Bart Jagatheesan
Company: El Toro
Title: Senior Data Analyst
Age: 25
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Resides (city or neighborhood): Hikes Point, Louisville
Education history: 2018 – Graduated from University of Louisville with Computer Information Systems (CIS) major
Hobbies: Golf, ping pong, movies and TV shows, learning everything tech and business related, and drinking good whiskey/beer
Twitter/Instagram/other social media handle: Twitter: @bharadwajjaga
Favorite tech gadget: Airpods Pro
How did you get into the career you have today? I think the answer to this question is often a combination of “right place, right time” and putting in the effort.
When I was in college, I was already familiar with El Toro. I knew about the company’s unconventional work atmosphere and cutting-edge tech. After my previous internship at a larger company, I knew I wanted to be impactful at a smaller high-growth company.
I started El Toro’s Operations internship program to get my foot in the door and learn everything I could about the business. After spending my first 1.5 years at the company in operations, I made the transition to our data analytics team where I am today.
Being on our analytics team has given me a variety of experiences. I’ve had the license to develop new products, meet with prominent C-level executives at other companies while understanding their data needs and nurture the pipeline of talent that came after me.
What’s one thing Louisville can do to improve its tech and/or startup ecosystem? I think investing tech education will go a long way in making Louisville a more attractive environment for startups and other businesses in the area.
I think universities investing more in their computer and data science programs will be key. Additionally, bootcamps and other reskilling programs are vital to retrain folks for changing careers and greater upward mobility.
Who has been one of your top mentors? Why? Stacy Griggs, CEO of El Toro.
The sheer amount of knowledge and experience that I’ve gained from Stacy is staggering. There’ve been great lessons learned about thinking more critically about data, communicating effectively, and ideating about new data products to push the company forward.
Despite working in analytics, I’ve gotten exposure to entrepreneurship, corporate law, privacy, HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act], and so many other subjects via osmosis from Stacy.
What’s your best piece of advice for companies and individuals looking to be more innovative and disruptive in their fields? There’s a lot of value in making the boring stuff sexy. If you can figure out how to take a universally maligned product/process and make it easy to use with good UX, you’ve got something interesting.
What accomplishment are you most proud of? Getting the chance to work on a presidential campaign during the 2020 election cycle. A team of El Toro analysts and I were brought in as product experts and data consultants to assist the campaign with advertising and analytics.
What innovative company (other than your own) do you admire and why? AppHarvest. They’re making agriculture more efficient and sustainable with an eye towards the future. And they’ve done things the hard way and invested in a traditionally overlooked and underfunded part of the country. Plus, they’re from Kentucky!
