Just how does big data help businesses grow? A local entrepreneur explains
Big data means big money in the business world. Companies can use your data for all sorts of things, from new products and services, to figuring out how to market themselves better. That’s become even more true with the progression of technology.
Here in Minnesota, serial entrepreneur Mary Meehan knows the business of data well. MPR News’ senior economics contributor, Chris Farrell, recently sat down with Mary to learn more about the business of Big Data, culture and entrepreneurship.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: You already know that data is big money in the business world. Companies can use your data for all sorts of things, from new products and services to figuring out how to market themselves better. That's because, well, it's even more true with the progression of technology. Here in Minnesota, serial entrepreneur Mary Meehan knows the business of data very well. MPR's senior economics contributor Chris Farrell recently sat down with Mary to learn more about the business of big data, culture, and entrepreneurship. Hey, Chris.
CHRIS FARRELL: Hey. How are you doing, Cathy?
CATHY WURZER: Good, thanks. OK, what companies are we talking about?
CHRIS FARRELL: OK, so Meehan cofounded the international social and cultural trend agency Iconoculture, and that was back in 1992. And she left the company after nearly 18 years, and since then, has cocreated two other companies. Panoramix Global, which was cofounded in 2010, so that's a cultural trend consultancy. And Metametrix, which was launched in 2015, is a consumer research tech platform. And it combines analytic tools, big data, big picture thinking.
CATHY WURZER: Ha. I remember Iconoculture. So is there some kind of a unifying idea behind all of her businesses?
CHRIS FARRELL: So, Cathy, I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan. Love him. And so when we were having our conversation, I couldn't help but think about these famous sentences from Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches. Let me read it to you. "'Data, data, data,' he cried impatiently. 'I can't make bricks without clay.'" So there is more to data than ever, as technology has evolved over her career. But her underlying insight has remained the same-- values matter to consumer spending. So here's Meehan describing the value proposition developed at Iconoculture.
MARY MEEHAN: The central tenet or philosophy of that business was that people, or consumers, make their decisions on what they're going to buy, I mean, or where they're going to travel to, music to listen to, what play they go to, based on what's important to them, right? Our wants, our needs, our passions, right? So we call that our values.
CATHY WURZER: Mm-hm. OK, I get that. It's kind of simple if you put it that way. But when you see those oceans of data that are out there, it's not easy to make sense of it. So how do entrepreneurs draw on their personal experiences to eventually create a business? What's the story?
CHRIS FARRELL: Well, I was really curious, and I was wondering, did she have one of those a-ha moments that sparked her entrepreneurial pursuit in market research and cultural trends businesses? Cathy, I have to tell you, her answer took me by surprise.
MARY MEEHAN: So it was 1964. Seeing those young women at Shea Stadium screaming for the Beatles, I remember thinking, why? What provokes that kind of passion and other ways that you can describe that? And it's always been a curiosity of mine. Why do people do what they do?
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, I love that, the Beatles at Shea Stadium. So she goes from Shea Stadium and the Beatles to becoming a cofounder of the market research firm Iconoculture in 1992?
CHRIS FARRELL: Right. And it carved out this niche as a trend agency. But then the founders overhauled the company's business model to take advantage of a new and emerging advanced technology. Cathy, I had to think about this, but it was the internet, the dot-com boom. And the timing for taking the risk, it was auspicious, at least with the benefit of hindsight.
MARY MEEHAN: 1998, '99, this was the dot-com boom. So we were in the market research space, consumer insights subset of that. And we decided we were going to expand. We were going to embrace technology and create a SaaS offering. And people--
CHRIS FARRELL: And a SaaS offering is?
MARY MEEHAN: Software as a Service. So that's a do-it-yourself sort of version, kind of like LinkedIn is a SaaS offering. And we had lots of pushback. People told us we were nuts. Why would we do that? We had this successful business going. Why would we do this? And moments where we thought maybe the same thing. But we decided we were going to create an online database of trends.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. OK, that was a lot of work. But did she have any fun doing it?
