Tonic

Tonic: sell companies realistic fake data to test their software

Shaan pitches Tonic Fake Data, a company that analyzes a firm's real data and generates statistically-matching dummy datasets so developers can test products without exposing sensitive customer info. He frames it as an idea no one has that almost no one could build, riding the privacy and machine-learning megatrends.

“So Tonic Fake Data can basically analyze your data, create dummy data, and then let your developers or other developers use that fake data that mirrors the real data. And so I thought this is like such a niche problem that you would only understand if you'd ever been through this. But then once you've been through it, you're like, shit, this solves a big problem that they have no other way to solve.”

Steal thisFind a painful, niche workflow problem only insiders understand, then productize the fix nobody else can build.

Tonic Fake Data grew 600% in 2020

Shaan cites his cousin's tweet that Tonic, the synthetic-data testing company, grew roughly 600% in a single year, which is what convinced Shaan he wanted to invest.

“He said they grew 600% in 2020.”