Know your History

The Initial Data Offering (IDO) community is a place for data enthusiasts to discover new datasets daily.

The mission is to build a community of data enthusiasts and curate high-quality, unique datasets for businesses, researchers, and organizations worldwide.

Knowing your history is such an important part of becoming an expert in your industry and advancing your career. I never cared much for history class when in school, but I quickly realized that understanding the history of the industry you are working in is extremely important. Not only know the history of the industry, but understanding the history of the person you work for, the founders, the direct competitors, the vendors you are buying from, and the startups popping up in your space.

When you work for a hedge fund, understanding your direct hedge fund competitors, their origin story, the history of the founding team, and where they came from is super important. Having an understanding of the history of markets, firms on Wall Street, the companies that have disappeared, and the companies that have had success are all very important as you navigate where you want your own career to go.

Understanding history feels as important to me as growing your network. They both take a lot of time and effort, but understanding history leads to more quality conversations, and allows you to be prepared for spontaneous meetings. The most successful people I have come across, especially in the financial markets are always looking for an information edge. They want to be surrounded by people with unique access to information, to a different source of information, to deep insights into specific categories or topics. If you think of many Long Short funds, they have a PM with many sector heads and those sector heads are expected to have deep insights, information, and access within their sector. They should know the players, understand history so they can see patterns emerging again, and should be your access to that industry’s world.

As I think about the data and information services world, understanding how Markit, S&P, and Factset were built, who they were built by, and why they have been successful is extremely important for anyone in this industry. I started my career at Bloomberg, and learning how Mike Bloomberg started the firm, why he started it, and his backstory was vital to me being successful. I can say the same thing about the importance of understanding the history and backstory of WorldQuant, the founder Igor Tulchinsky, Millennium Partners and Izzy Englander, Third Point and Dan Loeb, and now working with my partners including Howard Lindzon who started Stocktwits, but also has a fascinating story earlier on in his career.

As I think about the importance of history, I think there is a need and an opportunity to tell these stories for the data & information services space. Why was this company started, who started it, and where are they now? Not just the big public companies, but the startups, mid size companies, and private companies that have been around for decades. We started InitialDataOffering.com to highlight companies launching new datasets and I think we may just start showcasing the historical stories behind these vendors as well. I’d love to hear people’s feedback on this idea and if this type of content would be intriguing for those new to the industry, those looking to break into the industry, or for those who have been in the industry of buying, selling or using data for the last few decades.