and there’s a timeline codex, et cetera. 


Brett
Yeah. I love that now let’s switch gears and let’s dive deeper into the company. So how we like to start this off is, let’s talk about the problem. So how do you articulate the problem that you solve? 


Kaycee Lai
Yeah, I articulate the problem that we solve in the sense that I think I don’t need to convince anyone that data is a strategic asset and that the companies need to leverage data and be data driven to solve a whole bunch of problems or experience to optimizing growth. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
I think everyone understands that, but I think what people don’t realize is it’s still really hard to do that. And unless you’re one of the few elite, large companies with a lot of money, a lot of people, you’re still not really leveraging your data, right. And you’re not being able to use it. And so you’re kind of forever kind of kept below this bar of potential success. And what we see Promethium as is being able to be that equalizer, right? 


Kaycee Lai
Being able to say, hey, what if we can give you the same tech that all these big companies are using, but package it up in a way that’s so easy to consume, that you don’t need of experts in all these different areas, and then price it in a way where it’s affordable and easy to actually pick up and just use, so you can actually spend your time leveraging that data to solve the problems you need, as opposed to trying to spend your time just to figure out how to buy and put it together. And so that’s really kind of where we feel a great passion in terms of our mission, if you will, is that we want to normalize and equalize the playing field so that any company who wants to be data driven and leverage the data that you already own. 


Kaycee Lai
Right, that’s the irony, is, like, you’ve got it’s yours, it’s your data. The fact that you have to spend more time and more money to make it do something useful for you, it seems like a travesty, right? So that’s the problem that we’re solving. 


Brett
And then can you tell us what a data fabric platform is or just what data fabric is for those who are listening in, who have no idea what that means? 


Kaycee Lai
Yeah, absolutely. Data fabric, very simple definition is that it’s a product or architectural framework that allows you to get a single, unified, consistent view of your data, no matter where it is. Because data could reside in different locations, different vendors, different formats. So doesn’t matter. Let’s in one place, you can see everything you have and then being able to sit without having to move the data into yet another proprietary data store. 


Kaycee Lai
Right? 


Kaycee Lai
So if you think about a fabric is flexible, right? You think of cloth, you think it’s flexible. You don’t think of like concrete or steel, which is what a lot of data engineering architecture really is. It’s very rigid and so it’s very brittle, right. The fabric has that connotation, that imagery flexibility and fluidity, which is really what it’s all about. It’s really, hey, if you could easily see what you have, connect to it and access all your data, regardless of where you’re coming from, how would that change how you leverage data and analytics? So there’s a lot of benefits to this. One, obviously is the simplicity, the cost savings against, say, the modern data stack. 


Kaycee Lai
But two is as we enter the world of AI, generative AI, the data fabric is the best platform, best single platform where AI can actually now tap into that and leverage, govern and trusted data, no matter where it is, and have rapid, fast access so that you can actually get the answers and the outcomes that you want. So that’s how we kind of talk and think about the data fabric. 


Brett
And when it comes to the market category, then is that market category, data. 


Kaycee Lai
Fabric, it’s an emerging category, which is what’s very interesting, because up until we started doing this, everyone looked at Alex as sort of a market where you had separate categories of separate products, right? You’re in the metadata path, you’re in the data path. You’re going to be a catalog, that’s one category. You’re going to be a data ingestion vendor, that’s another category. You’re going to be a data warehouse, another category. Your bi tool, that’s another category. And everyone just kind of, that was a landscape we played in, and that was a landscape for customers to consume and buy as well. So that meant you had to go figure out how to put all these different products together, which is not easy, took a long time, it was expensive. 


Kaycee Lai
So one of our first missions and goals was, well, we know people need capabilities across all these different categories. Why not have a product where you can get this blending of capabilities for some of these key use cases so that it’s not difficult and it’s not time consuming. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And so that’s what kind of set the trend in place. And you started to see this started happening. What Gartner starts talking about, like data conversions or analytics, conversion with governance, we’ve started talking about the role of the citizen data scientists where they wanted a way to integrate governance with data integration with data analytics. And so it’s been coming for a while. And I think up until the data fabric, it wasn’t really crystallized or it wasn’t really demonstrated that it could be done. And so now we’re at a point where there is evidence that you can have a data fabric and it actually does give you these type of promise benefits. And so it’s pretty exciting. Like Gardner recently just said that they believed by the end of 2025, eightyl chief data analytics officers will have deployed a data fabric. 


Kaycee Lai
It’s a big endorsement, right? So I think you’re going to see this morph into a real separate story very shortly. 


Brett
How proactive are you in trying to shape that definition and define that definition of what a data fabric platform is? 


