Today we will introduce CHEQUER, the first company from 2020 Spring’s LunchTalk. Chequer is a technology-based startup that develops SQLGate, an integrated development environment (IDE), and QueryPie, an integrated analysis environment (IAE). It is the first domestic company in the data solution field to be accepted to Y-Combinator and was selected as a new service partner of GitHub. Chequer is not only renowned in Korea but also abroad with over 2,000 partner companies worldwide. Let’s meet the CEO of Chequer, Inseo Hwang!

CHEQUER is a global startup developing an integrated data analysis environment. We develop the No.1 database IDE ‘SQLGate’ and ‘Querypie’, which integrates SQL/Python data analysis workflows into a single integrated data analysis environment. We decided to start our business in 2016 after seeing the importance of data-related decision making and collaboration in many companies. Since then, we have been developing our service to resolve the inconvenience of people who deal with data.

Data management becomes important in a time where data is flooded. It seems like Chequer opened the service market for companies to efficiently manage data and collaborate!

Before I established Chequer, I worked as a developer at the commerce platform team at Kakao. Our team frequently collaborated with other teams, so I received a lot of requests such as data extraction and analysis. I saw a potential for our product in the market when I realized that there weren’t many IDEs that allowed writing and analyzing SQL queries quickly and easily while supporting different OSs and data sources. All the more, the lack of data analysis tools focused on collaboration pushed me to create a new service.

So SQL became the reason for starting Chequer, and that is why you developed SQLGate.

[SQLGate on the Student Developer Pack and Teacher Toolbox in the GitHub platform]

SQLGate is a database development and management tool with more than 2,000 customers from public sectors to financial, manufacturing, and IT sectors in Korea. SQLGate was serviced and recognized in Korea even before the establishment of Chequer, but we wanted to take a challenge in the global market and newly developed our product. We added new features to SQLGate such as subscription services and a cloud environment, and are providing various features for developers and database administrators (DBA). Chequer recently finished the registration of its solution SQLGate on the Student Developer Pack in the GitHub platform, and saw a 30% increase in subscribers from the global market.

It seems like partnering with GitHub brought great results! We heard Chequer developed a block chain-based solution with data sharing and collaborative tools that can also prevent data leakage and security issues.

[QueryPie App Image]

Chequer’s main service QueryPie is based on the problems that I experienced while starting our business. We initially aimed to develop a cross-platform IDE designed to work on various OS environments, including Windows, Mac, and Linux. After developing the product for 6 months, we launched an open-beta service in July 2019, targeting global users. From UI/UX to marketing, we focused on targeting the global market and successfully entered the market with 70% of international users. We are continuously developing into an integrated analysis platform for data scientists and analysts through validating our Product-Market-Fit based on user feedback.

Our biggest achievement is that we brought remarkable results in the global market which we target. We are continuously bringing in new subscribers without any advertisement by uploading blog contents on communities for early developers and introducing our product on communities such as ProductHunt and Slant.

In addition, we were able to introduce our product and meet customers in the global market through various startup support programs such as KOTRA, KIC and Born2Global, which became a good opportunity to verify our product in the market and find new needs. In fact, we were able to find a demand for a data warehouse market and apply it to our product while participating in conferences in the U.S. like TechCrunch.

Since then, we endeavored to expand our product in the United States, among which are getting accepted to the globally famous Y-Combinator batch as the first data-related domestic startup. Through this opportunity, we were able to receive help in local networking and investment and make create worthy results in the U.S. market.

The technology developed by Chequer seems well-known in the global market, and I believe startup support programs helped in developing the technology. Being accepted to the Y-Combinator batch as the first domestic startup in the data field is also a remarkable achievement. We expect Chequer to become more well known in the global market such as the United States.

[QueryPie as a Integrated Data Analysis Environment]

There are numerous data-related tools in the market, but they all require installing, converting and linking many tools to run SQL, Python, and R. In addition, data analysists waste time saving, editing and sharing data analysis results. QueryPie integrates the data analysis process of Data Extraction (SQL) → Analysis (Python/R) → Sharing (Slack, Mail) into one workspace, increasing the productivity of data analysts. Team collaboration is made easier through our SQL Editor and data/query sharing features, and we are working towards a better analysis environment by integrating Python Notebook and Git Storage.

QueryPie integrates the data analysis process, increasing the efficiency and productivity in companies. QueryPie makes a good fit for companies’ solution for connecting databases. Chequer’s SQLGate and QueryPie are expected to create great synergy when collaborating with multiple platforms, and have a huge impact in the global market. We are amazed how Chequer developed SQLGate and QueryPie.

Our strengths come from the technical skills and expertise of our team. Our team has the best software experts in Korea, from the database expert who worked on database IDEs for 15 years to front-end developers with an amazing Open Source Web UI career. Over the past few years, we quickly and repeatedly launched our products into the market through endless discussions while developing our products. Also, our biggest strength is that our team constantly tried to reflect customer feedback into our product.

As expected, teams of experts are different! No company can match the the technical skills and expertise of the team. Constant discussion and reflecting user feedback also seems important in improving product quality ????

Our goal is for QueryPie to allow companies to achieve the same results while saving 60~70% of the work time by integrating data resources into one workplace and allowing data analysists to focus solely on analysis. Our ultimate vision is to find and determine meaningful data through analyzing and learning SQL/Python/R codes written by data analysts to discover connections between data sets.

The increase in data used requires exact analysis of data. QueryPie increases the efficiency of data analysis and supports team collaboration, standing out in the data solution market. We look forward to seeing Chequer develop into a firm software company in the global market.

So far, we have met Chequer’s CEO Inseo Hwang ????