Data Masterclass is a membership-based company offering coaching, advisory and curated events to Data & AI Leaders at Fortune 500s and tech scale-ups.
Context: It kinda sucks at the top
If you're a CDO (Chief Data and AI Officer) or CIO at a Fortune 500, you're expected to transform a 10,000 employee company with AI while employees hope to keep their jobs. Fun start.
You also report to people who have zero clue what it is you do so your budget gets questioned every quarter. The only people who understand you work at a different company in a different postal code.
The founder was in that exact position when we started working together. So he hired me.
Problem: we had… nothing
- Data Masterclass was not profitable.
- It did not have an offer. Zero, nada.
- The founder wanted to enter the red ocean market of tech conferences.
- He was a full-time employee as a corporate executive.
- And had only run one event as a proof of concept.
Stop assuming what people want and actually talk to them
I know, crazy. I talked to CDOs, Heads of AI and other very serious people by hopping on every call with no agenda which many of them found… odd.
I didn't ask any leading questions, I didn't pitch anything: I just listened about their experience at work. Some of them even ended up telling me about their families.
After a few weeks, the results were in. These executives didn't want another tech conference. They wanted a place where they could connect with their peers. A place where they didn't feel like every second person was shoving a pitch down their throat.
In fact, most were feeling a little lonely at the top. Which led to our second biggest realization.
Stop acting like cult leaders
Every organization I've ever worked with dreams of becoming a community. But on one condition: they get to be the cult leaders. We did the opposite.
We facilitated introductions between people who'd actually benefit from knowing each other, created space for them to work on real problems together instead of sitting through panels, and made each interaction with us feel personal.
Before each event and sales touchpoint, we'd research what every attendee was working on, what they were struggling with, who else in the room they should meet. This showed the kind of preparation that people feel immediately and makes you feel important.
