Careers at Aginity
Mission
Aginity’s mission is to give its customers the ability to create, catalog, and manage their analytic assets quickly and consistently across the enterprise.
Founding story
Dan Kuhn and Douglas Grimstead believed that every enterprise needed to be driven analytically in order to compete effectively in the modern world. So they developed a software product that would bring clarity to data through the infusion of analytics into every customer touchpoint. The product was designed to make the jobs of technologists much simpler.
In 2005 they founded Aginity, a company that would market their solution, in Chicago. After seeing success over several years, it was able to raise funding. Specifically, it garnered $1.5 million in January 2015 in a Series A round; $275,000 in June 2015; and $12 million in December 2015. Aginity claims its clients have seen significant savings in operational costs since.
Business model of Aginity
Customer Segments
Aginity has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer segments. The company targets its offerings at organizations of all industries and sizes.
Value Proposition
Aginity offers four primary value propositions: accessibility, convenience, performance, and brand/status.
The company creates accessibility by providing a wide variety of options. Its Aginity Workbench solution works across various systems, including Hadoop, dashDB, Big SQL, Amazon Redshift, Pivotal Greenplum, and IBM PureData for Analytics (Netezza).
The company creates convenience by making life simpler for clients. Its Aginity Amp solution catalogs all of a client’s analytics and data in an accessible software layer so that any individual user can build, edit, and reuse the assets. This enables quicker investigation of inconsistencies across applications.
The company demonstrates strong performance through tangible results. It claims its Aginity Amp solution offers the following benefits:
- 50-75% increase in data scientist and analyst productivity
- 10x-100x efficiency through analytic reuse
- Up to 90% decrease in analytics-related operational costs
The company has established a strong brand due to its success. Its Aginity Workbench solution is used by over 60,000 data analysts, developers, and DBAs across most Forbes 2000 companies. Aginity’s specific clients include Orkin and Homemakers. The company has also won a number of honors, including a 2017 IBM North America Top Independent Software Vendor Leadership Award.
Channels
Aginity’s main channel is its direct sales team. The company promotes its offerings through its website, social media pages, and participation in events such as summits and conferences.
Customer Relationships
Aginity’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature. Customers utilize its products while having limited interaction with employees. The company’s website features a “Support” section with product documentation.
That said, there is a personal assistance component in the form of phone and e-mail support. There is also a community element in the form of a forum.
Key Activities
Aginity’s business model entails designing and developing its products for customers.
Key Partners
Aginity’s key partners are the firms that provide support for the deployment of its software. Specific partners include Hortonworks, Cloudera, and IBM.
Key Resources
Aginity’s main resources are its human resources, who include the engineers that design and develop its solutions, the sales employees that promote them, and the customer service personnel that provide support.
As a startup it has relied on funding from outside parties, raising $13.8 million as of December 2015.
Cost Structure
Aginity has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation. Its biggest cost driver is likely sales/marketing costs, a fixed expense.
Other major drivers are in the areas of administration and customer support/operations, both fixed costs.
Revenue Streams
Aginity has one revenue stream: revenues it generates from the sale of its software products to customers.
Our team
info: Dan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering at Arizona State University. He previously served as CEO of Anticipating Minds, as a Technology Manager at Bankers Life & Casualty, and as Chief Software Architect at Click Commerce.
info: Tzaras earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism at the University of Kansas. He previously served as a Senior Vice President at Leapfrog Online, as a Principal at Synetro Group, and as VP of Corporate Development and Strategy at Leo Burnett Technology Group.
info: Wayne earned a Master of Arts degree in Sociology at the University of Chicago. He previously served as Co-Founder of Market6, as CEO of Efficient Market Services, and as VP of Product Development at The Nielsen Company. He is also the CTO of AisleFire.
info: Mike earned a Master of Science degree in Food Science at The University of Reading and an MBA at Northwestern University. He previously served as President of The Havelock Group and as President of the Loyalty Management Group at Aimia.