We picked the name Piqora because it has the sound of the word “pick” and is more visual, as the web is becoming. We’re about data and converting that into user experiences.   The word Piqora is an online image creator—to us it’s a personality, a modern woman that curates.

Picking Products – how does a startup choose?

We have two secrets—the first is a really a top-notch team. We recently hired the [former] Chief Architect from Google—before that he was at Yahoo, where he worked on search and built their index. It’s really a great team.

The second [secret] is the technology we’re building — it’s on top of the data we’re collecting. We build analytics on top and it’s now useful for our new product—the Gallery.

Big Data learning curve

What we found is that in general, people are afraid of analytics — of what the data can tell you. And so as a company, you’re always challenged with bridging the gap between analytics and action. If you package your analytics around action, it must be more digestible and usable.  We want to be able to do predictive analytics and tell [a retailer] which products are beginning to trend and might go out of stock in two weeks.

Another direction is content management. We’re looking at building a content management suite that would allow users to select what products to promote on different platforms and manage that from a certain location. We’re making analytics an integral part of actions in merchandising and content management.

—As told by Amber Harris