Big Data startups having to build up commercial user market

New York

BIG data is increasingly moving into the mainstream, as companies in every industry begin to combine an abundance of digital data with smart software to analyse it. It is a potential gold mine for software-makers, with analysts predicting torrid growth for the market overall.

But building big data businesses is proving to be anything but a get-rich-quick game, and requires both agility and patience. Take Cask, a startup in Silicon Valley founded in 2011, backed by leading venture capitalists and led by former Facebook and Yahoo engineers. In late September, the promising young company changed both its name and its business model - moving to supplying open-source software and trying to make money on technical support and consulting rather than on proprietary products.