The Folley Brothers’ Quest to Democratize Data Access with Alkemi
In the bustling tech landscape of Seattle, Connor Folley has embarked on a new entrepreneurial journey alongside his brother Maxwell, launching Alkemi – an innovative AI platform with a compelling mission. Their vision is elegantly simple yet revolutionary: to empower employees throughout organizations to interact with complex data using plain English, removing technical barriers while maintaining robust security for proprietary information. This venture emerges from Connor’s experiences following the acquisition of his previous startup, Downstream, by Jungle Scout in 2021. During his subsequent two-year tenure at Jungle Scout, Connor observed a persistent challenge across the business world: “how the world’s most valuable knowledge remained trapped, out of reach for the frontline workers who needed it most.” This observation became the catalyst for Alkemi, representing the Folley brothers’ commitment to democratizing data access while preserving security protocols.
Alkemi’s flagship product, DataLab, stands at the intersection of accessibility and sophistication, directly connecting to industry-standard data platforms including Snowflake, Databricks, and Looker. This strategic integration positions DataLab as a universal translator between non-technical employees and their organization’s valuable data repositories. The platform extends beyond simple queries, offering integration capabilities with AI agents and applications through MCP-compatible endpoints, reflecting the Folley brothers’ forward-thinking approach to enterprise data solutions. What sets Alkemi apart in this competitive landscape is its commitment to delivering the intuitive experience users have come to expect from consumer AI tools like ChatGPT, while simultaneously addressing the significant privacy concerns that have limited enterprise adoption of such technologies. DataLab achieves this balance by implementing a fundamentally different approach to data handling – it neither uploads nor trains on customer data, preserving the sanctity of proprietary information while providing traceable logic and sources for all responses.
The journey to Alkemi represents a natural evolution in Connor Folley’s entrepreneurial trajectory. Before launching Downstream in 2018, Connor honed his marketing expertise at Amazon, gaining invaluable insights into the e-commerce ecosystem that would later inform his first startup’s focus on Amazon advertising analytics. This expertise, combined with Maxwell’s experience leading Caravel, a conversational intelligence platform later acquired by Commsor, creates a powerful foundation of complementary skills driving Alkemi’s development. The brothers bring together deep understanding of both the technical and business challenges involved in making organizational data more accessible and actionable, positioning them uniquely in this emerging space where artificial intelligence meets enterprise data management.
Despite entering what industry observers characterize as “a crowded and fast-moving market” filled with startups and enterprise vendors promoting “AI copilots for data,” Alkemi has secured significant financial backing for its distinctive approach. The company has raised $1.65 million in pre-seed funding, with Tuesday Capital leading the round. The investment roster includes DNX, MGV, and various angel investors – notably, all entities that previously backed Connor’s Downstream venture. This continuation of investor relationships speaks volumes about the credibility the Folley brothers have established in the Seattle tech ecosystem and beyond, reflecting confidence in their vision for transforming how organizations interact with their own data resources.
The seven-person team at Alkemi is tackling a challenge that extends far beyond technical implementation – they’re addressing a fundamental disconnect in how modern organizations operate. While companies invest millions in sophisticated data infrastructure and analytics tools, the insights generated often remain accessible only to specialized technical teams. This creates bottlenecks where business decisions are delayed waiting for data analysis or, worse, made without proper data guidance. Alkemi’s solution targets this operational inefficiency by enabling what might be called “data self-service” – allowing marketing managers, sales representatives, product teams, and other frontline workers to directly query company data using natural language, receiving accurate, sourced responses they can immediately apply to their decision-making processes.
Looking forward, the Folley brothers’ venture represents more than just another entrant in the enterprise AI space – it embodies a vision for how organizations might function in a near future where the traditional barriers between technical and non-technical roles have dissolved. In this vision, data literacy becomes universal not because everyone learns SQL or Python, but because the interfaces to organizational knowledge adapt to human communication patterns rather than requiring humans to adapt to machine constraints. If Alkemi succeeds in its mission, the impact could extend far beyond efficiency gains, potentially transforming corporate cultures by democratizing access to the insights that drive strategic decisions. As artificial intelligence continues reshaping the business landscape, the Folley brothers’ approach with Alkemi – balancing innovation with privacy, accessibility with accuracy – offers an intriguing model for how AI might serve as a bridge rather than a barrier between people and the information they need to excel in their work.
