Orbit Metrics has a passion for data and digital solutions. Travis Ziebro of Punchlist Zero sat with their cofounder Louis Shulman to talk about Orbit Metrics and the future of data.
PL0: Tell us about Orbit Metrics. What drove you to form the company and what is the benefit to business owners?
Orbit Metrics is an IT Services/Consulting firm with a specialty in data, analytics, AI, and software engineering. Our work primarily focuses on businesses with significant digital marketing initiatives.
Orbit Metrics started when my cofounder Shaun and I both saw the same gap in the market. I studied computer science at the University of Alabama, and Shaun studied electrical engineering at the University of Arizona.
Despite these technical backgrounds, we both took marketing jobs at startups directly out of college. It was at these companies we saw an opportunity. We quickly realized that marketing teams rarely had software engineers at the ready, despite many obvious ways in which the work could be improved with light coding expertise.
Shaun began to offer software engineering services to marketing teams as a freelance consultant. He quickly formed a company around this, bringing me into the fold within the first few months.
The primary benefit to business owners is the ability to build substantial, and robust technical deliverables without needing Senior Data/Software engineers on the team full time.
PL0: There are a lot of “old school” business owners in the industrial space who operate their businesses off their gut and handshake. What would you say to those business owners about the importance of digital solutions?
Many of these businesses are likely succeeding in spite of their old-school, manual techniques rather than because of them.
Obviously, there are areas where that is not the case (such as relationships, and most matters dealing with people), but for the areas of business that truly can be reduced to facts and figures, it is extremely inefficient to continue to delay digitizing their team.
We tailor the bulk of our solutions to the specific needs of our clients and we commonly save teams dozens of hours monthly. Likewise, our solutions create new levels of insights into key business data that almost always lead to improved decision-making and better business outcomes.
PL0: One of Orbit’s core offerings is Centralized Data Warehousing. Explain to our readers how data warehousing can improve a business.
Data warehousing is a powerful tool that can help businesses of all sizes to improve their operations and make better-informed decisions. Essentially, a data warehouse is a large, centralized repository of data that is used for analysis and reporting. By collecting and storing data from a variety of sources, data warehousing provides businesses with a comprehensive view of their operations, which can be used to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities for improvement.
One of the key benefits of data warehousing is it helps businesses make more informed decisions. By having access to a wide range of data from across the organization, businesses gain insights into their operations they might not otherwise have. For example, an industrial retailer might use data warehousing to analyze sales trends across different product lines and regions, in order to identify areas where they could improve their marketing or distribution strategies.
Another way that data warehousing improves a business is by enabling more effective data analysis. Because data warehousing stores data in a standardized format, it is much easier for analysts to extract insights and make sense of the data. This helps businesses to identify patterns and trends more quickly and accurately, which leads to more effective decision-making.
In addition to these benefits, data warehousing also helps businesses to improve their operational efficiency. By providing a centralized source of data, data warehousing streamlines data access and reduces the need for data duplication. This can save time and resources and improves the accuracy of the subject data.
Overall, data warehousing provides extreme value to businesses that want to improve their operations and make more informed decisions. By providing a comprehensive view of their operations, enabling more effective data analysis, and improving operational efficiency, data warehousing empowers businesses to win market share.
PL0: Tell us more about your podcasting journey. What’s the episode we should check out right now?
I’ve been podcasting since my Junior year of college. My vision has been simple: connect with one fascinating entrepreneur every week and share the conversation publicly.
This has been a tool to expand my professional network, share incredible ideas with my friends, family, and social media followers, and to explore my personal curiosities into the business world.
It is impossible to quantify the positive impact the podcast has had on my life personally and professionally. I’ve had the chance to meet so many amazing people and I’m 100x smarter and happier because of it.
There are dozens of incredible episodes on the show and we’ve covered a huge variety of topics and industries. That being said, some favorites are…
- Wes Kao: Rigorous Thinking, Brand Marketing, Product Launches, Career Decisions, and Spiky Points of View
- Eric Jorgenson: Author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (Navalmanack) – Distilling Wisdom and Making it Your Own
- Scott Young: Author of Ultralearning and Co-Creator of Life of Focus – Distilled Wisdom on Motivation, Education, and Productivity
PL0: Congrats on the growing business Louis! Where would you like to see Orbit Metrics in another five years?
Orbit Metrics has big ambitions, and our vision is threefold.
First, we want to continue to expand our IT professional services business to become the go-to team for data engineering, AI-enablement, and contract-based software engineering projects.
Second, because of all of the difficult challenges we are exposed to, we often create innovative solutions that are more broadly useful than what we initially realize. We want to foster a culture of “intrapreneurship” where our tools built for internal projects spin into standalone software companies.
Third, we want to expand into more “frontier” niches. Optimizing marketing data is endlessly fun and extremely rewarding, but we’d like to also touch more “deep tech.”
Specifically, we’d love to work with challenging data problems related to Space Travel and BioTechnology.
Our core values at Orbit are SPACE. We want to genuinely and undeniably embody these values.
S – Spark: Our team is ignited by a contagious energy and enthusiasm that inspires us to work together toward achieving success. We are passionate about what we do, and this passion is reflected in everything we undertake. We strive to create an environment of joy and passion that inspires us to work together toward achieving our goals.
P – Pioneering: As pioneers in our industry, we are constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation. We are committed to developing cutting-edge tools and techniques that redefine industry standards. Our dedication to pioneering new solutions sets us apart from the competition, and we are always looking for ways to improve and innovate.
A – Accountability: At the core of our values lies honesty, integrity, transparency, and candor. We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards, ensuring that our actions and decisions always align with our clients’ best interests. We believe that accountability is essential to building trust and fostering long-term relationships with our clients. Ourculture is one of frequent and honest feedback.
C – Collaboration: Collaboration is key to our success. Our diverse team works together to create innovative solutions that exceed expectations. We foster a culture of cooperation and teamwork, where everyone’s contributions are valued. Documentation and procedures are meticulously recorded to ensure seamless continuity for anyone who picks up where you left off as you seek higher leverage within the organization. We believe that by working together, we can achieve more than we ever could alone.
E – Excellence: We never settle for anything less than exceptional. We relentlessly pursue the highest levels of excellence in all aspects of our work, delivering outstanding quality and impactful solutions that set us apart from the rest. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in everything we do, and we are dedicated to providing our clients with exceptional service and results. We are undeniable.
Get In Touch
Whether you need data warehousing, custom AI solutions, or surplus software engineering capacity, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team to explore if we can help you take your business into Orbit!