Welcome to Locally Optimistic – a community for current and aspiring data analytics leaders. Started in NYC in early 2018 as an outgrowth of a slack channel / extremely informal meetup group, we hope to share our thoughts / opinions / experiences / trials / tribulations with others in the community.
If you have content that you would like to contribute (or if you just want to chat about data stuff), please reach out.
Quick note: The views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers
Principal contributors & editors
Scott Breitenother
Scott is an investor and advisor who specializes in building data driven organizations. He currently leads Brooklyn Data Co., a consultancy offering full-stack data and analytics team as a service. He was employee #16 at direct-to-consumer mattress startup Casper and founded the company’s data and analytics team. When he’s not blogging about analytics trends, you can find him walking around Brooklyn with his wife and children.
Michael is the co-founder of Recast a marketing optimization platform and the co-founder of Analytics Engineers Club a training course for data analysts looking to improve their engineering skills. He has experience applying econometric research methods to fields including environmental economics, child welfare policy, and medical treatment efficacy. Michael is passionate about helping organizations “make better decisions faster.” In his spare time, Michael studies Spanish, reads, and pets dogs around Mexico City.
Sam is the Head of Data at Bowery Farming, where “seed funding” refers to budget allocations between kale and arugula. He hails from an academic background in behavioral economics, but has led data science teams in national intelligence and fintech before landing in agriculture. He enjoys building communities and hearing about the details of other people’s projects, so don’t be shy in the comments.
Ilan is VP of Data & Analytics at Brooklyn Data Co., leading the Healthcare and Life Science Practice. He loves thinking about numbers, musing philosophically and mapping optimal bike routes around the city. When he isn’t over-analyzing, he’s running around Prospect Park with his boys.
Caitlin is the VP of Data at Trove Recommerce, where she helps brands create circular retail models at scale – buying back and reselling their products to extend their useful life. She previously led data teams in crowdfunding and self-publishing. When she’s not optimizing single-item pricing or operations, she’s usually drinking a cup of tea and watching her chickens peck around the back yard.
Emilie is Head of Data at Netlify. She was previously the first Data Analyst at GitLab where she watched the org grow from under 300 to over 1300 team members. She lives in Columbus, GA with her husband Casey, son RJ, and dog Bo.
Brittany is a Sr Business Intelligence Analyst at JLL. When she’s not playing with Tableau, she enjoys playing percussion, reading, and exploring her community. After living in the midwest and Seattle, she currently resides in Florida with her aquarium.
Irina Kukuyeva PhD is a Fractional Chief Data Officer, helping VCs with technical due diligence focused on AI. She has guided companies, Data Teams, and graduate students on strategies for using data and AI to bring customers more value and improve the company’s product-market fit. In her spare time, Irina mentors at start-up accelerators and jogs.
I'm all in on data, practicing as DataOps Evangelist @ Meltano. My writing & research is inside my "Three Data Point Thursday" newsletter at www.thdpth.com, inside my book "Data Mesh in Action", and many articles across the web.
Jacob is a Sr. Analytics Engineer at Future. Prior to that, he was the Analytics Engineering Lead at Dutchie, where he was the first data hire and built out the data function as the org grew from 100 to 800 team members.
Jerrie Kumalah is an Analytics Engineer that enjoys teasing out insightful information from various types of data and finding ways to make it resonate with different audiences. She is a data aficionado who believes in the power of data and is passionate about helping others demystify data and make it work for them.
Bryan is an investor at Index Ventures, where he focuses on investments in data, software infrastructure, and machine learning across all stages. He is an investor in Transform Data, Superconductive (makers of Great Expectations), and Deepnote and a board observer at Starburst Data (makers of Trino) and Grid.ai (makers of Pytorch Lightning). Prior to Index, Bryan was a software engineer and product manager at Palantir and SingleStore.
Rifat has a varied background, but throughout his career the common thread has been data. He has held roles in analysis, software, strategy and product. He is excited to see the progression of modern data team practices and technologies to help organisations leverage their data better and faster.
Paige is a Staff Data Analyst at Netlify, where she loves being a “data investigative journalist” (e.g. finding “the scoop” in the data) and making custom emojis for the company Slack. She and her husband, Jay, live in Portland, OR with their three ridiculous cats, one of whom really enjoys stepping on faces.
Danielle is on the data team at Trove Recommerce, a sustainability-focused company helping brands to take back used products from their customers and resell them to extend their life. Previously, she studied cognitive science with a fascination in the intersection between people and technology.
I'm a scientist, engineer, and data-geek that loves pulling data from every corner possible and discovering meaningful insights hidden in the numbers.
I'm currently helping to lead the Meltano project to build an open source DataOps platform https://gitlab.com/meltano/meltano
