I spend a great deal of time digging into data with the team at Cogo Labs. My “go to” data geek is Mike Perry, who joined Cogo only 18 months ago, but I’ve also had the opportunity to work with a number of other, high-IQ folks on the Cogo team. Every one of them is smart about data and committed to seeking the truth(s) in it.  

Small gains from smart data use can create big wins. At Vestigo, we actively use our databases to find interesting FinTech companies to follow as potential investment opportunities and help our portfolio companies grow. 

By optimizing data, we can maximize the effectiveness of our email campaigns, search terms and customer journey while identifying the best partners to join forces with to gain market penetration. It’s about understanding any quirks (or skews) in the dataset and identifying the target audiences most likely to give accurate insight on viral topics. It’s also about knowing when data needs to be updated.

One of the earliest lessons I learned about data analytics is the importance of knowing how to interpret sizes. For example, a signal coming from a .04 number is not as exciting as a signal from .06 penetration of the population of North America. 

Seems a bit obvious now but teasing this out from big data is a skill. The team at Cogo has helped train me on these insights as we focus on accelerating the success of the companies in our portfolio.  

We see other small gains from Big Data when we help companies refine go-to market strategies. What types of consumers are most likely to buy? How do we find a B2B connection for a portfolio company? We can also help them be capital efficient by driving down the cost of customer acquisition. These small gains (improvements) in operating costs are real to a company just getting started.

The greatest advantage we achieve from data is our ability to see opportunities and threats on the horizon portfolio companies are not able to see. Other insights gleaned from big data is visibility into the small gains made by competitor or incumbent companies.

Big Data also helps us assess the effectiveness of different marketing approaches. For example, do you know what kind of subject lines get the best open rates in emails targeting financial services audiences? You may be surprised to learn that in many cases, ‘silly’ subject lines outperform serious ones. 

A great example is the material increase (higher lows and higher highs) in email open rates a regional bank achieved by making small changes to subject lines. One that was particularly successful was a  topical, Halloween-themed line: “How to Boooooooost your savings.” 

Who would have thought that such a small, and in this case, silly change could make such large difference? 

Mike Nugent
Managing Director