CHRIS FARRELL: Well, I think she would agree with both statements. Yes, it was a lot of work. And yes, we had fun. And the investors and the products consumers wanted it. It really was a classic tech experience from that era.
MARY MEEHAN: We were able to raise money. We hired people. Then we had venture people engaged and senior leadership. And it was really exciting and really fun and terrifying and rocky and all of that that goes with it.
CHRIS FARRELL: And, Cathy, I have to tell you, her other companies now, they're taking advantage of the latest technologies.
CATHY WURZER: Hmm. I wonder if that's AI, artificial intelligence. I mean, I'm curious as to what she thinks of AI.
CHRIS FARRELL: Well, everyone's talking about AI. You've got venture capitalists. You've got technologists, scholars, business leaders. And then, of course, all the news that's going on with the turmoil at OpenAI and the artificial intelligence pioneer Sam Altman. So I asked her about this. And her message to entrepreneurs and business leaders is to embrace AI. Invest in learning what AI can do and what it can't do.
MARY MEEHAN: And I think it's really important for everyone to take it very seriously. And I don't mean doomsday, the death of humanity. I mean that it is a really important technology that's going to be around forever. It's now here. It's there. We have to embrace it. Everyone has to really understand the legal complications associated with it as well as the risks, the ethical component of it.
CATHY WURZER: Hmm. Wow. OK, there's a lot here. Obviously, the desire to run and own your own small business is pretty strong in our society. But not everybody acts on it. But we think about it. But she did it.
CHRIS FARRELL: She did it. And there is this romance to entrepreneurship. Americans, we've fallen in love with the French noun "entrepreneur." But entrepreneurs have to really want to start a business since it is a tough and demanding undertaking.
MARY MEEHAN: You have the ability to withstand tremendous pressure and disappointment and excitement and success and failure. And it's just this roller coaster of emotion. But you have to be able to ride that in order to be an entrepreneur because things just go wrong. They just do.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, they do. But I'm really glad that folks like her took the risk.
CHRIS FARRELL: The country's business startup rate-- now, this is measuring the share of all firms that form each year-- it rose by nearly 9% in 2021. And that's the highest share since the Great Recession. That's according to the Economic Innovation Group. So perhaps one of the biggest surprises, Cathy, that comes out of the pandemic is this resurgence in entrepreneurial creation and dynamism.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. Good story. Chris Farrell, thank you.
CHRIS FARRELL: Thanks a lot.
CATHY WURZER: Chris is our senior economics contributor.
CHRIS FARRELL: Hey. How are you doing, Cathy?
CATHY WURZER: Good, thanks. OK, what companies are we talking about?
CHRIS FARRELL: OK, so Meehan cofounded the international social and cultural trend agency Iconoculture, and that was back in 1992. And she left the company after nearly 18 years, and since then, has cocreated two other companies. Panoramix Global, which was cofounded in 2010, so that's a cultural trend consultancy. And Metametrix, which was launched in 2015, is a consumer research tech platform. And it combines analytic tools, big data, big picture thinking.
CATHY WURZER: Ha. I remember Iconoculture. So is there some kind of a unifying idea behind all of her businesses?
CHRIS FARRELL: So, Cathy, I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan. Love him. And so when we were having our conversation, I couldn't help but think about these famous sentences from Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches. Let me read it to you. "'Data, data, data,' he cried impatiently. 'I can't make bricks without clay.'" So there is more to data than ever, as technology has evolved over her career. But her underlying insight has remained the same-- values matter to consumer spending. So here's Meehan describing the value proposition developed at Iconoculture.
MARY MEEHAN: The central tenet or philosophy of that business was that people, or consumers, make their decisions on what they're going to buy, I mean, or where they're going to travel to, music to listen to, what play they go to, based on what's important to them, right? Our wants, our needs, our passions, right? So we call that our values.
CATHY WURZER: Mm-hm. OK, I get that. It's kind of simple if you put it that way. But when you see those oceans of data that are out there, it's not easy to make sense of it. So how do entrepreneurs draw on their personal experiences to eventually create a business? What's the story?
