“Toward the end of the process [of deciding whether to accept Google’s $6 billion offer, Groupon’s CEO Andrew] Mason brought in Nitin Sharma, a data scientist who worked for Groupon, to make a presentation. Sharma had crunched the numbers and, based on his jaw-dropping projections, Groupon could end up more than 10 times larger if it fully optimized its data processes. He strongly recommended that the company remain independent.”–Frank Sennett, Groupon’s Biggest Deal Ever
“We’re in the pre-industrial age of Big Data”–Martin Wattenberg, Google
“It’s a little scary that right now a cab driver using Uber knows more about you than a doctor, who has to take all of your information for the first time”–Peter Skomoroch, LinkedIn
“I’ve tried paying money for [data], but it’s easier for companies to decide not to share. The only way that works is to get them to take risks in exchange for data that is valuable to them”–Gil Elbaz, Factual
“Data science is all about experiments. Companies have to create structures at the edge of their organization that are not only entitled but are expected to fail. Otherwise, the data scientists aren’t trying hard enough”–Donald Farmer, QlikView
“A model that predicts the stock market can only be successful as long as people don’t know about it”–Vagelis Hristidis, University of California at Riverside
“For every two degrees the temperature goes up, check-ins at ice cream shops go up by 2%”—Andrew Hogue, Foresquare
