If numbers are just the thing to get you on, you’d better like a challenge. Diving in Numberly’s co-founder Yseulys Costes’ way of life and business attitude. On our second day, Yseulys Costes, co-founder of Numberly, (1000mercis for french-speaking countries) received Caweb on Tour the Californian way : in her own living-room in Palo Alto! According to her, this is the typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur touch : laid-back but extremely motivated. Using her wide TV screen to display details on the company, she introduced us to her work here in Silicon Valley : promoting the relationship marketing services provided by her technical teams in France. This relationship marketing, or data marketing, is key to the bulk of companies in their struggle against the leaders in their own field, who can rely on the strength of their position (such as Apple) or their pristine reputation (like Amazon). The idea is to use the information trail left by visitors on the internet, to identify those among them who are the most likely to become paying customers – or going through the marketing process’ final steps. This phenomenon has a name : conversion marketing. A conversion can be successful through a sale or a result, like growing customer loyalty. 
Numberly runs on information. They concentrate it in Data Management Platforms (DMP), which will help the relationship marketing process. For example, selecting the most relevant advertisement to be displayed on a client’s screen before he gives up on a full shopping cart. This way, a company that is not data rich, unlike the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon), can leverage a form of intimacy with its prospective and confirmed customers. According to Yseulys, the future of data mining and its applications lie in the Internet of Things (IoT) : as, for example, the Amazon Echo standing proudly on her fire place, the Dash buttons, also from Amazon, or “Internet fridges”. She did raise an ethical question regarding the informations gathered on users : which data can one righteously collect and use? Where do you draw the line? She admits on the complex problem it represents but dreams of solutions. It’s a challenge, and challenges are the reason she’ll keep making her way in tech. To us CAWEB students, this was yet another view on how business is led in California : constant risk-taking, going at it with everything you’ve got!