CHRIS FARRELL: Well, I was really curious, and I was wondering, did she have one of those a-ha moments that sparked her entrepreneurial pursuit in market research and cultural trends businesses? Cathy, I have to tell you, her answer took me by surprise.
MARY MEEHAN: So it was 1964. Seeing those young women at Shea Stadium screaming for the Beatles, I remember thinking, why? What provokes that kind of passion and other ways that you can describe that? And it's always been a curiosity of mine. Why do people do what they do?
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, I love that, the Beatles at Shea Stadium. So she goes from Shea Stadium and the Beatles to becoming a cofounder of the market research firm Iconoculture in 1992?
CHRIS FARRELL: Right. And it carved out this niche as a trend agency. But then the founders overhauled the company's business model to take advantage of a new and emerging advanced technology. Cathy, I had to think about this, but it was the internet, the dot-com boom. And the timing for taking the risk, it was auspicious, at least with the benefit of hindsight.
MARY MEEHAN: 1998, '99, this was the dot-com boom. So we were in the market research space, consumer insights subset of that. And we decided we were going to expand. We were going to embrace technology and create a SaaS offering. And people--
CHRIS FARRELL: And a SaaS offering is?
MARY MEEHAN: Software as a Service. So that's a do-it-yourself sort of version, kind of like LinkedIn is a SaaS offering. And we had lots of pushback. People told us we were nuts. Why would we do that? We had this successful business going. Why would we do this? And moments where we thought maybe the same thing. But we decided we were going to create an online database of trends.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. OK, that was a lot of work. But did she have any fun doing it?
CHRIS FARRELL: Well, I think she would agree with both statements. Yes, it was a lot of work. And yes, we had fun. And the investors and the products consumers wanted it. It really was a classic tech experience from that era.
MARY MEEHAN: We were able to raise money. We hired people. Then we had venture people engaged and senior leadership. And it was really exciting and really fun and terrifying and rocky and all of that that goes with it.
CHRIS FARRELL: And, Cathy, I have to tell you, her other companies now, they're taking advantage of the latest technologies.
CATHY WURZER: Hmm. I wonder if that's AI, artificial intelligence. I mean, I'm curious as to what she thinks of AI.
CHRIS FARRELL: Well, everyone's talking about AI. You've got venture capitalists. You've got technologists, scholars, business leaders. And then, of course, all the news that's going on with the turmoil at OpenAI and the artificial intelligence pioneer Sam Altman. So I asked her about this. And her message to entrepreneurs and business leaders is to embrace AI. Invest in learning what AI can do and what it can't do.
MARY MEEHAN: And I think it's really important for everyone to take it very seriously. And I don't mean doomsday, the death of humanity. I mean that it is a really important technology that's going to be around forever. It's now here. It's there. We have to embrace it. Everyone has to really understand the legal complications associated with it as well as the risks, the ethical component of it.
CATHY WURZER: Hmm. Wow. OK, there's a lot here. Obviously, the desire to run and own your own small business is pretty strong in our society. But not everybody acts on it. But we think about it. But she did it.
CHRIS FARRELL: She did it. And there is this romance to entrepreneurship. Americans, we've fallen in love with the French noun "entrepreneur." But entrepreneurs have to really want to start a business since it is a tough and demanding undertaking.
MARY MEEHAN: You have the ability to withstand tremendous pressure and disappointment and excitement and success and failure. And it's just this roller coaster of emotion. But you have to be able to ride that in order to be an entrepreneur because things just go wrong. They just do.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, they do. But I'm really glad that folks like her took the risk.
CHRIS FARRELL: The country's business startup rate-- now, this is measuring the share of all firms that form each year-- it rose by nearly 9% in 2021. And that's the highest share since the Great Recession. That's according to the Economic Innovation Group. So perhaps one of the biggest surprises, Cathy, that comes out of the pandemic is this resurgence in entrepreneurial creation and dynamism.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. Good story. Chris Farrell, thank you.
CHRIS FARRELL: Thanks a lot.
CATHY WURZER: Chris is our senior economics contributor.
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