WhyHive is here to help you make evidence-based data decisions regardless of your technical expertise.
We caught up with T (they/them) to learn more about WhyHive, what makes the product different from everything else in the market, the big team milestones, and their North Star. Excerpts from our chat below:
Can you tell a bit more about WhyHive? How did it start, and what led to the inception of it?
WhyHive exists to help democratise data analytics by making it easy for anyone to explore their data.
After spending time in the impact sector, I noticed how many barriers exist for people to use and leverage data. I founded WhyHive as a social enterprise consultancy with a focus on working with impact-driven organisations and innovative corporates. We learnt a lot from our awesome clients since 2018, but kept noticing the same problems being faced again and again, so we decided to build a product to address it.
“Think Canva, but for your data.”
What problem is WhyHive trying to solve?
For organisations, there are limited choices when it comes to data analysis. Hiring an analyst is expensive, learning the tools yourself is difficult and time-consuming, and relying on native analytics (e.g. the charts you might see in the ‘results’ tab of your survey on Google Forms) leaves a lot of data-derived value and insight on the table.
So what do busy teams, nonprofits, or non-technical individuals do when they want to explore data? In many instances, it goes in the ‘too hard’ basket.
Can you explain how it all works, and what makes it different?
Think Canva, but for your data. We’re building a SaaS product which guides users through the process of exploring their data in a way that feels far simpler and more intuitive than existing analytics tools. WhyHive helps data explorers (people who we describe as wanting to learn about their data but aren’t analysts) do two things really easily: ask good questions to guide their analysis and see insights that answer those questions with little effort.
“WhyHive helps data explorers do two things really easily : ask good questions to guide their analysis and see insights that answer those questions with little effort.”
Tell us about the superpowers of the team. What’s your special sauce?
We’re pretty obsessed with building a team of incredible humans and making sure they’re well looked after. As the executive team, Matt and I both care deeply about taking a people-first approach to building the company, so that’s the first thing to mention. I’m also really particular about how we create culture and support people to do their best work. I’m a non-binary person so I know from first hand expereince that you can’t just wing it when it comes to making sure people feel safe and included, so I’m very conscious of that.
I’d say Matt’s discipline around startup methodology and his focus on the user are a massive asset for WhyHive. We think a lot about user experience and Matt has great intuitions around brand voice, design and the need for simplicity. I come from a pure maths and philosophy background, so I love breaking down problems to their abstract fundamentals and seeing them in new ways.
What’s been some major achievements for you over the past year or so?
Winning the Inspiring Young Founders pitch competition run by Startup VIC a few weeks ago was really validating, and absolutely one of the highlights of the past year. We’ve also had a lot of positive feedback on our MVP, and for one NFP we managed to use the app to reduce their data reporting time from days to minutes. This was, as you can probably imagine, incredibly exciting and motivating for the team.
“We’ve also had a lot of positive feedback on our MVP, and for one NFP we managed to use the app to reduce their data reporting time from days to minutes.”
And what are some of the more challenging aspects of running your business?
Our biggest challenge is speaking to as many people as possible who have this problem. Specifically, people who regularly use spreadsheets, online survey tools, or CRMs, but don’t feel like they can learn much about this data without first learning how to use complex analytical tools. As such, we would love to connect with anyone in the LUNA community who fits this description or has data challenges.
Another challenge is to make sure we have the right investors around us who are values-aligned and connect with the problem and mission. Once again, if you are one such legend who is passionate about the data accessibility problem, we’d love to hear from you.
What does success look like for you? What would you say is your North Star for WhyHive?
We want to live in a world where evidence-based decisions (also known as data-driven decisions) can be made by anyone, regardless of their technical expertise. When we are informed by data or, more specifically, the things we learn from data, we think this facilitates decisions that are fairer, well considered, and less biassed. We want to put this power in the hands of as many people as possible, particularly those working for organisations that deliver social impact. We believe that by giving everyday people the tools and confidence to be data explorers, we will contribute to a society with better advocates, more effective projects, interventions and outcomes, and an information economy fuelled by evidence and reason that is more resilient to sensationalism and bias.
“We want to live in a world where evidence-based decisions (also known as data-driven decisions) can be made by anyone, regardless of their technical expertise.”
And what’s next on the cards for WhyHive?
Iterating for product-market fit, fundraising, and hiring some more legends to help us build our vision.
If anyone is interested in helping us solve the problem we’re working on from a tech perspective, specifically full-stack software developers and data scientists, we’d love to connect with more technical folks who believe in the stuff we do. Join our waitlist here!
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To learn more about WhyHive, head here.
By Nikita Lamba
