Building The World’s Best Data Drilling Operation with Brian O’Keefe Hindsight

Best Way to ListenVisit the episode page for a 1-2 min. overview of the episode, our analysis of the strategic management takeaways within, and for an improved podcast listening experience.
Inside the EpisodeInside this episode, Brian shares his experience going from Sergeant Major in the Army to learning and becoming CEO of a $40M data services company over an 18-month period.
About the GuestBrian O’Keefe is CEO of Vertical Knowledge (VK), a data products, insights, and intelligence company. VK gives data-savvy organizations across all sectors the ability to collect, refine, and apply publicly available data to solve problems, make decisions, and gain advantage.
Topics by Timestamp0:00 Kanhai Introduces Brian
1:18 Brian Explains What Vertical Knowledge (VK) Does and Who it serves (VK)
1:56 Understanding Who is And Isn’t a VK Customer
3:56 Overview of Public Data That VK Collects
5:17 Key Success Factors in Public Data Collection
14:29 Why PE said yes to an unproven CEO
16:39 Learned the business from the ground up in 6-9 months.
22:33 Restructuring VK – Why, How, and Lessons Learned
33:41 Brian’s hindsight on addressing technical debt vs. premature optimization, using the P&L to make better decisions, and the CEO retaining accountability for results.
40:15 Strategies for scaling up, from $40M