Mark Johnson
Founder and CEO, Descartes Labs. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
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Mark Johnson is the Founder and CEO of Descartes Labs. He spoke at Data Driven NYC in February 2018 regarding data and machine intelligence.
2shows
2appearances
20statements
3resolved
3supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Mark Johnson said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Johnson: Every business will need a data refinery
“Every business is going to need a data refinery.”
Johnson: Twitter holds an incredibly valuable but underutilized dataset
“I think Twitter is a great example where it's not that they're not doing nothing, they're not doing, they're doing some things with the data, it's just they could do a lot more. I think it's one of the most valuable data sets on the planet, but one would think…”
Johnson: Corporate data hoarding will diminish over the next decade
“So I think for right now most companies are going to keep their data incredibly proprietary. But I expect that to change maybe, maybe not in the next year, but certainly in the next five to 10 years.”
Descartes Labs expects daily data ingestion to exceed 100 terabytes
“Now, recently we're putting a lot of proprietary data sets on the system also that's why we'll go from 15 terabytes a day this year to a lot more. Probably over, well over a hundred.”
Johnson: Complementary partners, not capital or ideas, bottleneck new PE firms
“The number one limiting reagent in starting a new private equity firm. It isn't capital. It isn't investment ideas. It's other skilled investors that are complimentary to you that are great people that you can work closely with.”
Johnson: First-time PE managers should focus on deals to attract aligned LPs
“The way I think about it and the advice I give others who are beginning that journey is you want to focus on the deal making. Focus on the type of deals that you think you and your firm are suited to do. That will attract the types of investors that are lookin…”
Johnson: In-building wireless infrastructure will be a major mobility growth area
“We think that one of the major growth areas in going forward in mobility is the in-building world.”
Johnson: 5G is best suited for low-latency indoor industrial environments
“The rise of five G technology actually is best suited for in-building environments where low latency is required and the capacity to monitor a propeller as it's built or monitor a robot as it's picking and packing on a factory or shop floor is something that w…”
Johnson: PE firms must foster portfolio independence or risk holding forever
“I always say we plan to exit these investments for ourselves and our investors. And if we don't foster independence, then we'll own them forever.”
Johnson: Astra prefers utilizing co-investments over raising larger funds for $100M deals
“We bring a lot of co-invest into our deals today because what we're really trying to do is perfect the art of doing the types of deals that we do. And regardless of the size of our fund at a given time, what we want to do are a handful every year of great deal…”
Johnson: Mega-cap PE club deals died because fund growth enabled solo buyouts
“And I think that's why as those firms began to grow, you saw a little bit less and less of it because there was more competition going on than there was real value creation because everyone could do the deal pretty much themselves.”
Cargill is an investor and client of Descartes Labs
“And, you know, Cargill now is an investor and a client.”
Johnson: Field-level yield is the most valuable dataset in agriculture
“When I think about the most valuable data sets you could possibly have for agriculture it's field level yield. That is, how many bushels per acre are coming out of this field?”
Space 2.0 startups are betting on commercial clients over government revenue
“If you look at the new crop of space two dot O companies, Descartes Labs, Planet, Spire companies like this, we're all betting on commercial.”
Johnson: $1 billion will flow into satellite infrastructure over coming years
“It turns out there is a billion dollars of investment going into satellites over the next few years.”
Descartes Labs maintains a 10-petabyte data archive
“And we have over 10 petabytes of data in the archive.”
Johnson: DigitalGlobe still derives most of its revenue from governments
“A company like Digital Globe, most of their revenue still comes from governments.”
USDA corn production estimates achieve under 1% error by season end
“By the end of the season, they're less than one percent error of the total production in the United States”
Johnson: 100% debt-financed Park Communications deal generated $200M profit on zero equity
“I started in investment banking, and then while I was at Merrill Lynch, I worked on a deal called Park Communications. It was an odd communications Broadcasting company that was owned by two entrepreneurs with 100% debt, and we were in the process of refinanci…”
Johnson: Emerging private equity firms must resist the pressure to chase volume
“It sometimes seems when you start a business that is a private equity firm and your product is deal making, the impetus is to say, well, let's go do some deals because that's the product we need to go produce. But the inherent tension that everyone needs to un…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Mark's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 MADLEDGER | Founder and CEO, Descartes Labs | 1 | 11 | 100% 3/3 | full record on the MAD Podcast → |
 CAPITAL ALLOCATORSLEDGER | 1 | 9 | — | full record on Capital Allocators → |