Data Sharing Challenges in the Modern Enterprise

As organizations increasingly rely on data and expand their teams of data scientists, a significant obstacle remains: the efficient distribution of data itself. Traditional methods often involve cumbersome copying, pasting, and extensive manual effort.

Hex, a recently launched startup, aims to resolve this issue by offering a streamlined and sophisticated solution for data dissemination throughout a company.

Seed Funding and Product Availability

The company has announced a $5.5 million seed investment round and the broader release of its product, moving beyond a limited beta phase. Amplify Partners spearheaded the investment, with contributions from Box Group, XYZ, Data Community Fund, Operator Collective, and several individual investors.

Although the funding round was finalized last July, its public announcement is being made now.

Addressing the Data Silo Problem

Barry McCardel, co-founder and CEO, highlights the growing trend of data-driven decision-making and the rapid expansion of data science and analytics roles within companies.

However, a critical challenge persists: effectively sharing data across different teams. This issue was directly experienced by McCardel and his co-founders during their time at Palantir.

Hex's Solution: Interactive Data Apps

The core concept behind Hex is to provide a specialized tool for sharing data with departments that may lack the advanced analytical skills of a dedicated data science team.

“We empower data scientists to connect to their data sources, analyze and explore the information within notebooks,” McCardel explains. “Subsequently, they can distribute their findings as interactive data applications accessible to all users.”

Super-Charged Notebooks for Data Collaboration

Typically, data scientists utilize online notebooks, such as Jupyter, to construct SQL queries and employ Python code for data organization and visualization. Hex enhances this process by offering a more powerful notebook environment.

Users can seamlessly import datasets from platforms like Snowflake or Amazon Redshift, manipulate and format the data with ease, and then construct shareable applications by simply dragging and dropping components – charts, datasets, and more – from the notebook interface.

Team Composition and Diversity

Currently, Hex comprises nine employees, including co-founders Barry McCardel, Caitlin Colgrove (CTO), and Glen Takahashi (VP of architecture).

A strong emphasis has been placed on building a diverse team from the outset. Notably, the engineering team is currently majority female, a first for Colgrove in her career.

Representation of Female Founders

Colgrove also acknowledges her position as part of a relatively small group of female founders. A recent report by Silicon Valley Bank indicated that, while progress is being made, only 28% of U.S. startups have at least one female founder.

This represents an increase from 22% in 2017.

Future Plans and Customer Base

Founded in late 2019, the Hex team dedicated much of the past year to product development and collaboration with design partners.

The company has already secured a small number of paying customers and is actively seeking to expand its client base, beginning with the product’s wider release. While initial onboarding currently requires assistance from the Hex team, the long-term goal is to enable a self-service experience later this year.

Early adopters of Hex include companies such as Glossier, imgur, and Pave.