Kaycee Lai
So the data fabric is going to be a standalone category, I believe, very shortly, because it is different enough and that you can’t simply take an existing product, slap lipstick and marketing jargon on it, and turn into a data fabric that’s been tried. It doesn’t work. The definition of a modern data fabric is very clear in what it needs to do and what it needs to. You know, companies like Talend have used the term data fabric a long time ago, over a decade ago, but that’s no longer relevant for today’s world, where data is distributed across multiple locations, clouds and types. It’s not the single data warehouse environment and single data center environment that people have anymore. So because of this, and we all know where the world is going, it’s going more distributed every single day. 


Kaycee Lai
Because of that, the fabric is becoming much more relevant than ever before. So Gardner has even said that they believe by the end of 2025, 80%, a zero of all chief data analytics officers will have deployed a data. That’s a bold prediction, right? And it’s something that we’re starting to see. 


Brett
This show is brought to you by Front Lines Media, a podcast production studio that helps B2B founders launch, manage, and grow their own podcast. Now, if you’re a Founder, you may be thinking, I don’t have time to host a podcast. I’ve got a company to build. Well, that’s exactly what we’ve built our service to do. You show up and host, and we handle literally everything else. To set up a call to discuss launching your own podcast, visit frontlines.io podcast. Now back today’s episode. Now, you mentioned there, the modern data stack. Can you paint a picture for us? What is like that dream? Modern data stack, what would be the tools that would be in your toolkit? 


Kaycee Lai
Yeah, good question. Well, I would say the modern data stack was the dream stack, like a few years ago, where we took best of breed. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
So you might have a best of breed data catalog, a best of breed data integration tool to do the ETL, do the pipeline, some sort of data prep and data transformation tool to get the data in the state that you need, obviously a data warehouse or a data lake. And then you might have data visualization tool at the end, so you can actually create the deliverable for the business. So that was sort of the kind of idea behind the modern data stack is that you can pick the best of breed for a cloud data warehouse, cloud data lake type of architecture. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
So the minute data went from on prem into kind of cloud, what we saw happening was a lot of the kind of fragmentation of the data management tools into multiple stacks. Right, as we just described. So while that’s sounding great, what we found in recent years is trying to piece that together is really expensive, really hard, because they weren’t designed for that. And so you could easily buy four products for, say, a million dollars and spend seven to 10 million on integration fees, which is kind of silly, right, if you think about it. But that is the reality of the modern data stack. And the modern data stack is actually all built around this notion that you just have to keep moving data into your cloud, data warehouse and data lakes. 


Kaycee Lai
So this new wave of data fabric architecture and data fabric thinking is really solving for the sins of the modern data stack, if you will, really making it much more easy, cost effective and faster to adopt. 


Brett
Can you give us an idea of adoption and growth and just any numbers that you can share? 


Kaycee Lai
Yeah, so I think we’re on track this year to do about eight x over what we did last year. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And I think that’s partly, I think one is 2022. Obviously, there was a bit of a correction, but we’re seeing budgets coming back in 2023. But it’s also one of the things that’s spurring our success and growth is when people figure out how the data fabric can actually directly impact their business, it’s very easy to kind of really increase your adoption from there. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And that’s always one of the holy grails when you’re building a product is are you just building a widget that everyone needs to have? Might buy two or three, but doesn’t matter what you do, everyone just kind of needs a widget. Or are you going to have something that actually will significantly move the needle in terms of significantly transforming how business is done for your customers. And I think when you can figure that out and figure out those use cases, that’s when things get really exciting. 


Brett
What do you attribute to that growth and maybe how we can think about this from a marketing perspective? What are you doing to really rise above the noise? Obviously, there’s a lot of vendors in the data space. There’s a lot of noise today. What have you done to rise above all that noise? 


Kaycee Lai
Yeah, good question. I think it is probably harder than ever, from a marketing perspective these days to start a company because there is so much that people can do with SEO and SEM and spend. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And the bigger you are, the more resources you have to do that to kind of just steal mind share, steal eyeballs, et cetera. So I think one of the things that we’ve done, and we continue to do well, is rather than just marketing making claims, we take an educational approach in terms of, hey, let’s teach you guys things that are not necessarily about Promethium, but related to analytics, related to data engineering, related to data analytics. And I think customers really appreciate that there’s an honest place they can go to learn about things, number one. And number two, I think it’s to be transparent, to be real. Right. There’s a lot of products that they look great in a demo, they look great in a video, they look great in an ad, but the product actually doesn’t look like that. 


Kaycee Lai
The product actually doesn’t do that, or the product actually can’t do that unless you spend six months preparing. We really shine is were actually very genuine, very transparent about like, what you see is what you get. And what I’m showing you is happening live, real time. And I didn’t spend six to nine months preparing. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
It’s actually happening now. When customers can see that, I think that’s better than any ad that you can buy or any marketing collateral can do. That’s when they really realize, oh my gosh, this is actually real and this is actually going to solve our problems. And so that’s been something that we’ve gotten very positive feedback consistently. 


