Innovative Insights with Jeremiah Lowin of Prefect
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Chapter 1: Meet Jeremiah Lowin
I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Jeremiah Lowin, the founder of Prefect, an innovative AI startup with locations in Washington, DC, and San Francisco. With a background in Finance and Risk Management, Jeremiah is at the forefront of dataflow automation, a key technology for constructing, operating, and overseeing millions of data workflows and pipelines.
Jeremiah's entrepreneurial spirit is influenced by his father, a value investor. Despite his interest in side projects, he wasn't actively seeking to start a new venture after having launched a business a decade prior. However, through continuous experimentation, he realized there was a significant demand for his creations. Initially, he thought of it as a modest endeavor—selling for just a few dollars, perhaps over lunch with a friend. But the enthusiasm and feedback for what eventually became Prefect were overwhelming. With his expertise in Machine Learning and Data Science, along with experience in various large financial institutions, Jeremiah recognized that establishing a company was the best way to seize this opportunity. He asserts that the necessity to become a founder became evident.
Existing use cases in major corporations often lacked imagination—merely focusing on querying, compiling, and reporting. According to Jeremiah, there was insufficient speed and scalability. He utilized his research on recurrent neural networks to tackle challenging projects that were difficult to train and prone to issues.
His goal is to optimize engineering efforts, reduce the costs of errors, and minimize opportunity costs. By refining existing automation tools, he developed the AI solutions that are now integral to Prefect. Jeremiah points out that many individuals falter when trying to engage with contemporary AI tools because they lack practical experience; they only see issues in others' workflows. These tools were designed for large companies facing significant challenges, often creating unnecessary complexity with data. Prefect’s dataflow AI automation has received an enthusiastic response from the Open Source community, allowing users to customize workflows to suit their needs instead of forcing their workflows to conform to the tools.
In terms of reliability, Prefect's dataflow works effectively 99% of the time. When failures occur, the system's ability to catch and identify problems in real time helps mitigate the unexpected chaos and costs associated with troubleshooting.
Jeremiah's background in Risk Management leads him to liken AI-enabled dataflow monitoring to insurance. He even imagines a future advertisement for Prefect reminiscent of popular insurance commercials.
Despite his reservations, Jeremiah has proven to be a shrewd founder. He believes that it is not solutions that build companies, but rather the problems that need solving. He outlines three essential rules for startup success:
- Understand the customer’s problem.
- Determine how you are uniquely positioned to address that problem.
- Identify why the problem continues to exist.
When approaching Angel investors and VCs, Jeremiah advises that being proactive can save considerable time and headaches. Having a solid product/market fit before the seed stage allows for a more systematic approach to revenue growth by the time the company is ready for Series A funding. He notes that many founders invest too much time in product development. By organizing priorities effectively, they can focus more on building their companies.
One of the most challenging aspects of being a founder is making decisions. Understanding behavior is crucial for informed decision-making. Jeremiah shares a compelling perspective on decision-making for entrepreneurs: his aim is to make suboptimal decisions. This might come as a surprise, but it's a reflection of his experience in Risk Management. He states, “Our goal isn’t to always make the best decision; it’s to avoid making a bad one.” To achieve this, he suggests eliminating 90% of options from the outset. This narrows down the choices to ten, which are mostly similar. Choose one, and if it fails, you still have three or four alternatives to explore from the original set.
His vision is to lead the company for the long term, aiming for sustainability rather than the typical three-year exit that many in Silicon Valley pursue. While he remains open to the possibility of an exit or merger if it benefits the company, Jeremiah's focus is on building a lasting enterprise. He defines success as having satisfied customers and happy employees, emphasizing that this vision transcends financial metrics. He believes that meaningful work, quality of life, and a resilient company culture contribute to a fulfilling career.
A discussion with a founder wouldn't be complete without mentioning influential books, and Jeremiah certainly delivered. His top three recommendations are "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Creativity, Inc.," and "Shoe Dog." He humorously notes that if you interview for a position at Prefect and receive an offer, you’ll get a copy of "Creativity, Inc." regardless of your decision. Interested in joining the team? Check out the current openings at Prefect.
LISTEN
You can listen to Jeremiah on the Infinite Loops podcast.
Chapter 2: Key Lessons in Startup Strategy
In this insightful discussion, Jeremiah Lowin joins Tristan Handy of dbt and Matt Turck from FirstMark to explore the intersection of AI and entrepreneurship. They delve into the unique challenges faced by founders in the tech space and share valuable strategies for navigating the startup landscape.
Chapter 3: Insights on Podcasting and Collaboration
In this episode, Cole Raven from Podchaser shares insights on building podcast profiles and the significance of creator credits. The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of podcasting and how to effectively collaborate within this medium.