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Founder In Focus: Hilary Mason And Big Data Superpowers

I believe technology should give us superpowers,” Hilary Mason writes. I couldn’t agree more. With her help, we just might unlock our own.

 

You don’t have to look hard to find examples of entrepreneurs that succeed without a lot of money. Brains, on the other hand, are a must. Communication skills, beautiful design, conceptual breakthroughs, coding creativity – when intelligence shows up on the scene, in any of the forms it can take, good things happen at startups.

 

Want your company to succeed? Surround yourself with bright people or make yourself smarter. Stop whining like the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz (If I only had a brain…) and put on your thinking cap.

 

A good place to start nourishing our minds is to become familiar with Hilary Mason.

 

hilary_electronics

 

Hilary is the Data Scientist in Residence at Accel. She’s also the Scientist Emeritus at bitly after having been the Chief Scientist there for four years. Visit her website HilaryMason.com to soak up her writings and talks, and learn more about everything from using both Twitter and email more effectively to data secrets to searching for the best cheeseburger by using menu data.

 

Data and cheeseburgers. What better use for technology than finding the greatest burger?

 

I can only guess how smart a person needs to be to earn the posts that Hilary occupies, but her ability to balance serious science with plainspoken wit gives me a good sense of just how remarkably sharp she is. Take this recent tweet of hers below as an example:

 

Hilary Mason twitter

 

If I had ever met a tech employee that didn’t like travel or need a rest I would remember him, because he would have been the only one. And no one comes to mind. This idea is a clear winner, easy to identify with. Super smart and down-to-earth: a fine combination to encounter in any individual.

 

It should come as no surprise that Business Insider named Hilary as one of the 100 Most Influential Tech Women on Twitter, crediting her as being “a big tech tweeter who loves to talk about coding, hacking, and software.” You can follow Hilary on Twitter @hmason.

 

Lucky for all of us, Hilary shares her knowledge generously. She is a co-founder of HackNY, a non-profit that connects engineering students with the startup community in New York City. She also serves as an advisor and mentor to many (you can check out her full bio here).

 

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Hilary Mason 

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