Petram Analytics CEO Jibreel Lockhart.
Photo courtesy of Petram Analytics
How much data is created every day on a computer?
About 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day by every person who uploads information to their computer from documents to keyboard clicks, according to statistics.
This information on its own is useless, however, without the proper context. When compiled and organized in a digestible way, that is when data analytics comes into play – to give structure and meaning to the massive amounts of data.
With an eagle eye on addressing data and analytics work for Detroit’s professional realm and beyond, local businessman Jibreel Lockhart wants to harness that data through companies he works with strategically to ensure his high-profile customers and clients are growing their potential online and off.
Petram Analytics (formerly Petram Data) announced its new name in late November, with Lockhart at the helm as CEO since 2020.
Petram Analytics primarily operates with data science and analytics to help mid-sized businesses improve their customer acquisition and profitability Lockhart told the Michigan Chronicle.
“We’ve helped local companies like Regina Andrew Design, Priority Health and Shinola and national brands like Allegiant Airlines,” Lockhart said.
Well-structured data informs clients in three ways:
- Descriptive data, which helps people understand what happened in the past.
- Predictive data, which uses data to predict what will happen in the future.
- Prescriptive data tells people the most efficient way to operate their businesses.
One of the goals of the team at Petram Analytics is to use that data to help businesses take their customer data and use it to be more efficient, more profitable, and better for their customers, according to their website.
“We’re launching Petram with a simple purpose – simplify how you apply data science to grow your business,” Lockhart said of the Detroit-founded company. “We’ve assembled a team of expert data scientists and strategists that can apply the power of predictive analytics to dramatically improve customer acquisition, customer loyalty, and profits for business. Companies like Facebook and Airbnb run thousands of data science experiments every month to improve their digital business.”
With 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and product development under his belt, Lockhart has held his own while carving out a path for himself to lead companies through consulting and more by “using data to unlock business opportunities.”
As an engineer turned data-driven marketer, Lockhart also capitalizes on using technology and data to decode customer behaviors and uncover the inefficiencies of traditional advertising.
Lockhart told the Michigan Chronicle that he wanted to make a company name change for rebranding and restructuring purposes — but their mission stays the same.
“We are a marketing analytics company that leverages data science to help companies improve the effectiveness of their marketing when it comes to using their data and third-party data tactics,” he said.
Lockhart added that his company is responsible for answering one of many questions including, “how do we reduce their customer acquisition cost?”
He also assists companies by reducing the internal turnover of existing customers, which he is no stranger to.
In 2005, Lockhart moved to New York to work at American Express where he led a marketing strategy team, marketing product management team and product innovation team, which earned him an international spot in London for a year leading product innovation.
“That was kind of my experience building products,” he said adding that in the United Kingdom he worked closely with data engineers and scientists responsible for understanding the behaviors and habits of millions of American Express cardholders across the world. “Data scientists [are] studying what are the patterns.”
Looking at dining and spending patterns to offer customers more personalized services among other things is the name of the game for Lockhart’s work at closing the loop for businesses’ customers.
“I became fascinated with this whole world of data analytics and science and [how it] could transform… how businesses communicate with customers,” he said, adding that during that time he realized that he wanted to run his own business. “I felt I needed to find the right opportunity from corporate into entrepreneurship through working with an already established small business.”
Petram Analytics got its start when Lockhart and his University of Michigan alumnus friend Dhani Jones joined forces.
“He called me and said, ‘Let’s get together and we started talking about what we wanted to do and felt there is an opportunity in the analytics space,” Lockhart said, adding that they worked on a business plan in 2017 and formed then-called Petron Data in 2018 and officially opened their doors in 2019.
Lockhart said that from growing the business to up to $2.5 million in revenue and around 15 team members — Petram pivoted quickly after its start with a leadership shift to facing COVID-related business uncertainties, which could have been the end for the nascent company.
“I was faced with, “do I shut the company down, do I take a job somewhere — do we continue to do it the way we been doing it or shift and rethink the business?”
Lockhart chose the latter and is now focusing on the consulting aspect of the analytics side of the business with data monetization for midsize companies.
Petram’s smallest company currently operates at an annual revenue of $30-$40 million.
“That’s kind of the right size [company] who have enough customer data files,” he said.
Having the “most direct control” with the data allows Petram to control its own destiny.
“Our clients started to really tell us what they needed, and it was a little different than what we originally thought was needed,” he said adding that Petram’s niche is helping companies know that there is value in data and being able to identify marketing effectiveness. “The thing I’m excited about [with the restructure] is we have the right people …focused on the right kinds of value propositions for mid-sized companies. … You have to have already built some level of trust with customers and team members. That trust is kind of a hidden factor that makes the pivot possible.”
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