Scale Your Business With Data Newsletter

What next in the AI race? Hey there Reader I'm trying a new format this week. 3 things I’ve learned 2 interesting news items 1 deep dive. Let me know what you think! THREE THINGS I'VE LEARNED Most mid-market companies are successful despite their data not because of it. I connected with a lot of PE service providers and advisory services this week and they're all telling the same stories. Mid-market companies with poor data infrastructure are the rule, not the exception. Huge opportunity for...

Hey there Reader! I spent last weekend in Fort Lauderdale with Greg Isenberg and a room full of founders who are quietly building the future.The topics ranged from taste and human connection to the bleeding edge of AI agents, Claude Code, and open source tooling that most people won't discover for another 12-18 months.The knowledge shared in that room isn't the top 1% of what's possible with AI right now. It's the top 0.1%.That comes with a responsibility to put it to work. The gap between...

Hey there Reader! We're in the 'ice age' time of year with 10+ inches of snow forecast to fall here in the mid-Atlantic. No time for chill with clients and prospects though, who are all well into their stride and pushing hard towards ambitious 2026 goals! Luckily for me, I'm heading south to Florida this weekend rather than shovelling snow, spending the weekend with Greg Isenberg and his team to talk building distribution as a moat and play with all the latest AI tech to see how we can...

Hey there Reader!January is a busy birthday month in my house, with both my children, me, and the dog all celebrating another trip around the sun. As the last in line chronologically, I look forward to enjoying my reused but substantially deflated balloons when mine comes around.January is also when the markets ramp back u,p and we are off and running already.- My friends at ACG released their mid-market outlook report, sharing that deal makers are sharpening their pitches and picking their...

Hey there Reader! I'm back in the newsletter hot seat after a hectic but fun holiday season, visiting family back in the UK. Over the years, I've learned to define rest on my own terms rather than other people's. So while we were dashing around a lot over the break, I feel fully ready to charge into 2026 at full power, and I hope you are too! Your best year ever may be ahead of you! Out on the PE scene: Cautious optimism is in the air as year-on-year deal volumes continue to move in the right...

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....