I’ve met so many AI founders lately who used to be data scientists on internal data teams. When I explain what we’re building at TigerEye, their faces light up with “I know exactly what you’re doing”, followed by an admission on just how miserable it was to be a human ticketing system, churning out charts for leadership.
The worst was that these highly educated engineers couldn’t share their opinion about the one off request, they were just expected to do it.
The work wasn’t strategic and it took half a dozen other humans to help them make the graphs (usually involved finance or RevOps to explain custom fields or teach them some nuanced business math). Now with the AI shift, we’re seeing a real exodus of data talent, not to Facebook or Google, but to startups.
The same data scientists are channeling their skills into customer-facing AI products, not internal dashboards.
Even looking back at our old PlanGrid data team, many of our best data scientists are now founders or leading products at cool startups.The best data minds are no longer working on data teams in service roles for GTM anymore. And this is a good thing for sales and marketing.
Because CROs and CMOs want the ability to get questions answered without involving half a dozen people or waiting weeks anyways.
Tracy Young, the co-founder and CEO of TigerEye and former leader of PlanGrid, has a proven track record in scaling tech enterprises, notably leading PlanGrid to a $875 million acquisition by Autodesk in 2018. She is recognized in Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech, has spoken at prestigious events like TEDWomen 2020, and holds a B.S. in construction engineering management.
