Zenlytic Secures $5.4M Integrating AI into Business Intelligence w/ CEO Ryan Janssen & CTO Paul Blankley
Aug 9, 2023
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CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley discuss the transformative power of integrating AI into Business Intelligence. They explore challenges faced, breakthroughs achieved, and future potential. Topics include self-serve BI for non-technical users, GPT-4's API experience, ideal customers and use cases, fundraising process, and advice for technical founders of AI startups.
Zenlitic integrates AI, specifically GPT-4, into its platform to enhance its chatbot capabilities.
Zenlitic's self-serve BI tool aims to empower non-technical users to access and analyze data without relying heavily on data teams.
Deep dives
The Journey of Zenlitic and the Importance of Persistence
The founders of Zenlitic, Ryan Jansen and Paul Blankly, have backgrounds in venture capital and data science consulting. They started Zenlitic to address the need for self-serve business intelligence (BI) tools. The company aims to reduce the reliance on data teams for ad hoc requests by providing an AI-powered chatbot called Zoe. Zoe can analyze data and answer a wide range of questions instantly. The founders emphasize the importance of persistence in entrepreneurship, advising technical founders to never give up, even in the face of challenges.
Integration of AI and the Challenges Faced
Zenlitic integrates AI, specifically GPT-4, into its platform to enhance its chatbot capabilities. The founders note that using large context windows in AI models is promising but can result in losing information in the middle. They emphasize the need for attention mechanisms throughout the context window. The founders also discuss the technical challenges they faced, including developing an explain change capability and creating a semantic layer to handle complex SQL definitions. They highlight the complexity of software development and the importance of learning from experience to overcome challenges.
Benefits and Use Cases of Zenlitic's Self-Serve BI Tool
Zenlitic's self-serve BI tool aims to empower non-technical users to access and analyze data without relying heavily on data teams. It allows users to ask questions and receive instant insights, breaking down complex problems into actionable insights. The platform is useful for various use cases, such as monitoring performance marketing, analyzing sales trends, and exploring data-driven strategies. By providing immediate access and analysis of data, Zenlitic accelerates the process of problem-solving and decision-making for users, reducing reliance on data teams.
Fundraising and Advice for AI Startups
Zenlitic raised pre-seed and seed rounds of funding, leveraging their network and maintaining relationships with investors prior to fundraising. The founders emphasize the importance of being prepared and keeping potential investors informed and excited about the startup's progress. They advise technical founders to focus on solving real-world problems and use cases rather than simply pitching AI capabilities. For investors, they suggest investing in startups that align with specific use cases and demonstrate practical applications of AI technology.
In this episode of "Zenlytic," CEO Ryan Janssen and CTO Paul Blankley dive deep into the transformative power of integrating AI into Business Intelligence. Discover the challenges, breakthroughs, and the future potential of this innovative synergy as they share their insights from the frontlines of technology and business.
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