Brett
As I mentioned there in the intro, you’ve raised over $34 million to date. What have you learned about fundraising throughout this journey? 


Kaycee Lai
It’s hard. No, I think fundraising, one of the things for me is people always say, hey, you’ve been in sales, this should be easy. And maybe it is, I think for some, but I think for me it’s a little bit different, because I think the way I’ve always sold was not so much on promises, but really selling on taking a consultative sale, understanding kind of what the customer wants, and helping them solve a business problem. And what I found was that’s a very slur approach that you can take to fundraising and be successful at it. So if you start thinking about investors as customers in the sense that they have something that they want to buy, right. They have a problem they want to solve. It’s really the old saying goes, you can’t sell to someone who doesn’t want to be sold to. Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And so when it comes to investors, thesis matters. You have to find investors who have a thesis. They have to find one where thesis actually aligns to your company’s thesis. And so I learned that if you can spend a little bit more time doing that identification or qualification, if you will. Right. You shouldn’t just talk to every investor. I know. I’m a little contrarian. People always say it’s a numbers game. I don’t think so. I think it’s a quality game. 


Kaycee Lai
Right? 


Kaycee Lai
I think, yes, you need to talk to more than one, obviously. But I think if you can figure out and quickly narrow down, it’s like sales prospecting qualification. These are the set of investors that invest in this space. These are set of investors who invest in this stage. These are investors set of investors that have this type of outcome. But this particular investor has this particular thesis. And that thesis lies really well with your company’s thesis. I think then your chances of success are much higher. 


Kaycee Lai
Right? 


Kaycee Lai
Again, that thesis is effectively what they’re trying to buy, what they’re looking for. And so if you can kind of pair what they want to buy with what you’re selling, it’s a lot easier. And you’re not really selling at that point. You’re just simply explaining and presenting what your company is trying to do. 


Brett
How important do you think it is to be based in Silicon Valley? If you’re building a tech company today, obviously you’re in the area. You didn’t move to Austin. You didn’t move to Miami. Was that just because you had eyes here and it was hard to move, or was there like a business case for why you also stayed? 


Kaycee Lai
That’s a good question. If you asked me that question four years ago, I would say, yeah, it’s really hard to move. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
You have to be here. But the fact that so many people have moved, that means a lot of roots have been laid down in those places now. So I’m not shy to say maybe my thesis needs to be challenged. Right. You got a lot of really smart and successful folks who move out the area. They’ve laid down roots, those areas. They’re going to give those areas a foundation now. We’ll see in time whether or not that proves out to be true, because I think there’s still a few things that the barrier has that’s a huge advantage. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
I think the World Economic Forum did a study a while ago, like, here’s why. Certain pockets of world are great innovation centers and certain ones are not. One of the things they identified is it’s not just access to capital, it’s actually the proximity of capital, access to institutions of higher learning with research facilities. So the Bay Area has three, four, multiple large universities with great research programs. So I think that itself gives it a very unfair advantage. And then secondly is the access to capital. And third is that network of people who have successfully started companies, exited companies, so forth, have so much to teach you. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
I think that is actually still a very big advantage that you have in the Bay Area. I think if you’re a first time entrepreneur, I do think you probably will have a higher chance of success if you start your company here. I think if you’re a multiple time entrepreneur and you figured out and you’ve got a network, it probably matters less. You can probably do it in other places. 


Brett
I moved here about a year and a half ago, and I’ve just been mind blown at the density of amazing founders and amazing investors. Most of these people are within like a five to ten minute walk from where I live downtown. And I’ve just never seen that in any other city where there’s such a massive volume of just amazing people that are so close by. And I’ve lived in big cities and I’ve just never seen anything like that. So that’s my view. It’s very hard to beat that. And I think what you said, too, is very important. If you’re on your third startup or fourth startup, then maybe it doesn’t matter. But my advice, if someone’s 20 years old thinking about starting a company, they should move here. I wish I had moved here when I was turning 20. 


Kaycee Lai
Absolutely. And I think you’d be surprised at how open and how willing people are here in terms of helping out. 


Kaycee Lai
Right? 


Kaycee Lai
Like, hey, I went through that. Don’t go through that. Don’t make the mistake I made, or like, oh, I know a great firm. If you’re looking for designs help. Yeah. It’s amazing what you can get from the network that’s here. 


Kaycee Lai
Right? 


Kaycee Lai
So, yeah, I think there is still advantage, right. But I think serial entrepreneurs, there’s a reason why they’re serial entrepreneurs, right? They figured it out. And so for those folks, I think it may matter less, but there’s still a lot of great advantages in building a company here, for sure. 


