When Issa Nassar couldn’t find a data analytics tool that was simple and privacy-friendly enough for his standards, he decided to build one himself. A self-taught data scientist, Orange Corners Palestinian Territories alum Issa is now the founder of Databuddy Analytics: a privacy-first analytics platform designed as a European alternative to Google Analytics. Built to give small and growing teams the insights they need without tracking or cookies, Databuddy reflects Issa’s belief that good data doesn’t have to come at the cost of user privacy. Recently, the startup secured its first external investment, a milestone that’s helping Issa bring his vision of accessible, responsible analytics to more businesses worldwide.
Hi Issa, could you introduce yourself and Databuddy Analytics?
I’m Issa Nassar, founder of Databuddy Analytics. I’m a colleague dropout who learnt data science through a data science bootcamp called Access Academy. Right after that I joined Confinity, an international social media company focused on legacy preservation. They’re very privacy-focused, and as part of my work there I had to do some analytics, but looking at all available options I couldn’t really find anything that worked for us.. everything was all either too invasive or too complex. Working in a small team, I experienced first-hand that much of the data existing tools generate you don’t really need. That’s where I got the idea for Databuddy.
Databuddy is a privacy-focused analytics platform that allows you to replace 4-5 different tools, while making it simpler to use and therefore more accessible for scalable and smaller teams. And with the added benefit that it’s much more energy-efficient, only generating the data you need. The more tools you use, the more specific and more complex they are, and the more fragmented your data is. Some almost require a PhD to use them!
One of your USPs is your focus on data privacy. Could you elaborate on that?
In the Netherlands and in Europe, GDPR compliance is a big thing. Databuddy is built to be a European alternative for Google Analytics. We’re GDPR compliant out-of-the-box. All our data is encrypted, stored privately and in the EU, nothing is user identifiable. With Databuddy, you don’t need cookie consent banners, for example. And because we don’t do user identification such as IP addresses or sessions across days, you don’t need to worry about compliance either. If you were to visit the same website two days in a row, it’d look like two different people. Although Databuddy is registered in the US, all the data is processed and stored in the EU, nothing physically leaves the EU at all. Other than the company registration, we don’t have anything outside the EU. And even the company registration I’d like to move to Europe at some point. As other regions follow Europe in terms of GDPR, Europe is an easy bridge to other international markets.
Databuddy is built to be a European alternative for Google Analytics
And you already got your first investment?
Indeed!From Tambi Jalouqa from Maza Ventures. It all happened very spontaneously. When I was in Orange Corners, Flow Accelerator (the local implementing partner) linked me with Gaza Sky Geeks to develop my MVP. And they again linked me with an expert, who helped me with my DevOps, to set everything up. This expert was the who told me “Hey, there’s a great investor in Jordan I think you should talk to.. even if it doesn’t work out, you know, doesn’t hurt to try!” So I messaged him, we set up a meeting and we started talking. What should have been a 30 min call turned into 1.5 hours of us talking about a bunch of random things. After that, he wanted to get everything done as soon as possible, as he just loved the idea of Databuddy.
In addition to 50K, he brings a really good network. I was just at Xpand Conference in Jordan at his invitation. I met a lot of new people there, got a few names of other interesting programmes I could apply to. And he’s also introducing me to a lot of cool companies. And as an ex-founder, he’s technical.. he knows what he’s talking about, knows the field. He’s very well-known in the region. He might not know Flow Accelerator, but at Flow they instantly recognised his name and told me I’d be in good hands. He doesn’t usually operate in Palestine, but I was part of a batch of 10 companies he invested in recently across the MENA region. We’re all similar companies, mostly tech and web based, SaaS. And the majority of these could probably become clients. So it’s good to have an investor with a network that’s super relevant to you. And the money is definitely going to be enough to sustain Databuddy for a very long time.
What are your plans for the future?
Databuddy is still relatively small, the initial launch out of beta was just two weeks ago. I’m a one man army still, always wearing 20 different hats. But in terms of revenue, I’m already making more revenue than I’m burning on the hosting and the services, so there’s no burn rate, no need to get everything done overnight. I can take my time, I’m not desperate for cash. So far I’ve got around 1,000 signups and around 500 websites tracked. We already have paying customers both in Europe as well as the US, mostly companies that don’t have a lot of traffic, don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to analytics.. but do have some money to invest in tools.
