Russell Perkins

Trucker Path is a young company, founded only in 2013. Yet its mobile app, providing truckers with basic directory information such as location of rest stops, parking, diesel fuel stations, weigh stations and more has already attracted over 250,000 users. Its formula for success is a familiar one to data publishers: collect information that is really needed by a specific niche market but not readily available in one place elsewhere.

In advance of big changes to the way pensions are managed, the UK government set up a quasi-independent service called Money Advice Service (MAS). MAS has the worthy goal of trying to improve financial literacy, particularly among those about to retire.

Step back a bit from the fray and you’ll see an interesting evolution in the world of data: from providing lists of people or entities that might be prospects, to lists of people or entities that should be prospects, based on something they have done (think sales triggers). Now we’re beginning to move squarely into what used to be the realm of science fiction: identifying prospects before they have done anything at all.