Meet the young founders who are taking on the enterprise

Anthony Goldbloom, CEO, Kaggle

Kaggle takes a consumer-friendly crowdsourced approach to solve the most complex scientific questions. Goldbloom refers to it as a “market for data science talent.” On the company’s website, researchers or organizations can pose a tough challenge for geeks around the world to solve. The individual winner or winning team gets financial compensation. Last year, the San Francisco-based startup pulled in $11 million in funding.

VentureBeat: What was your biggest challenge in the first months — and how did you overcome it?

Anthony Goldbloom: My biggest challenge was learning how to code.

VentureBeat: Do you have any nuggets of wisdom to share to young entrepreneurs?

Goldbloom: As a young entrepreneur starting an enterprise company, be prepared for the fact that you’ll need to get involved in enterprise sales. Everyone wants to speak to the founder and this is also how you’ll get feedback on your product. It’s worth bringing in early somebody with enterprise sales experience.

VentureBeat: What was your “Aha!” moment?

Goldbloom: There have been lots. Startup stories are always smoother in the telling than they are in reality. A startup is not one, but a series of “Aha!” moments, and some which seem like “Aha!” moments but turn out not to be. One our more recent “Aha!” moments was a decision to look for developers in Australia rather than Silicon Valley, where there’s a war for talent.