I Want Your Job: Business Intelligence at ‘Coolest N.Y. Enterprise Startup’

Oliver DeDominicis’ 12 works for SiSense, one of Business Insider’s “Coolest New York Enterprise Startups.” DeDominicis works with SiSense’s leadership in New York and Tel Aviv, Israel, by speaking with potential clients, following up with leads and representing the company at expos across the U.S.

See more posts in the I Want Your Job series, which features Q&A sessions with recent College of Charleston graduates in exceptional positions all over the world.

Q: What exactly is business intelligence?

A: We define business intelligence as gaining insight from your data. So, with SiSense we’re able to collect different data sources like Excel or Salesforce and combine them to create insightful reports and compelling visualizations.

Q: What is your position and what are your responsibilities?

A: My title is sales development manager. My responsibilities are to engage the people who may have downloaded a free trial and then to understand their project and work with them one-on-one to determine the how they can use SiSense. For example, I talked to a seismologist who was putting together earthquake data, and from that data he was using SiSense to figure out where future earthquakes might occur. Also, recently I was speaking to analyst in the healthcare industry and he was using SiSense to gather patient’s data to cut costs within the hospital.

Additionally I sort through the leads we get to determine who is really interested and who is just doing research and not necessarily looking to make a purchase.

RELATED: Learn more about SiSense

Q: What is a typical day like for you?

A: I come in around 9 and I sort through my leads. I do some background on them and then call to learn about what they’re working on, what industry they’re in, what kind of data they’re working with, if they’re evaluating other vendors. I call 80 to 100 people a day and talk about those kinds of things.

Q: What is the office environment at SiSense like?

A: It’s a pretty fun environment. One of the things I like about it is the energy. It’s right on Wall Street so there’s so much going on. It’s a pretty casual office because we are a startup, but we’re quickly transitioning into an established, growing company.

Image of the Wall St. Bull courtesy of Fetcho Photo Blog.

We have about 100 employees total right now, but a little more than half are at the SiSense headquarters in Tel Aviv, while the sales team is based here in New York. We Skype several times a day, so that makes the distance easier, and the executive team in Tel Aviv travels here fairly often.

Q: What are some pros and cons to working for a new company?

A: I like that, as the first employees, we have a lot of input when questions and opportunities come up. At the same time, it can be a little hectic when we don’t already have a process in place to handle questions or issues that pop up.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love that I can talk to so many different people in so many different industries. And I like hearing how each of them plans to use SiSense, I think it’s pretty exciting. I really like being part of SiSense now while it’s still relatively small, since I think over the next few years it will grow a lot. We recently received

SiSense among DFJ Growth’s featured investments

$30 million in funding from DFJ Growth, which is the same investor that funded Twitter and Tesla. It’s great to have their support.

I also feel like this job gives me unique opportunities that I might not get so soon at a bigger or older company. In mid-September I’m going to San Francisco to represent SiSense at the Data Week expo with our vice president of marketing and chief technology officer.

RELATED: Check out DFJ Growth’s featured investments

Q: How did you hear about this position at SiSense?

A: My friend is a recruiter and he was working with SiSense. They needed sales people and he told me about the company and how cool he thought it was so I applied and interviewed and really connected with the company right away.

Q: How did the College help you prepare for your job?

A: I was an economics major and my economics classes helped me develop a more analytical way of thinking, which I use in my job everyday. A lot of my classes, economics included, required me to give thorough presentations, and I think that made me a more confident speaker and helped me to understand how to take very technical subjects and make them relatable to people who may not be trained in my field.

RELATED: Discover the economics major at the College of Charleston

Q: What advice would you give to current students interested in working in the field of business intelligence?

A: I would suggest, really for any professional coming out of the College, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there through networking events. Also, don’t be afraid to take chances – I was working at a recruiting firm before SiSense and I trusted my instincts to apply when I learned about the position at SiSense even though I was leaving a comfortable job. I’m very glad I did.

Featured image is an AP Photo by Mary Altaffer courtesy of Politico