Every Tuesday morning, cohorts of the venture building program Mission Possible start with a business breakfast, where leading experts, founders, and investors meet to share their experiences and provide valuable advice. One of the guests of such a breakfast was Gauthier Vasseur, who flew straight from Silicon Valley to share his insights with the participants.

The appeal of business analytics

Gauthier Vasseur began his career in the financial sector, working as an auditor, financier, controller, treasurer, and also held the position of general manager of a bank in Switzerland. Gautier loved his job, but hated how he managed it. Over time, he realized that traditional methods of working with data in Excel did’t meet the level of complexity of the tasks he faced.

Meeting a colleague who skilfully transformed a complex Excel report into an effective data tool opened his eyes to the potential of data analytics. This meeting was a turning point in his career.

Gauthier Vasseur is currently the Executive Director of the Fisher Center for Business Analytics at the University of California, Berkeley. Aiming to provide society with research, education, awareness, and engagement. Through research, they strive to apply analytics to business as effectively as possible, providing the world’s best education — the world receives more educated people. And through awareness, inclusion and diversity increase, which is an absolute necessity for society.

Business analytics, applied analytics don’t work just like that. It’s a very complex, tangled system of data that people process, and that’s what attracts Gauthier.

After working in large corporations like Oracle and Google, Gauthier took part in the educational process. He shared his desire to pass on his knowledge and experience in the field of business analytics to radically change professional activities, increase productivity, and promote creative thinking.

Insight 1: It is important for entrepreneurs not only to make money but also to make a positive impact on society.

True entrepreneurial satisfaction comes not from material goods but from the ability to do good and useful things. This is what makes life richer and deeper.

“After a few millions, you want some more? What is another million going to do to you? You’re going to buy what? A bigger car, another car?”

Gauthier noted that for him the greatest pleasure is to be present at such events, at this breakfast in Kyiv, and to communicate with ambitious Ukrainian startups.

Insight 2: Using data can transform the way of doing business, allowing to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently.

Thanks to the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, one person can now do the job that previously required a team of professionals. This indicates significant changes in companies. By integrating cutting-edge technologies, team work can be optimized and performed more efficiently.

“Once you master that part, data is irrelevant, is what you’re going to do with it. And if you can have master analytics, AI, everything, you gain that insight, tremendous insight, on all your business, and you gain time.”

Ethical Dilemma

Mastering analytics allows you to better understand fundamental issues about data usage, which has both potential benefits and risks. On the one hand, accurate use of biometrics and personal data can make the world safer, but on the other hand, it can become a tool for excessive control and interference in personal life.

Using everyday websites and social networks, such as Instagram, users have minimal control over what data they share. Data collection systems automatically analyse photos and comments, revealing locations and other personal information that can be used to create a detailed profile of a person.

Innovative research at Stanford University shows that it is now possible to identify a person by the way they press buttons on a gamepad.

In the context of growing privacy threats and potential discrimination, the need for strict regulation of the use of artificial intelligence and biometric data becomes obvious.

The role of creativity and intuition in business

Intuition plays a key role in decision-making, even when data suggests otherwise, knowing these risks, thanks to intuition you make a conscious choice. This underlines that analytics and intuition are not mutually exclusive, but can effectively complement each other.

”An intuition, in my opinion, is the crossing of experience and expertise. An intuition is basically in your mind.”

Insight 3: Startups need people who are not afraid to make decisions, have design thinking and creativity.

We are now moving from the industrial revolution, when the goal was to produce as many products as possible, to a human creative economy, where your mind needs to be clear enough to see the core through the noise.

“You need to be able to see and feel what machines can’t see, because machines are gonna see way better, way faster, way broader, way deeper.”

Insight 4: LLMs change approaches to business, allowing even inexperienced users to perform complex analytical tasks.

Big data requires effective preparation and analysis. With LLM, you can get data analysis and create visualizations in tables, charts, etc. in minutes, instead of long hours working in Excel or using other traditional methods.

During the breakfast, Gauthier emphasized the attractiveness of Ukraine as a place for professional activity, highly appreciating the Ukrainian work ethic, where people are ready to take on important tasks and perform them effectively. With a strong educational base and a great desire to work, Ukraine has no other choice but to become a significant player on the world stage, especially in the technology sector.

4 defining principles that Ukrainians need to cultivate to become global leaders:

• Student always: True educational growth should never end.
• Challenge the status quo: Always ask if you can do better and more efficiently. Are there other ways?
• Confidence without attitude: Avoid the arrogance often seen in Silicon Valley.
• Beyond yourself: Always strive for more, regardless of personal challenges or inconveniences.

One of the key aspects of success is the ability to effectively pitch your ideas so that your speech is remembered. It really matters. Also, as primitive as it may sound, don’t forget to be optimistic about your ideas. Gauthier noted that Ukrainian society can learn important lessons by observing the enthusiasm and straightforwardness with which American entrepreneurs approach the implementation of their ideas.

Insight 5: Unconventional methods of attracting attention during a pitch can play an important role in the perception of your project

“Well, there’s no better than magicians to do this because the magic trick basically is something where you build momentum.”

In conclusion, for Ukrainian entrepreneurs to achieve global success, it’s not enough to just have technical skills, it’s important to be able to present yourself and your projects, to be able to stand out from others, to create your own: unique culture, products and innovations.

The Mission Possible venture building program, guides entrepreneurs toward both local and global development. It provides all the necessary resources to implement ideas, making their mission truly possible.

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