We know how to make big data powerful for organizations. We've built Hadoop distributions, MPP databases, and collaborative analytics products. We have a deep appreciation for UX and visual design, data science, and the intangible elements that make a product feel right.
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Ben Werther - Founder & CEO
Harnessing big data is as much about deep server technology as it is a battle to reign in complexity. The status quo is untenable -- brittle infrastructure, impenetrable tools, and lots of user pain.
Ben founded Platfora to change this and unify disruptive server technology with superb user experience into a big data platform, for business users, that just works. He is an industry veteran and big data thought leader and was head of products at Greenplum through the EMC acquisition. -
John Eshleman - VP of Engineering
John has been outrunning Moore's law for the past 13 years building large-scale compute and data processing platforms and systems. He is driven to apply his craft to the next frontier in big data platforms - to make them simple and easy to use. In his work at Greenplum he worked on the core of their massively parallel database engine and and subsequently led the company's engineering efforts.
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Peter Schlampp - VP of Product & Marketing
Peter is passionate about designing products that change the way users live, work, and interact with their world. He experienced first-hand the utility and complexity of big data while building products to secure enterprise networks. Peter has led Product and Marketing teams at Solera Networks, IronPort Systems, and Cisco Systems.
The best design and technology minds in the world actively participate in shaping our products, vision, and team. Leveraging a vast knowledge of database, distributed systems and programming, user experience, and visual design we’re able to solve complex problems with elegant product.
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Prof. Joe Hellerstein - Technical Advisory Board
Joe Hellerstein is a Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, whose work focuses on data-centric systems and the way they drive computing. He is an ACM Fellow, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and the recipient of two ACM-SIGMOD "Test of Time" awards for his research. In 2010, Fortune Magazine included him in their list of 50 smartest people in technology , and MIT's Technology Review magazine included his work on Distributed Programming on their 2010 TR10 list of the 10 technologies "most likely to change our world". Key ideas from his research have been incorporated into commercial and open-source software from IBM, Oracle, and PostgreSQL.
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LUKE WROBLEWSKI - Design Advisory Board
Luke is a digital product designer and author of several popular books on Web design including Mobile First and Web Form Design. He is Co-founder and former board member of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). He was Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Bagcheck (acquired by Twitter in 2011), and Chief Design Architect at Yahoo!, where he worked on product alignment and integrated customer experiences on the Web, mobile, TV, and beyond. Prior to this, he held positions as the Lead User Interface Designer of eBay Inc.'s platform team, and as Senior Interface Designer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the birthplace of the first popular graphical Web browser, NCSA Mosaic.
We are extremely fortunate to have a group of the best investors in the business. Andreessen Horowitz (with Scott Weiss joining our board), In-Q-Tel, and a list of industry leading angels and seed investors who are committed to helping us build an industry-changing company.
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Andreessen Horowitz is a stage-agnostic venture capital firm that provides seed, venture and growth-stage funding to the best new technology companies. Founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz helps entrepreneurs become successful CEOs and build important and enduring companies. Its general partners are Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, John O'Farrell, Scott Weiss, Jeff Jordan and Peter Levine, all widely recognized experts in the creation, scaling and operation of high growth technology companies. The firm has $1.2 billion under management across two funds. Among its 60 investments are Facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Skype, Twitter and Zynga. The firm was established in June 2009 and is located in Menlo Park, California.
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Sutter Hill Ventures has financed technology-based start-ups and assisted entrepreneurs in building market-leading companies since 1962. Through our decades of experience, we have developed strong industry networks, considerable operating and venture capital experience, and an understanding of the challenges that early-stage and high-growth companies face. We offer expertise in developing business strategy and partnerships, building management teams, and financing companies in both public and private markets. Once we invest in a company, we bring to bear our time, expertise, and extensive industry networks to help these companies succeed. Building companies is our top priority and our favorite occupation.
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In-Q-Tel is the not-for-profit, strategic investment firm that works to identify, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Launched in 1999 as a private, independent organization, IQT's mission is to identify and partner with companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve the national security interests of the United States.
www.iqt.org