About Us

Mission
Swivel's mission is to make data useful so people share insights, make great decisions and improve lives.

In an era of spin, opinion, and apathy about statistics, Swivel is a Web site that makes it easy for everyone to collaborate and explore data together — because better informed people make better decisions: in voting booths, in corporate boardrooms and at neighborhood meetings.

We believe data is most valuable when it's out in the open where everyone can see it, debate it, have fun, and share new insights. Swivel is applying the power of the Web to data so that life gets better.

Who are we?
Swivel was founded in December 2005 by Dmitry Dimov and Brian Mulloy. We both studied physics in college, Dmitry in Russia and Brian at the University of Michigan. We both worked together at a big software company. And we both love geeking out about data. Actually, all of us here at Swivel: Visnu Pitiyanuvath, Huned Botee, Richard Nghiem, Brent Fitzgerald, Ben Walsh, and Gerad Suyderhoud are a little nerdy about data and curious about all sorts of stuff. Data makes us go.
We have a great trio of data-loving advisors too:

  • Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET, a veteran entrepreneur and visionary and the guy who eats most of the chocolate during our design meetings.
  • Ron Palmeri, the Managing Director of Minor Ventures. Ron continually helps us see the big picture and has a knack for finding metaphors that unveil new directions for Swivel.
  • Joe Hellerstein, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Joe helps us with all the super hard problems. He also plays a great trumpet.

We are passionate about understanding the world around us and we like to build good stuff. If you want to join us, please send an email to jobs@swivel.com. Or if you have any feedback as you use Swivel, please click the feedback link up on top or send an email to feedback@swivel.com.

What is Swivel?
Swivel is a place where curious people explore all kinds of data. We put a little tour together, so you can read more about it here. You can view our press kit here.

Why Swivel?
We built Swivel because we wanted a Web site for data.

Like many business folks, we had spent a bunch of time editing spreadsheets, reading other people's spreadsheets and emailing spreadsheets back and forth. We had learned a bunch of macros, shortcuts and tricks for editing data. However, when it came time to share data with other people - so they could explore the data themselves — it was...less good. We, unfortunately, had to freeze the data in the form of a document or presentation because only other power users could really go nuts exploring the data.

At one point a few of us were listening to a NerdTV podcast with Dan Bricklin (he invented the spreadsheet). He was talking about the source of the spreadsheet idea back in the late 1970s. He said something like, I wanted to create a word processor for data. Wow, for us that sounded like a big insight. And in part led us to think, we need a Web site for data.

In 1979 software was the thing. Today, we have Web sites. In a Yogi Berra kind of way, we think of a Web site as half super-computer, half telephone and half surfboard. A Web site can process all kinds of data like a super-computer, it is excellent for getting people together to communicate like a telephone, and with a mouse in your hand you can surf a Web site until next week. The goal: apply all that good Web stuff to data.

So, when we say Swivel is a Web site for data we're talking about those three things:

  • we use farms of powerful computers and algorithms at the Swivel data centers to transform a lonely grid of numbers and letters into hundreds — sometimes thousands — of graphs that can be explored and compared with any other public data in Swivel
  • we have ratings and comments and publishing shortcuts for bloggers, so folks can share ideas, talk about insights and understand data together
  • we transform the sometimes tedious task of reading someone else's spreadsheet into a fun experience of clicking through a Web site full of images, graphs and color.

How are we going to pay the bills?
Besides just digging data in general, we also run a business with engineering, marketing, accounting and all that. A good understanding of data in business often lets a company do more valuable things for its customers — and what's better than that? So, we are busy creating a business edition of Swivel for people who want to explore their business data while keeping it secure and private.

The rules will be simple:

  • If you upload data for the public, Swivel is free.
  • If you upload data and choose to keep it private and secure, there will be a fee.

We have heard from a bunch of folks already (ourselves included) who like Swivel and want a secure and private account.

After we finish our preview period we will introduce Swivel Business. Swivel Business will allow you to keep your personal or business data private and secure while at the same time allowing you to compare your data with all the free, publicly available data in Swivel.

If you want to compare your company's retail sales with regional weather or compare your global investment portfolio with the price of oil you could make those comparisons yet keep your private data to yourself. If you're interested in Swivel Business, please let us know.

Public data will always be free at Swivel. Private data will require a monthly fee. One more time?

Investors
Minor Ventures
Founded in 2005 by CNET founder and veteran entrepreneur Halsey Minor, Minor Ventures is a boutique venture capital firm focused on investing in early stage technology companies that deliver applications and services over the Internet. Minor Ventures invests in passionate, committed entrepreneurs who strive to change the shape of business on the Internet. The firm has invested in a carefully selected group of companies, including its first realized investment, Salesforce.com, the provider of On Demand CRM. More information can be found at http://www.minorventures.com.

Special Thanks
A couple key folks contributed a bunch to Swivel and our team wants to give them a big thank you.

  • Jess Ruefli created the Swivel logo, probably the best logo in town. One of Jess's heros, Paul Rand, would have been proud. Jess also designed the entire Swivel Web site. He does good stuff and is now at odopod, where you can give him a bunch of business.
  • What's in a name? We have been working on Swivel so intensely that when we refer to Swivel it's like having another person in the room. Suzanne McCormac is responsible for that. She named Swivel and helped us with the early understanding of the Swivel brand. She runs a marketing consulting firm in Marin, California — McCormac Consulting.

Thank You!