Imagine big data giving organizations the ability to predict who will become entrepreneurs. According to a recent NPR article, the technology has already arrived.
As a community, we’re fully aware that “with predictive analytics, Amazon can figure out what you’ll buy next, Netflix knows what you’ll watch next and Target can guess if you’re pregnant.” However, in a recent NPR article, Priska Neely brings us up to speed with the novel concept of predicting who will become entrepreneurs.
Neely makes it clear that venture capital firms have “used predictive analytics to try to figure out which startups to invest in to make a quick buck.” However, what’s more interesting to the big data community is the current work of Bloomberg Beta. Neely shares with us their new efforts to utilize an “algorithm to try to find entrepreneurs before they even start a company.”
Predicting taste in films is one thing, but predicting major life decisions like setting up a business is a big next step. Neely draws in the experience of Roy Bahat, Lead at Bloomberg Beta, to expand on their work. Bahat makes it clear that “the amazing thing is when you use the data, some of your stereotypes just turn out to be wrong.” This naturally means “talking to people that the tradition system overlooks.”
Together, Neely and Bahat share some fascinating insights into what this new predictive analysis can show, and how accurate it may be – not to mention the help you can give to entrepreneurs before they even start their new business. Regardless, the one thing that is clear is “there is no question this kind of thing will become the norm – that kind of [sci-fi] future, for better or for worse is coming. The data are coming.”
Many thanks to Priska Neely for her fascinating NPR article, and to Roy Bahat, for sharing his predictive work at Bloomberg Beta.
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