Milestone
First Anniversary Celebration
Ara Platforms celebrates its first anniversary, serving a growing community of data professionals across the country.
Our Founders
The Minds Behind Ara
Combining deep expertise in data science, AI, and product development to solve the analytics chaos problem.
Kyle Johnson
Co-Founder & Chief Builder
Former Senior Data Scientist at Meta (2018-2024), where he built AI systems for Reality Labs and machine translation. Columbia CS & Statistics grad with a unique background as a Marine Corps veteran.
Kyle founded Tidewater Research, an AI R&D lab, and is passionate about making advanced analytics accessible to all teams. His vision: "Every analysis should make the next one easier."
Mari Soonsoo Bae
Co-Founder & CEO
Former Google Program Manager (2020-2023), where she led system integration and customer growth analysis projects that saved millions in operational costs. MBA from University of Washington with deep expertise in business strategy.
Mari brings unique perspective from both Google and Microsoft, understanding how enterprise teams struggle to preserve analytical insights.
Our Story
Why We Built Ara
After years in big tech, we saw the same problem everywhere: brilliant analyses getting lost, teams recreating work, and knowledge failing to compound.
Kyle and Mari, who met in 2020 while working in tech in Seattle and later married, bonded over a shared frustration: despite all the advances in data tooling, analytics teams still work in silos, constantly reinventing the wheel.
At Meta, Kyle watched data scientists spend weeks recreating analyses that had been done before, simply because there was no way to find or build upon previous work. At Google, Mari saw program managers struggle to track which analyses led to which decisions, with insights scattered across emails, docs, and Slack threads.
In 2023, they interviewed over 70 analytics teams across industries. The pattern was clear: from Fortune 500 companies to boutique consultancies, everyone faced the same chaos. Teams were spending 60% of their time on duplicate work. New hires took months to understand what had already been analyzed. Critical insights were lost when employees left.
"We realized that while engineers have Git to version and share code, analysts have nothing equivalent for their work. That's when we knew we had to build Ara."
Today, Ara serves over 1,000 teams who've collectively saved millions of hours by turning their scattered analyses into a searchable, versionable knowledge base. But we're just getting started. Our vision is a world where every analysis builds on what came before, where insights compound like interest, and where analytics teams can focus on new discoveries instead of recreating the past.
Our Journey
Building the Future of Analytics Collaboration
From an idea born out of frustration to a platform trusted by thousands of teams worldwide.
Press
Featured in Virginia Business
Ara Platforms is featured in Virginia Business, highlighting how Mari and Kyle refined their idea through Startup Virginia's Idea Factory incubator program.
Speaking
Kyle Presents "Vibe Coding" at CarMax
Kyle delivers a talk titled "Vibe Coding: Building Full Products Without Looking at Code" at CarMax Richmond, showcasing the potential of AI-powered development tools.
Launch
Beta Version Launch
Ara Platforms launches its beta version, receiving positive feedback from early adopters eager to transform how they manage data stories.
Funding
First Grant Funding - $50K from VIPC
The company secures its first grant funding of $50,000 from Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), validating our vision and providing crucial early capital.
Founded
Ara Platforms Founded
Ara Platforms is officially founded in Richmond, VA, with a mission to create a knowledge hub for data professionals.
Beginning
The Concept is Born
Mari and Kyle conceptualize Ara Platforms, aiming to create a knowledge hub for data professionals to store, collaborate, and share data stories.
Our Values
What Drives Us
The principles that guide every decision we make at Ara.
Knowledge Should Compound
Every analysis should make the next one easier. We're building a world where teams stand on the shoulders of their previous work, not start from scratch.
Transparency Builds Trust
We believe in radical transparency - with our customers, our team, and our community. Our roadmap is public, our metrics are shared, and our mistakes are learning opportunities.
Time is Precious
We're obsessed with saving our customers time. Every feature we build must demonstrably reduce duplicate work and accelerate insights.
Simplicity Scales
Complex problems don't require complex solutions. We strive for elegant simplicity that works for teams of 5 or 500.
Join Us in Eliminating Analytics Chaos
We're always looking for talented people who share our vision of a world where analytics teams can focus on discoveries, not duplicates. Interested in joining our team? Reach out to hello@araplatforms.com to explore opportunities.