Process

How we turn chaos into

systems.

Every data product starts as a mess — fragmented sources, manual processes, inconsistent formats. We systematize it into something that runs automatically and makes money.
01
Phase One

Identify

Find data sources with untapped value. Public records, fragmented APIs, manual workflows ripe for automation.

What we look for
  • Data people currently pay for or gather manually
  • Public sources with inconsistent access
  • Information gaps where demand exists
  • Workflows involving copy-paste or repetitive research
02
Phase Two

Extract

Build reliable pipelines that pull data from the source. Handle authentication, pagination, rate limits, and edge cases.

Technical approach
  • Custom scrapers for web sources
  • API integrations for structured data
  • Document parsing for PDFs and filings
  • Scheduled jobs with monitoring
03
Phase Three

Enrich

Raw data is rarely useful alone. Cross-reference, validate, clean, and enhance. Add context that increases value.

Enrichment methods
  • Cross-referencing multiple sources
  • Appending data from secondary sources
  • Calculating derived fields and scores
  • Normalizing formats and cleaning data
04
Phase Four

Deliver

Package into formats customers can use. Automate delivery. Build portals for self-serve. Collect recurring payments.

Delivery options
  • Scheduled email delivery (CSV, Excel)
  • Shared spreadsheets with auto-updates
  • Web portals with search and export
  • REST APIs for programmatic access
Stack

Tools We Use

[Py]
Python
Extraction
{n8n}
n8n
Orchestration
[AT]
Airtable
Database
[SF]
Softr
Portals
[SB]
Supabase
Database
[ST]
Stripe
Payments
[AI]
Claude / GPT
Enrichment
[RW]
Railway
Hosting

How we think about data products.

01

Validate before you build

Manual first. Get someone to pay for a spreadsheet before you automate anything. Most data product ideas die at first contact with customers.

02

Freshness is a feature

Stale data is a commodity. Fresh data is valuable. The faster you can get information from source to customer, the more you can charge.

03

Enrichment creates moats

Anyone can scrape. The value is in what you add — cross-referencing, validation, derived insights. That's what makes your data defensible.

04

Automate the boring parts

Your time should go into finding opportunities and talking to customers — not copying data between spreadsheets. Automate everything repeatable.

05

Start narrow, expand later

One data type. One geography. One customer segment. Nail it, then expand. Broad products are hard to sell and harder to maintain.

06

Recurring beats one-time

Subscriptions compound. One-time sales don't. Design for recurring delivery and recurring revenue from day one.

What a typical build looks like.

Discovery to delivery in 2-4 weeks for most data products. We move fast because we validate before we build and use tools that don't require months of setup.

Ongoing maintenance is minimal once the pipeline is running — mostly monitoring and occasional source changes.

# Typical project timeline
$ headwater init --project new_feed
→ Week 1: Discovery + manual validation
→ Week 2: Build extraction pipeline
→ Week 3: Add enrichment + delivery
→ Week 4: Launch + first customers
→ Status: LIVE
$ headwater status
→ pipelines: running
→ last_sync: 2 hours ago
→ errors: 0
→ revenue: recurring
$ _
Get Started

Have a data problem?

Tell us what data you need or what manual process you want to automate. If it's viable, we'll tell you how we'd build it and what it would cost.
SYS.OPERATIONAL