Liminal Data is a company that provides secure data collaboration and identity intelligence solutions for organizations. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Liminal Data co-founder and EVP of Innovation Don Kasper to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Don Kasper’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Kasper said:
“My career spans 20 years and has consistently focused on the intersection of data analytics and sustainability, driven by a deep passion for these two disciplines. With a background in mechanical engineering, I started as a consulting engineer, working with owners of large commercial buildings to analyze extensive operational datasets to identify energy efficiency opportunities and identify opportunities to reduce waste. This was during a pivotal moment when sustainability’s role in business was expanding, with new regulations and frameworks encouraging companies to approach sustainability more holistically and tie it directly to business outcomes. Sustainability also started to expand beyond environmental concerns, broadening its scope to encompass corporate social responsibility initiatives across organizations.”
“I quickly recognized that few professionals in my industry had experience with data analysis beyond spreadsheets. Motivated by this gap, I shifted from consulting to focus on developing cloud-based products that address the growing need for businesses to quantify and innovate with sustainability across their operations, assets, and overall performance.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Kasper shared:
“In 2020, my co-founder and I began exploring the idea of creating a business intelligence platform designed to help companies reduce waste and enhance overall business performance, starting with sustainability and impact. At the time, we were working at separate startups and noticed a significant gap in the market that wasn’t being addressed. Mainly the lack of skill sets to collect, analyze, and draw insights from the various sources of non-financial data across companies. This led to the inception of the idea for a sustainable business intelligence platform.”
“Beyond sustainability, we saw that many professionals struggled to quantify key metrics, improve business decision-making, and communicate progress to their leadership teams. This challenge has only grown with the advent of generative AI and a limited talent pool of professionals who can combine subject matter expertise with data science to solve practical problems.”
“In 2022, we decided to take this concept more seriously. We incorporated the company and started building the business in earnest in early 2023. To this day, we continue to see significant opportunities in this space. A cornerstone of our success has been our focus on creating a business that is not only sustainability-minded but also has real growth potential. Having been a part of four different B2B SaaS startups, I’ve seen firsthand how early stage companies can out innovate larger companies to address vast market opportunities, yet can falter due to flawed business models or products that fail to actually address the intended challenge and provide real return on investment.”
“I’m proud of the fact that we have prioritized building a scalable product, enabling us to create a resilient business model that constantly dev liers real value to our customers.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Kasper reflected:
“One of my favorite memories has been landing our first customer. It validated many of our ideas and showed that we could have a real impact on a business. Our early customers are still with us, and I enjoy watching them use our platform to innovate and continually expand their capabilities to bring real value to their companies. It is fascinating to see how excited our users get with every new release and how they immediately find ways to adapt and grow their own processes.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Kasper explained:
“The core product of our company is the Liminal Omni-1 platform, an AI-driven sustainable business intelligence solution that consolidates data into a single, cohesive platform. This empowers companies to identify key metrics and communicate their strategies effectively and without the need for expensive consultants or adding head count. We cover a critical skills gap where there is a lack of talent pipeline for most companies. Shortly after beginning our journey, we integrated a robust generative AI component that address the challenges faced by professional who may not be data experts or subject-matter experts across different topics, but still need to produce clear, concise reports for key stakeholders–including the public, investors, employees, and most importantly, their customers.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Kasper acknowledged:
“Yes, absolutely. There is always a new challenge. In the U.S., political rhetoric from climate change to tariffs, has led some companies to be uncertain about the future and hesitate in how they frame their sustainability efforts. Much of this rhetoric is misguided unfortunately and leaves business uncertain about where there is risk in their business. In response, we’ve remained focused on ensuring that our company stays agile and resilient. We emphasize themes that everyone can agree on: enhancing competitiveness, expanding risk management, improving resilience, and enabling companies to reduce waste and unnecessary spend across organizations.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since its launch? Kasper noted:
“When we initially launched, our platform did not include a generative AI component. By early 2024, however, we became the first company in our sector to realize the full potential of generative AI and incorporate it into our platform, designed to streamline the process of researching and communicating sustainability initiatives and effectively supercharging our customers’ efforts without adding expense. This has been a transformative step for us, fundamentally changing how our product is used and significantly enhancing the value we deliver to customers.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Kasper cited:
“One of our most significant milestones has been the release of our AI Insights tool, which leverages large language models like ChatGPT to really deepen our mission to enhance business intelligence and perform tasks for customers with much less friction. This helped us gain attention by being first to market with a solution that truly made a difference for customers and changed how they innovate with technology. This tool continues to expand at a rapid pace and not only has been incredibly valuable to our users, but has also earned us recognition and accolades across the industry.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Kasper highlighted:
“Yes, absolutely. One excellent example is The Swig Company, a vertically integrated commercial building owner and operator based in San Francisco. Swig uses our platform to draw insights specific to their business’ sustainability efforts. We’ve helped them integrate data from across their business to help articulate their efforts and drive smarter operational decisions. Since the start of our engagement with Swig, they have continued to innovated and uncover new use cases for our technology. When we released our AI Insights feature, they were among the first to leverage it extensively–using it to enhance their annual sustainability report, evaluate operational roadmaps, communicate with key executives, and tap into its virtually limitless subject-matter expertise to guide decision-making related to sustainability data across a range of topics.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Kasper revealed:
“We do not disclose revenue or funding. However, I can share that we’re currently raising funds in the U.S. and Europe to scale our business globally.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Kasper assessed:
“The TAM for Global ESG & Sustainability Software is $50B and growing. We believe strongly that this market opportunity will continue to grow and evolve as our company grows and we’re able to address a much broader audience beyond sustainability.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kasper affirmed:
“In our industry, many companies rely heavily on a services component bundled with their SaaS products. Many of our competitors have not solved key technical challenges which requires them to provide costly and non-scalable services. Our product, especially given the integration with generative AI, has allowed us to reduce reliance on services, enabling us to scale more effectively while still providing robust support for our customers. Additionally, our platform is designed to solve many of the underlying data science challenges that prevent companies from making data-driven decisions.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Kasper emphasized:
“We have a major initiative underway to expand our footprint into Europe, Asia, and South America. Our overarching goal is to be widely recognized as the industry-leading sustainable business intelligence platform. We are creating additional products, including a climate risk product that will help us to expand beyond sustainability into other areas such as risk management.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Kasper concluded:
“We see a bright future for our business–and, more importantly, for how we can help transform the way business is done, especially in times of uncertainty. By providing better data and advanced business intelligence, we’re enabling companies to not only meet regulatory requirements, but improve business performance and resilience and move beyond a compliance mindset. Our platform empowers them to execute on strategies that enhance both their top and bottom lines, creating long-term value while driving sustainability. We used our Silicon Valley-born innovative prowess to tackle real world challenges and scale through technology development.”
