#128 - Michael Babineau and Kevin Hale

About this episode

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/mikebabineau">Michael Babineau</a> is cofounder and CEO of <a href="https://secondmeasure.com/">Second Measure</a>. Second Measure analyzes billions of credit card transactions to answer real-time questions on consumer behavior. They were in the Summer 2015 batch of YC and you can check them out at <a href="https://secondmeasure.com/">SecondMeasure.com</a>.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">Kevin Hale</a> is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo.<br><br>You can find Michael on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mikebabineau">@mikebabineau</a> and Kevin is <a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">@ilikevests</a>.<br><br>The YC Podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.<br><br>Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: <a href="https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/</a><br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:00 - Intro<br><br></p><p>00:35 - What idea did Mike apply to YC with?<br><br>01:20 - Where did the idea come from?<br><br>4:35 - From project to company<br><br>10:20 - What info did investors want to know that Second Measure could provide?<br><br>12:05 - Their first customers<br><br>14:35 - The primary use case of Second Measure for VCs<br><br>15:20 - What questions are they trying to answer?<br><br>19:35 - Data examples from their blog<br><br>21:05 - Post: <a href="https://secondmeasure.com/datapoints/fashion-retailers-have-nothing-to-fear-yet-from-the-rise-of-stitch-fix/">Fashion retailers have nothing to fear (yet) from the rise of Stitch Fix</a><br><br>23:35 - Post: <a href="https://secondmeasure.com/datapoints/peloton-subscriptions-doubled-over-past-year/">Holiday sales rocket Peloton memberships ahead of SoulCycle active riders</a><br><br>25:05 - Post: <a href="https://secondmeasure.com/datapoints/prime-members-deliver-for-amazon-every-day/">Prime members deliver for Amazon every day</a><br><br>27:35 - Second Measure's product development process<br><br>29:35 - Finding good data scientists who work from first principles<br><br>37:05 - Why is credit card data so messy?<br><br>42:05 - Cleaning data<br><br>44:20 - Using their product for competitive analysis<br><br>47:35 - Their sales process<br><br>49:05 - Raising money from Goldman Sachs and Citi<br><br>52:05 - Focusing on a specific problem<br><br>54:05 - Keeping the product compelling when it's table stakes<br></p>