Brett
Yes, totally agree. Now, let’s imagine that you were starting the company again today from scratch. What would be the number one piece of advice that you give to yourself? 


Kaycee Lai
Oh, wow, man. That’s a lawless, my friend. There’s a lot of things that make sense intuitively, but when you’re actually in the thick of things, sometimes you forget to see the forest for the trees, if you will. So someone once told me with an investor that I thought was really great advice. He said, what you’re building and what you’re selling versus how you position and market, it may not be the same thing. And in the early days of the company, they probably shouldn’t be the same thing. And it took me a long time to really understand that, which I did, or much earlier. And basically, there’s a lot to unpack there, right. But there’s a lot of wisdom there. Number one, as a startup, you’re going to be time, money, and people limited. There’s no way you can build everything you want to build. 


Kaycee Lai
Right? 


Kaycee Lai
And I know investors always talk about the focus and so forth. The advice I would give is it’s not just focus in building a smaller product. It’s actually focus in picking a specific problem for a specific Persona that you want to focus on, because that will give you enough, it’s wide enough of what you need to build, but then it’s relevant enough for you to have something that you can start generating revenue early on from. But it’s important that when you’re doing that you don’t lose sight of why you did this in the first place. So there must be a connection to the original vision, and that’s where how you market it is different. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And then how you sell it. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
That’s where you learn a lot when you actually have a product and you’re actually getting it into customers hands and the customer actually wants to buy it. Like I always tell my team that what we say we’re going to build and the reaction we get from a customer varies greatly. The minute the customer sees a demo varies greatly. The minute the customer actually tests the product varies greatly. The minute the customer decides to write a check. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
At all those different points, you have different levels of understanding and both emotional time and capital investment from the customer, and they think is important and not important. And so knowing that it’s going to be a sliding scale and knowing that there is no way at the beginning you could possibly foresee what that end is going to be. Focus on what you need to build at that stage and just be flexible enough that you know that it’s going to have to work being just maniacal about getting as much feedback and data points and be open and honest with yourself. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
When you get that. So that, you know, when you do need to change, you need to make that change fast. 


Brett
Final question for you, since we’re almost up on time, let’s zoom out three to five years into the future. What’s the big picture vision that you’re building? 


Kaycee Lai
Yeah, I think the big picture vision we’re building is eventually what we’re offering can sort of take on a very high degree of intelligence and automation. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
And I think this aligns very well with Gen AI. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
Gen AI is changing a lot of industries, a lot of how we do things, but I think it still hasn’t really made its way into data analytics and the enterprise successfully yet. But I think that’s the future. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
I think integrating Gen AI is going to be a key part of the vision going forward. And if you think about what that means, it means really being more than just data analytics focused. 


Kaycee Lai
Right. 


Kaycee Lai
I think this can now have a huge impact on everything from workflow to the tools that people consume, how they consume them, and even the roles of the people that are typically involved today in data analytics. And so we’re pretty excited about the speed and the types of business solved with Gen AI. I think the challenge has been how do you actually incorporate that to solve the problem that you originally set out to solve and then some. And so I think you can expect us to leverage the strong foundation of data analytics that we’ve built over the years and kind of go into not just how data is consumed, but just how these entire workflows and applications now can be consumed with generative AI. 


Kaycee Lai
So that’s a part that I think you can expect where it could be very exciting, because I think that will be an exponential leap forward in terms of really leveling that playing field. As I talked about in the beginning, in terms of allowing the smaller companies to be able to use data as a force multiplier and as an equalizer against much bigger companies. 


Brett
Amazing. Love the vision we are up on time. So we will have to wrap here. If there’s any founders that are listening in and just want to follow along with your journey or potentially get in touch with you, where should they go? 


Kaycee Lai
Yeah, check out our website, www.promethium.ai or find me on LinkedIn. It’s a lovely job and if I can be a little bit helpful to someone and make their journey a little bit smoother, I’m very happy to do it. Amazing. 


Brett
Casey, thank you so much for taking the time to chat, especially as were joking there in the pre interview. This is a Friday late afternoon, so Shane, you chat with us the end of the week and appreciate you taking the time to really just share what you’re building and share some of the lessons that you’ve learned so far. This has been a super fun conversation. I know our audience is going to love it and we really appreciate you taking the time. 


Kaycee Lai
No, I loved it. Thanks for having me and really enjoyed it. Take care. Have a good one. 


Brett
This episode of Category Visionaries is brought to you by Front Lines Media, Silicon Valley’s leading podcast production studio. If you’re a B2B Founder are looking for help launching and growing your own podcast, visit frontlines.io podcast and for the latest episode, search forCategory Visionaries on your podcast platform of choice. Thanks for listening and we’ll catch you on the next episode. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Write a comment...