🦄 Unicorner Startup of the Week: MindsDB

✍️ Notes from the Editors

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If you aren’t familiar with the world of website development, let’s start today by painting a picture of how important relational databases (basically fancy spreadsheets in the cloud) are to the Internet as we know it.

Anywhere data is stored, a database is there to collect it. If you think back to any website you’ve visited in the past 24 hours, there are probably a lot of instances of data being collected. Likely in ways you don’t even see! Now imagine that among all those data collectors you just thought of, the vast majority are using some kind of relational database. That’s… a lot of databases. A lot of the Internet is powered by them.

Now on the flip side, new, fancy tech like AI needs data. Where is most of that valuable data stored? You guessed it. Relational databases.

And so now, even without a degree in computer science, you understand the relevance of a company like MindsDB.

Introducing our newest contributor and author for this week’s deep dive: Hrach Hovakimyan, an experienced software developer with an insatiable curiosity and a welcoming attitude toward all opportunities.

- Ethan and Arek 🦄

Modernizing databases with AI

MindsDB provides easy integration of machine learning workflow in relational databases, a common and vital standard for storing data in software development. Focused on simple usage, MindsDB automates part of the machine learning process and provides integration with current state-of-the-art ML models developed by companies like OpenAI and Hugging Face.

🔗 Check it out: mindsdb.com

💰 Business Model

MindsDB provides a SaaS solution for companies with a pay-as-you-go model. The base price starts at $0.70 per hour and increases with usage. This price delivers numerous benefits, including powerful GPUs, automatic backups/snapshots, and MindsDB core team support. Self-hosted on-premise deployment is also an option.

📈 Traction and Fundraising

• Raised $5 million and $25 million at its last two Seed rounds in June and August 2023 with the lead investors NVentures (the venture capital arm of NVIDIA) and Mayfield Fund, followed by investors like Y Combinator and Benchmark

• Participated in the YC W20 batch and was recognized as one of America's 50 most promising AI companies by Forbes in 2021

• Has presented a total of $54.4 million in funding over six rounds

• Already reached 100 enterprise customers and is forecasted to reach 200 this year

📖 Founder Story

MindsDB CEO Jorge Torres and COO Adam Carrigan studied at The Australian National University and wanted to build something together. As an ongoing product, they made MindsDB, a new definition for the new era of databases. Jorge and Adam graduated from Y Combinator’s 2020 winter batch and shaped the vision for the company.

💼 Opportunities

• Senior Developer Relations

• Senior Frontend Engineer

• Office Manager

🔮 Our Analysis

The new era of ChatGPT has brought AI hype, and many companies want to integrate AI solutions into their products. As the demand grows, the number of experienced data scientists does not match the required need. The question is—where to find the specialists?

MindsDB fills the gap of high specialists with its product, integrating already trained and ready-to-use machine learning models next to the data layer. Software engineers who know SQL and a bit of high-level machine learning may train the models and use them in their products.

MindsDB gained maturity and became the mainstream topic for the tech industry this year. According to Business Insider, MindsDB already reached 100 enterprise customers and is forecasted to reach 200 this year. Moreover, its 18,000 stars on Github prove that the company has an engaged community of developers.

Providing more than 100 integrated data sources, it makes the adoption of its technology seamless. MindsDB also provides a simple pricing model, $0.70 per hour, ready for handling enterprise applications. The combination of machine learning and databases eliminates the hard work of data scientists, subtracting the resources needed to start quickly. These characteristics make MindsDB a golden choice for a growing number of companies, promising the future growth of MindsDB.

Besides the good, there is room for improvement. The community suggests features like integration with MLOps for automatic model deployments, model monitoring, etc., which currently need to be improved. Despite this, MindsDB has a solid foundation for growth and is rapidly adding new features to its product.

📚 Further Reading

• How we dodged risks and raised millions [TechCrunch]

• From failure to a lightbulb moment [Business Insider]

• MindsDB Raises $25 Million led by Mayfield [MindsDB]

• Startup MindsDB Raises $16.5 Million To Power The AI Race In The Workplace [Forbes]

Written by Hrach Hovakimyan

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