

The Money's in Data, Not Code - sogrady
http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2011/05/24/the-age-of-data/

======
scottchin
I think this perspective is very interesting. It reminds me of a recent quote
from Tim O'Reilly where he talks about similar trends in that, "when something
is commoditized, something adjacent becomes valuable."

I'm not sure if this the origin of the interview but here is a link
[http://thestartupfoundry.com/2011/03/14/oreilly-when-
somethi...](http://thestartupfoundry.com/2011/03/14/oreilly-when-something-is-
commoditized-an-adjacent-thing-becomes-valuable/)

~~~
sogrady
indeed. it also echoes Tim's "data is the intel inside" line of thinking from
years past.

------
benihana
I disagree. It's neither code nor data, it's how you use the data and / or the
code.

~~~
sogrady
interesting. what are the software products that command high licensing fees
launched in recent years that you'd point to?

~~~
equark
Palantir, some of their Gov contracts are public and they extend to the
millions.

~~~
sogrady
very cool. i haven't been tracking Palantir, which is a shame because their
approach is orthogonal yet reminiscent of the MDM vendor SRD (since acquired
by IBM, and the former employer of Jeff Jonas). and clearly they're successful
with their large government contracts.

still, it doesn't appear on the face of it that these contracts will be
sufficient to propel it onto equal footing, financially, with the likes of
IBM, Oracle, et al.

there is money to be made in software, but i still believe it's unlikely that
the big money will come from licensing/sales/support only models.

------
pchristensen
But is there anyone that has made money directly from the data? It seems like
data is only valuable as part of a valuable service, not on its own.

~~~
Travis
I have made money directly from the data. My startup scratched its own itch,
and one of the byproducts was a dataset that we sold directly to another
company. The price was in the low 5 figures; we estimate that we have
approximately 1k times as much as we sold (initial sale was for proof of
concept).

There is huge value in data.

~~~
sogrady
exactly. if you're comfortable talking about it privately, i'd love to hear
about it. or even better, if you're ever in a position to blog it, make sure
it gets to HN.

either way, congrats. you're well ahead of the curve.

------
bigwally
The money is in the presentation of the data. There is still plenty of money
in the software.

