DataChat was founded by UW-Madison computer sciences professor Jignesh Patel, a serial entrepreneur for whom the startup is his fourth, and Ph.D. student Rogers Jeffrey Leo John (WAVE ’18 and MEB ’18) back in June 2017. The company’s value proposition is to make data analytics more accessible to those from a non-computer science background so they may interact directly with data. With DataChat, business leaders have the ability to “chat” with an intuitive automated bot using basic language.
Recently, the Madison-based tech start-up raised $4 million to help build up its team and scale its operations. Rogers shared his perspective on his experience with DataChat thus far and some of the lessons he’s learned. He mentioned that he considers himself fortunate for being in a computer science field, which facilitates working remotely much more than other industries. He expressed that he feels grateful to have a job at all, and on a personal level, he shared that he feels privileged to be home with his family. His son just recently had his first birthday and Rogers has enjoyed getting to see his developmental milestones that he otherwise would likely miss if not working from home.
DataChat began as a research project that was part of Rogers’ thesis that Professor Patel and Rogers then materialized into a startup. Rogers mentions that his time with DataChat has caused his perspective on the relationship between tech and business to change considerably:
“Tech and business, although they seem independent, actually are not — you’re writing code for the business and the customer. It’s important to think from the customer’s perspective when you’re developing a product. That thinking has to come down to the level of developing your product, which was really an eye-opening experience for me” explained Rogers.
Read the full article at: https://bus.wisc.edu/centers/weinert/blog/2020/11/12/local-startup-spotlight-datachat-with-co-founder-rogers-jeffrey-leo-john