William George

I keep a lot of plants, especially cactuses. They’re very satisfying to work with because they grow in bursts and they’re like living sculptures, with shapes you never find in other botanicals. In the light of an open fire, they cast fantastic shadows. They are full of surprises.

I was hired as a summer intern at ImportGenius in 2018. My stated goal was to mine the data for interesting stories and pitch them to media. I took the job not knowing if that goal was even achievable. I didn’t know what the data’s limitations were, or what level of detail it would provide.

As it turned out, the data contained everything. We had to teach journalists how to use the data, show them the value of it. We’ve since provided research support to media organizations around the world. We’ve worked on major investigations. According to MuckRack, over 10,000 stories per year are published worldwide mentioning ImportGenius.

This data will change the way you see the world. Nearly every last item in our surroundings — in our homes and offices and public spaces — has been part of trade flows. We are more dependent upon trade systems than we realize.

The planet’s trade flows paint a more accurate picture of the global economy than its financial flows. We have more detail about the trade flow ecause, after all, the trade in goods is usually what the money is being used for.

Data is agnostic, but the insight you get from data is not. Trade data can be used to refine business models or create entirely new enterprises.

It can help reroute global supply chains. It can uncover fraud, corruption, and the work of organized crime. It can expose ineffective government policy and help improve it. It’s a bottomless resource for just about any organization, and we help them mobilize it.