Scale Your Business With Data Newsletter

Hey there Reader! I'm in the midst of a final flurry of travel, preparing clients to start strong in 2026. I can't believe how fast it becomes the time of year when the elves are on the loose and we finish the workday in the dark, but here we are! This week's Deep Dive feature is focused on the U.S. government's much-feted AI Manhattan project - a fascinating endeavor. Beyond that, in the world of PE and data: Adobe’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Semrush signals that the future of marketing...

Hello Reader! It's been nice to be home and do a lot of leaf collection last weekend. The fierce winds of late left most of the trees with bare branches, and confirmed (if there was any doubt) that yet another year is flying by! After my downer on hospitality last week, it surprised me to see that private equity investment in Topgolf has made major headlines this week, with a defining transaction: Leonard Green & Partners, a major private equity firm, is acquiring a 60% majority stake in...

Hey there Reader! I'm all settled back in the United States after my visit to the UK last week. It was saddening to see and hear of the impact that employer tax increases (and the risk of more to follow) are having on the hospitality industry. With an industry already running on razor-thin margins, big price hikes and inevitably empty restaurants are the unsurprising consequences in the fallout. Closer to home, the AI tsunami shows no sign of slowing - Vantage Data Centers is significantly...

The Messy Cost of Data Slop Hi there Reader! I'm in the midst of a flying visit to the UK this week - it's great to reconnect with data and PE folks to discuss some exciting work on this side of the pond. I've been delving into Elon's thesis for Grokipedia, an AI-powered alternative to Wikipedia. This will be an interesting test of AI curation skills across a HUGE dataset. I also had the pleasure of hosting Jordan Mix of the fabulous LateCheckout Agency on the 'Transformed With Data' podcast....

Your AI Strategy Is Already Failing Hi there Reader! I caught the amazing Nvidia keynote last week, including the announcement of a strategic data partnership with Palantir. Quite the powerhouse combination, which inspired this week's newsletter deep dive! I also got to talk data in fitness with the wonderful Maddie Hill, regional fitness manager at Orangetheory, in the latest episode of the 'Transformed With Data' podcast. If you're gearing up for a liquidity event in one of your portfolio...

Hey there Reader, This week I've been pondering the wide-ranging impacts of the AWS outage (how did we used to live without Canva?!). Even the safety nets have holes in them, it seems. Even if you haven't got the Excel risks like this week's newsletter protagonists...what's your backup plan to your backup plan? Chat GPT released its Atlas browser - how will Google move in response to protect Chrome which is the key to the kingdom? I also wonder how many startups go out of business overnight...

6 Months to Exit. Is Your Sales Data Ready? Take The Data-Readiness Exit Quiz Hi Reader! I finished 'Bad Blood' this week - the story of the Theranos scandal. Incredible reading - Elizabeth Holmes' dedication to ignoring and or hiding data that very clearly showed her technology didn't work was something else. I also pondered the impact of LinkedIn adding leaderboards to their daily puzzle games. The visibilty of that data changed the whole dynamic of how people approach their 'daily fun' -...

TRANSFORMED WITH DATA CRAWFORD McMILLAN Why communication failures destroy valuations faster than bad numbers Hey there, Most executives think presenting data is about having the right charts. I think it's about not losing millions in valuation because you can't explain what the numbers actually mean. Here's what I learned from my conversation with Chuck Garcia, a former Wall Street executive who now coaches Fortune 500 leaders: The way you communicate your data story determines whether...

TRANSFORMED WITH DATA CRAWFORD McMILLAN What M&A veterans see that PE firms miss (and it’s killing valuations) Hey there, Your portfolio company's financials look perfect on paper, but buyers are walking away. I just finished a deep conversation with Michael Young, a former PWC deals director who dissected billion-dollar M&A transactions for years. He's now seeing the same red flags in smaller deals that once torpedoed major acquisitions. The harsh truth? Most PE firms preparing for exit are...