We finished our term sheet and are now officially raising a convertible note round for TenPoint7. Our team really believe we are onto something exciting!

We want to provide actionable insights through data science in the cloud. This means that we give an opportunity to leapfrog traditional central data warehouse systems for many data naive companies. They are given quick (2-3 weeks) access to powerful analytics without large one-time upfront costs and/or waiting months for implementation.

Currently, 65% of all companies are still considered as data naive or data laggards (AT Kearney). Many of them are data rich but analytics poor. The TenPoint7 Cloud solution brings insights based on business intelligence and data science principles to these organizations.

In terms of company building, our approach is to be clearly rooted in our overall objective of bringing actionable insights through data science in the cloud. However, we are not raising money to work in the back room for a year to build a solution that we think customers want. We are taking the pragmatic approach of working with our initial customers to help better define our solution.

This means we need to have good, cost-effective technical skills, as well as talented product and program management teams. We need to be customer-focused and be excellent listeners. We’ve built such teams in both Seattle, USA and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

As an “operator” (as I’ve been called), I don’t know of any other way of company-building than by incorporating customers’ feedback into our solution from the start. We are able, in essence, to service clients’ needs with some R&D efforts for our long-term product.

For our first 20 customers, TenPoint7 will provide much of its solution through our experts. For the next 20, we will rely less on them and more on our product. And this trend continues over time. And the maturity of our SaaS will rely on real-customer feedback.

This convertible note is to further fund our R&D efforts and to gain some awareness. We have a well-defined business plan for servicing our first 20 clients and how it should change thereafter.

Given the TenPoint7 leadership team’s track record and the focus on this hot, exciting space, we are an excellent investment opportunity.