10 Things You Didn’t Know about Josh Patterson
Josh Patterson is the CEO of Voltron Data. Said company’s name has been showing up in business news in recent times because of the reveal that it has managed to raise $110 million. Something that bodes well for Voltron Data’s future.
1. Based Out of Charleston, SC
Patterson seems to be based out of the Charleston metropolitan area in South Carolina. The city has been around for quite some time. This can be seen in how it was established during the reign of its namesake Charles II, who was the King of Scotland from 1649 to 1651 and then the King of Scotland, England, and Ireland from 1660 to 1685. Those numbers can seem rather strange. However, they are the way that they are because the royalists lost the English Civil War with the result that a Stuart restoration wasn’t possible until 1660.
2. His Company Is Based Out of California
Curiously, Patterson’s company doesn’t seem to be based out of South Carolina. Instead, it seems to be based out of California. To be exact, Patterson’s company seems to be based out of Mountain View, CA, which is named thus because it offers some excellent views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The choice isn’t that strange. After all, Mountain View is part of Silicon Valley, as shown by how it is home to numerous tech companies of note.
3. Went to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Education-wise, Patterson went to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is a very well-known school. For context, said school is the flagship school of the entire University of North Carolina system. Furthermore, it is considered to be one of the Public Ivies.
4. Went to University of South Carolina
Speaking of which, Patterson went to the University of South Carolina as well. Unsurprisingly, said school is the flagship school of the University of South Carolina, as shown by how its name doesn’t even bother with being more specific about its location. As for where the school is situated, well, that would be Columbia, SC, which would be the state’s capital.
5. Studied Economics
Currently, Patterson is serving as the CEO of a tech start-up. As a result, interested individuals might be tempted to guess that he studied either computer science or something related to computer science when he was in school. That isn’t the case. Instead, Patterson studied economics for both his bachelor’s degree and his master’s degree. To be fair, economics isn’t exactly the most uncommon subject of study for people who eventually head into business, seeing as how it is so useful for the latter. Microeconomics is a very useful way of understanding economic decision-making on the individual level. Meanwhile, macroeconomics is very useful for understanding the business environment in which businesses operate.
6. Has Done a Fair Amount of Government Work
Patterson has done a lot of work for businesses. To name some examples, he has worked at Freddie Mac, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Nvidia. However, it is interesting to note that he has done a fair amount of government work as well. For example, he was a research consultant for South Carolina’s Department of Commerce for a short period of time. Similarly, he was a member of an advisory committee for the U.S. Census Bureau.
7. Foresaw Usefulness of GPUs for Analytics
When Patterson was working at Nvidia, he and his colleagues foresaw the ability for GPUs to speed up analytics. This can sound rather strange. After all, GPUs are GPUs, meaning that they were purpose-build for graphics. However, it should be mentioned that the same capabilities that make them useful for graphics also make them useful for other applications such as machine learning and scientific computation. As such, this is nowhere near as strange as it sounds.
8. Co-Founded Voltron Data
Patterson is one of the two co-founders of Voltron Data. The other co-founder is Wes McKinney. Currently, Patterson is serving as the CEO while McKinney is serving as the CTO. Considering that Voltron Data is so focused on the software framework called Apache Arrow, it seems safe to say that CTO is also a very important position for the company. This seems to be the first time that Patterson is serving as a CEO. However, he has had senior managerial experience, with an excellent example being how he was a senior director when he was working at Nvidia just before co-founding Voltron Data.
9. Plans to Use the Funding to Speed Up
Interestingly, Patterson has mentioned that his company plans to use the funding to speed up. Essentially, it is struggling with a complicated problem. As a result, Voltron Data doesn’t want to wait to work on problems until it has been blindsided by them. Instead, it wants to get ahead of those problems, which should make for the smoothest expansion process. However, there is no way for it to do that unless it can pinpoint those problems ahead of time. Something that won’t be cheap to say the least. Never mind the resources needed to come up with solutions for those problems as well as make those solutions available to more interested individuals.
10. Believes in Building a Diverse and Inclusive Company
Patterson has mentioned his belief in building a diverse and inclusive company, which for him, seems to be a place where everyone can feel like they are being heard and being empowered. He has mentioned that Voltron Data has been recruiting a wide range of people with a wide range of backgrounds, with the result that its employees are about 20 percent African American, 15 percent Hispanic, and 15 percent Asian. Similarly, its employees are about 20 percent women, which is presumably one of the things that he was thinking about when he mentioned wanting to continue improving the diversity of his workforce. The low number of women working in the tech industry is a well-known issue. The exact causes are unclear, but common explanations include unwelcome environments, the lack of other women working at tech companies, and recruitment missteps on the part of tech companies.
