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Comment by sails | Hacker News Reader

Very cool!

Do you anticipate going more towards improving the data modelling capabilities (take on dbt et al) or more towards Business Intelligence (dashboards then hosting then drag&drop query builder all the way until the dreaded pdf export)

Something that is overlooked in the dbt direction is how complex data models get. BI nothing seems overlooked, it is just hard!

I like that you have a clear anti-ICP [dbt customers, analysts]. This keeps you clear of the BI/DWH space. I do wonder how you avoid getting stuck in the BI tar pit [], or avoid getting stuck in the dbt middleware zone. Maybe with a core focus on engineers getting further and further without needing a BI/data team!

[]https://twitter.com/generick_ez/status/1782844341674786952

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Hitting us with the hard questions! And honestly this is something people overlook about the realities of the data space.

It's always easier to communicate what you are not, so let's begin there:

- drag and drop query builder - absolute prettiest graphs - tailored to the least sophisticated user

In addition to what I think we are not, I think there is some space for our belief about what the data space is/is not:

- We don't think data self-serve is possible but rather small datasets can be tailored. Fundamentally it comes down to complexity and data is complex. It takes expertise/skill to get value from data.

- It takes experts to get value from data, but as systems get better it will take fewer.

- Businesses should not be data driven, they should be reason driven.

- We don't think data dominates business, it's a supporting tool and so we don't think it will every the entry point for everything but rather supports process, so we want to appear in places where we can support that reasoning, like a chart in a Notion doc.

Now a few bits about what we are:

- Tool for those experts and engineers

- Tool to make them the most productive ever

- Prevent messes that people get themselves in in BI by injecting software engineering practices into the process (we know many companies with full time employees responsible for cleaning up messes)

> Now a few bits about what we are:

These are great. I think a lot about BI tools, seldom find any that I would use!

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