Joyeeta Das is an entrepreneur that built a career in the technology sector. Her early work was defined by progress in the engineering and program management ranks in Fortune Ten tech companies. She founded and exited two successful startups, one in the tech sector and one in non-profit.

She holds a degree in Electronic Engineering as well as a degree in Physics and an MBA from Oxford University where she was awarded the Said Scholarship and also received a Fellowship for the Entrepreneurship Centre. Joyeeta is in “MIT 35 under 35” shortlist, a TEDx speaker and is also an ambassador for Innovate UK’s “Women In Innovation”, she volunteers with numerous charitable organizations and has been selected to be a diplomatic representative at UK-Brazil/ Canada/USA trade delegations.

She received such awards as Top 100 techie in UK by MSDUK 2017, “Top 100 Asian Tech Stars in UK Tech” 2017, Top 10 Women in IT 2018.

In an interaction with People Matters, Joyeeta talks about startups, AI and big data and about her big data startup Gyana.

You have been nominated for MIT 35 under 35, top 10 techies in UK, Young Global Leader and more. How has your journey been? 

It was a learning experience both personally and professionally. I learned to be observant, intuitive and resilient. I learned that businesses can thrive even in uncertainty. It is a question of knowing how to leverage information asymmetry and market efficiency. Personally, I have learned that human beings are capable of much more than they imagine. The 80/20 rule is when you think you are exhausted you still have 20% left in you.

What ruled the year 2018?

Global expansion, being quick on my feet and endless travel across the world to launch products.

With robots and other intelligent machines landing in the workplace, do you think there will be fewer jobs for humans?

I am not a robotics specialist- AI is not always about robotics. So, I cannot comment on this area knowledgeably but sure the landscape is changing - jobs will be there but they will be different in nature, we need to upskill a lot. 60% of kids today will work in an area of knowledge in future that doesn't even exist for now.

Can you share an overview of tech startups in countries like India? How are they different from developed markets?

I am not very well versed in Indian tech startup scene but I reckon we are hustlers and get stuff done somehow- always been our thing! Most of my startup journey is in UK and USA but I imagine challenges are the same everywhere –limited resources, fast timelines, and high stress.

There is so much of noise around AI and big data. Do you think businesses beyond banks and e-commerce companies are already benefiting from the insights? 

Of course! Transport, financial services, hedge funds, smart cities, real estate, retail, advertising- everywhere! Or are they still at storing data? - I see rapid advances. At least in the West.

Where do you see the revolution called Artificial intelligence and big data five years down the line? And what would that mean for future businesses?

I never speculate on future. We are bound to be wrong. "Future is a lot weirder and closer than you imagine". We said flying cars in Blade runner ages ago - we still do not have them. But no one said "Uber" and here we are. So I focus on the present only.

What do you do at GYANA? What all industry verticals do you help? And how do you bring value to their business? 

I am the CEO and founder of Gyana. Gyana is a self-serve platform that provides on-demand insights on people and places. Our SaaS (software as a service) web-based product empowers anybody to ask – “What kind of people visit this area?” – “Where else do my customers shop?” – “How is this street changing over the last year?” – and get an answer in seconds. The insights are driven by our digital representation of the world. Our artificial intelligence-powered infrastructure connects data producers to people who need answers, opening up a new market for data insights. 

Our main clients are from financial services, real estate, consultants and retailers. They use Gyana to plan their development strategies and make informed investment decisions.

Gyana is different because whereas our competitors deliver similar insights through reports and consulting, using much fewer data sets. Gyana brings insights directly to clients and on a real-time basis. We show quantified human movement around physical assets through a web-based platform. Gyana partners with around 80 global data providers, like telecom, wi-fi, SDK’s, geospatial, satellite, etc, and using a set of proprietary machine learning algorithms it delivers insights on human movements around any physical locations - store, building, area, and city.  

There is much talk about how the HR industry is betting on AI and analytics. How do you think analytics can bring value to the talent industry?

Will probably help match better candidates in recruiting, manage emotional states and predict exits even.