DaaS needs to focus on product and differentiation, not plumbing

Bobsled has a singular aim - allow DaaS companies to focus on what they do best. Founder Jake Graham, a data infrastructure veteran from Neo4j, Intel, and Microsoft, aims to redefine how companies create and distribute data products. 

We sat down with Graham to learn about the company's approach, his views on where the industry is headed and the creation of new verbs. 

Demand for Data is Exploding - Embracing Market Shifts

Graham saw three critical market shifts that are driving a massive opportunity for data-as-a-service companies (and Bobsled along the way).:

1. Exponential growth in demand for bulk data: Graham asserts, "The demand for data is going to continue to grow exponentially as we have seen over the past decade." This surge is driven by enterprises investing heavily in data teams, leading to increased data democratization and sophistication among users across organizations.

2. A massive reduction in the total cost of ownership for building and selling data products. Technological advancements, particularly the separation of storage and compute, are reducing the  cost of delivering on the promise of data-as-a-service. 

3. A gap in infrastructure and tooling for data producers.  "Nobody was building infrastructure and tooling for data producers. Nobody," Graham emphasizes, highlighting the unique position Bobsled occupies in the market.

An Infrastructure-First Strategy

Bobsled's approach caters to the technical needs of data teams. "We are building for the engineers... to enable your technical teams at data companies to not have to get bogged down with infrastructure management," Graham explains.

By orchestrating data access across various platforms, Bobsled ensures that the right data is available to the right person at the right time, enhancing the efficiency and scalability of data operations. 

"The right way for data to be accessed is using whatever platform it's going to be used in."

The company has already attracted notable clients, including ZoomInfo, CoreLogic, and Deutsche Börse, with more large customers on the horizon.

The biggest competitor is “Terminal Mindset”

For years, data-driven companies monetized data through software. Companies always had a bulk data business, but it was often seen as an offering for only the biggest companies. It’s that “terminal mindset”  that Graham sees as the biggest competitor. It’s not other companies, but rather a mindset that undervalues the potential of data-as-a-service.

“For a while, I viewed our biggest competitor as someone building everything. I no longer think that's true. I think if we do our job even remotely, well, even if you're building in-House, eventually you get to a place where it's like, okay, this doesn't make sense'" Graham argues. He believes many companies limit themselves by focusing solely on software applications, missing out on the broader value that data-as-a-service can unlock.

Data marketplaces are the canary in a coal mine

Data Marketplaces are valuable, but not for the reason many think, says Graham. “Platform data marketplaces have been presented as a solution for the discoverability problem for consumers. But that’s not the main problem they’re solving,” says Graham. “They are predominately solving the interoperability problem: how do I know this data will work with mine? A listing on Snowflake, Databricks or BigQuery lets buyers know that it is simple and easy to get started.”

It’s interoperability – not discovery – where Graham sees the opportunity. DaaS is not just a new word for bulk data – instead, it’s a transformation in the way data products are delivered (as it was in SaaS.) Instead of being responsible for ingesting and integrating data themselves, data consumers will be able to instantly get access to structured, up-to-date, and ready-to-query in which platform they use for analytics. “We know from software that changing the way a product is delivered can transform an industry itself – and that’s what we’re solving at Bobsled,” says Graham. “We know a lot of leaders in the industry share this belief and are going to do everything to build the technology they need to make that vision a reality.”

By addressing the unique challenges and opportunities in the market, Bobsled is paving the way for a more efficient and scalable data ecosystem, transforming how companies approach DaaS all while creating a new verb for us to use.

Expect to hear “Sounds good, we’ll Bobsled it to you!” more often.