Launchable: datasets to kickstart your AI startup journey

By Larry Colagiovanni, Partner • August 23, 2023

This October we’re hosting Launchable: Generative Apps. Participants will have the opportunity to launch their vertical, Gen AI startup, with $250,000 in pre-seed funding from Madrona Venture Labs. 

If you’re applying for the event (and/or starting your own company), it’s important to start early thinking through what types of data could power your business and product ideas. Not only does data power your algorithms, it can serve as a competitive moat too. 

Investors want assurance that your idea, once brought to market, will not be easily replicated by competitors. While AI/ML technologies are valuable, they quickly become commoditized. Thus, the protective moat against competition isn't just the technology, but primarily the unique data a company possesses. Data that is proprietary, domain-specific, longitudinally collected, labeled, and integrated from various sources forms the heart of a startup's competitive edge. Again, the application of AI is crucial, but it is often secondary to the core value that the data itself provides.

To help you get started, we've compiled 100s of datasets and APIs from which to gain inspiration. Many of these datasets have already been cleaned and normalized, so they are ready to be explored using AI tools. The use of these datasets is often intended for research purposes only. If you want to use the data in your startup, be sure to read any associated license agreements to understand if there are commercial restrictions. Also note that you are not restricted to basing your idea on the data sets below. You may discover other open source data sets that inspire your creativity or you may bring your own proprietary data sets if you wish.

And if there’s a data set you think we should add to the list, please send it to us.