Sramana Mitra: So let’s double click down on a couple of things here. You mentioned a different dataset. So, what dataset is LiftLab using?

John Wallace: In our last company, we were essentially working with user level data, device level data, and log data. Now, we’re working with aggregated data. So we’re working with time series, and the methods are much more around econometrics. So it, it was a new data set and new algorithms.

Sramana Mitra: And what, what is the source of this data?

John Wallace: The two big sources that we pull from are the ad spend from all of the major platforms where a customer is spending like Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat, or the Trade Desk and all the affiliate programs like Rakuten. All that data’s automated.

And the other big source of data is their performance data and revenue, which is coming directly out of their systems. That’s where they take orders and process their revenue.

Sramana Mitra: Okay. Now, as you were developing this company five years back, you are not exactly inside these companies, right? What strategy did you follow to access that data? Was it paid POCs? How were you getting access to the data on which to drive these experiments and develop the algorithms?

John Wallace: We want them to sign an annual agreement, but we start with the first four months as a POC. We’re still doing that to this day. Our feeling is that you should be able to see the LiftLab system and algorithm working on your own data and decide, do you need more LiftLab or no LiftLab?

Sramana Mitra: As for the customers who came on board to begin with these paid POC kind of deals,
were they people you had worked with already?

John Wallace: Yes. There were some that had trusted what we did at the prior company. They looked at LiftLab and the team and said, if anyone’s going to figure this out first, it’s probably them. And that means we get access to it first.

Sramana Mitra: You started off by saying you wanted to get out of this domain and do something else in another domain. But this level of credibility within a domain where you have reputation, where you have the confidence of the customers, it doesn’t happen.

John Wallace: I think I have to build on what I do have. I think it’s human nature to say I need
to go prove myself somewhere else. That’s why I laughed about it. I think other exited entrepreneurs can identify with it. The more I started talking to some of those old customers again, the more I could see that they were still grappling with the problem and the more I felt like someone has to step up and solve it.