I’m currently working on improving the activation rate. The product already works, but there’s definitely still room for improvement. Generally speaking, in SaaS and tech in general, it can take 2-3 years easily before a product becomes very stable, and so far I’ve been able to accelerate the process significantly as I’ve got a good online network with lots of developers who have helped me out.
Going forward, I see Databuddy also as a data operating system, making life easier for developers. Right now, developers waste hours trying to set up complicated data tools. Setting up Databuddy is really simple. It can be a drop-in replacement for Google Analytics, or you can drop in a script. We also have other options available for businesses, such as a Framer extension or a WordPress extension. You don’t even need any specialised technical knowledge to set it up, it’s always going to be an under five minute setup to start the tracking.
One of things I’m also planning to add soon is an AI data analyst, which would function like your own extra employee. Knows exactly what you want to know, knows your context, your analytics, your goals, and then based on that is able to create custom dashboards with information about funnels, custom events, what goals to track. And instead of doing all of this manually, it just all happens automatically in the background, telling you what to focus on. Even if you don’t know what to ask, you can describe what you need, and the AI will give you the answer, plus the question. It completely breaks the barrier to entry, even if you don’t know what you need, you still get the right answers. As a product manager or marketeer, you don’t need to learn every single detail about analytics and data to be able to benefit from it.
Databuddy is still relatively small, but I’m already making more revenue than I’m burning on the hosting and the services, so need to get everything done overnight
You said you aren’t desperate for cash at the moment. Can other investors still come knock your door?
Sure! This initial investment that I have now is more than enough to keep me going and also to scale, but I still need to decide exactly how I want to scale. Right now, I’m mostly focusing on the product, and once the conversion rate is way higher, we can focus more on marketing and advertising. And since the company already makes more than enough revenue to cover all the expenses, I’m definitely not desperate for cash. But if an offer I can’t refuse comes up, I’d definitely take it just to have additional cash on hand to be able to spend to scale up when I need.
What would be your advice to other entrepreneurs trying to raise money?
Honestly, I got insanely lucky. All I can say is.. try to find the right people, rather than going from VC to VC – who don’t know what you’re doing and probably don’t really care much about your company either. Business angels tend to care more about what you’re building, maybe even share your passion. When I spoke to my angel investor, we spoke for such a long time exactly because we have the same passions, we love doing the same things. It just clicked, we have that same energy.
A very big part of a startup being a success is luck. But you can create your own luck by putting yourself out there often enough for luck to find you!
As a Palestinian startup, how hard was it for you to find an investor?
I didn’t really look into angel investors in Palestine, but I know Flow Accelerator is also working on creating their own business angel network. But there’s definitely significantly lower angel investors in Palestine than in other countries, like in Jordan. It’s insanely difficult to get investments in Palestine in general, there’s a lot of obstacles there, depending on who you’re dealing with. I’m lucky to have Jordanian citizenship, which allowed me to register the company in the US. They don’t accept Palestinian passports or IDs though, so without the Jordanian passport I wouldn’t have been able to get a US bank account, register for Stripe atlas and the like.
We really need more awareness of what tech startups are and why they matter. People don’t realise they can make something online to support themselves as well as the economy.
Is it really luck that played such an important part in your success so far?
A very big part of a startup being a success is luck. The idea, the product, the founder, they all matter.. but in the end, it all comes down to luck. What good is a good product if you’re not lucky enough for someone to find it and make it a success? You have to create your own luck. It basically comes down to this: you have to put yourself out there often enough for luck to find you. If the chance of success is 1% and you try once, you had 1% chance of succeeding. Try again, your chance increases to 2%. If you keep putting yourself out there, eventually luck will find you!
Building my business in Palestine, I’ve gotten a lot of doubt. Every time I’d speak about Databuddy, getting investors, selling my product internationally, overseas, setting up a company abroad.. my mom always thought I’m in the mafia or something, that what I’m doing is insanely illegal. We really need more awareness here of what tech startups are and why they matter, especially in places like Palestine. People don’t realise they can make something online to support themselves as well as the economy here. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be super difficult. A lot of people still think about setting up shop the traditional way, where you need to have physical presence, an office, do shipping.. that’s really no longer the case!
