November 17, 2015 at 22:34Mixpanel: a startup that helps Uber and Spotify see the future
Head of Mixpanel Suhail Doshi is sure: if you want to find an idea for your startup, read more science fiction. Look at Ilon Mask: he plans an expedition to Mars and builds electric cars. You will find all this in books. Today, Doshi himself is working on a fantastic idea - his project allows customers like Uber and Spotify to predict the future.
Mixpanel is a data analytics company founded in 2009 and funded by Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.
“The surest forecast for the future is the past,” says Doshi.
Company Mixpanel initially working on the issue of how consumers use websites and applications of its customers. Doshi says it’s about measuring engagement, while competitors are counting pages viewed. Mixpanel keeps track of how many times a video has been shared from a particular page, how many people have closed the application before registration is completed, and the developer with the help of this information increases the number of sales, subscriptions, shares and other actions.
Using the machine learning algorithms, the Mixpanel Predict tool uses the data obtained in the process to predict user behavior. Doshi says that the tool begins to talk about the future thirty minutes after it is turned on.
One of the clients of the service is a site with recipes. The developers wanted to force users to save recipes to their accounts. The service helped identify users who are more likely to click the “save” button, and the developers accelerated this process with the help of emails and mobile notifications.
The Mixpanel helped Spotify guess which next song the user would include. So the music service got the opportunity to send successful notifications with songs.
At the beginning of 2014, twenty-seven people worked at Mixpanel, and now their number has reached two hundred and thirty. In 2013, the company coped with thirteen billion actions like playing songs or saving recipes a month, now their number has increased to fifty billion. The company has three and a half thousand customers who pay money, including American Express, NBC Universal, Uber. In addition, Mixpanel has tens of thousands of users of the free version.
The company has not yet reached profit, because all the funds raised to increase sales. At the same time, already in 2014, the company made a million dollars a month - the same amount Mixpanel received in the first round of financing. And in October 2014, the company raised $ 65 million. and was estimated at 865 million.
Mixpanel is a data analytics company founded in 2009 and funded by Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.
“The surest forecast for the future is the past,” says Doshi.
Predictions
Company Mixpanel initially working on the issue of how consumers use websites and applications of its customers. Doshi says it’s about measuring engagement, while competitors are counting pages viewed. Mixpanel keeps track of how many times a video has been shared from a particular page, how many people have closed the application before registration is completed, and the developer with the help of this information increases the number of sales, subscriptions, shares and other actions.
Using the machine learning algorithms, the Mixpanel Predict tool uses the data obtained in the process to predict user behavior. Doshi says that the tool begins to talk about the future thirty minutes after it is turned on.
One of the clients of the service is a site with recipes. The developers wanted to force users to save recipes to their accounts. The service helped identify users who are more likely to click the “save” button, and the developers accelerated this process with the help of emails and mobile notifications.
The Mixpanel helped Spotify guess which next song the user would include. So the music service got the opportunity to send successful notifications with songs.
Growth and investment
At the beginning of 2014, twenty-seven people worked at Mixpanel, and now their number has reached two hundred and thirty. In 2013, the company coped with thirteen billion actions like playing songs or saving recipes a month, now their number has increased to fifty billion. The company has three and a half thousand customers who pay money, including American Express, NBC Universal, Uber. In addition, Mixpanel has tens of thousands of users of the free version.
The company has not yet reached profit, because all the funds raised to increase sales. At the same time, already in 2014, the company made a million dollars a month - the same amount Mixpanel received in the first round of financing. And in October 2014, the company raised $ 65 million. and was estimated at 865 million.