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The Next Big Opportunities in Data Infrastructure

Pete Soderling Pete Soderling | General Partner | Data Community Fund
Bogomil Balkansky Bogomil Balkansky | Partner | Sequoia Capital
Joanne Chen Joanne Chen | General Partner | Foundation
George Mathew George Mathew | Managing Director | Insight Partners

Data infrastructure as a category is booming with the global market expected to exceed $100B by 2027 reflecting 200% growth since 2020. We’re also seeing an explosion of data itself, with total data produced expected to top 175 Zettabytes in the next 4 years; that’s up 350% from 2020 numbers.

As a community, we’re also seeing a proliferation of data infrastructure options across both the traditional analytics stack as well as in innovative ML tooling and platforms. Data is hot, and data tooling of all kinds is even hotter. 

But how are we to make sense of these new data tools and new categories of tools? How should we be thinking about the modern data stack when it comes to cloud & hosted options vs. OSS and self-hosted infra? Which tools and categories of tools play together nicely, and where might we start to see consolidation across the stack?

For the Next Big Opportunities in Data Infrastructure panel, we’re joined by 4 top investors who look at data infrastructure tools every day. They’ll share with us their mental models of the space and insights into how they make investment decisions across the expanding data infrastructure landscape. Founders and practitioners alike will benefit from their insights on which categories are here to stay and which are yet to be proven. Join us for a lively discussion on where the future opportunities of data infra are and where these experts think the field is headed next. 

Pete Soderling
Pete Soderling
General Partner | Data Community Fund

Pete Soderling is the founder of Data Council and the Data Community Fund. As a former software engineer, repeat founder and investor in more than 40 data-oriented startups, Pete’s lifetime goal is to help 1,000 engineers start successful companies. Most importantly, Pete is a community builder — from his earliest days of working with the data engineering community starting in 2013, he has witnessed the unique power of specialized networks to bring inspiration, knowledge and support to technical professionals. 

Previously, Pete founded Hakka Labs (a social network for software engineers), Stratus Security (an early cloud-based API platform) and mechanikal (a software development agency in NYC). He is a graduate of New York University, has spoken at events such as TEDx, O’Reilly Strata and QCon, and has worked actively in supporting technical founders around the globe.

Bogomil Balkansky
Bogomil Balkansky
Partner | Sequoia Capital

Bogomil is a partner at Sequoia where he focuses on infrastructure technologies, cloud, and SaaS. Before Sequoia, Bogomil held executive leadership positions at Siebel Systems, VMware, Google Cloud and a couple of startups. Bogomil brings a lot of operational experience leading in product management and product marketing teams, and he works with Sequoia portfolio companies to help them build product and product marketing capabilities. Earlier in his career, he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. Bogomil holds a BA in Mathematics from Cornell University and an MBA from Stanford University. Outside work, Bogomil is an aspiring cook and an avid diver and wildlife photographer.

Joanne Chen
Joanne Chen
General Partner | Foundation

Joanne is a General Partner at Foundation Capital who invests in AI-based B2B companies that build software solutions for marketing, HR, sales, data analysts, and other parts of the enterprise stack. A former engineer, founder, and M&A advisor, Joanne works closely with Tonkean, Mya, Tubi, SafelyYou, Oasis Labs, Brightback, CaptivateIQ, and Foxeye, among others. Joanne’s passion for technology developed early when her mathematician dad and computer scientist mom taught her how to program. She is a proud Canadian who grew up in North Carolina, and is an even prouder Berkeley EECS and Chicago Booth alum. 

George Mathew
George Mathew
Managing Director | Insight Partners

George Mathew joins Insight Partners as a Managing Director focused on venture stage investments in AI, ML, Analytics, and Data companies as they are establishing product/market Fit. He brings 20+ years of experience developing high-growth technology startups including most recently being CEO of Kespry. Prior to Kespry, George was President & COO of Alteryx where he scaled the company through it’s IPO (AYX). Previously he held senior leadership positions at SAP and salesforce.com. He has driven company strategy, led product management and development, and built sales and marketing teams.  

George holds a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology from Cornell University and a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar.

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