Me
Hi, I’m Reuben Cummings, a Peoria native, open source enthusiast, and Pythonista. I believe the ability to understand data is key to making informed decisions. To this end, I have made it my mission to lower the barriers to transforming data and extracting meaningful information from it.
With this data driven mindset, I help software companies eliminate inefficiencies and identify how customers are using their products and services. Whether you suffer from problems with customer engagement, churn, operating expenses, or productivity, we can work together to devise a solution. When your data starts talking, I’m the one you want listening.
As a skilled developer and analyst, I specialize in collecting and interpreting business data to uncover a path to increased profitability. I’ve worked with Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, and startups alike to build business intelligence systems, automated reporting solutions, and interactive dashboards.
As part of my service offerings, I can help you answer questions such as the following:
- How can we automate these time consuming manual processes?
- How do customers use our product?
- Which customer segment should we market to and how do we identify them?
- Which product features provide the most customer benefit? The least?
- Is our pricing model sustainable?
And in the course of answering those questions, I may employ any of a number of analytical tools or methodologies including:
- pricing optimization
- trend analysis & forecasting
- customer insight & segmentation
- key performance indicator (KPI) monitoring
- web application development
- database architecture and migration
- API development and integration
- enterprise resource planning (ERP)
- A/B testing
- data analysis and visualization
My interests span technology, finance, healthcare, entrepreneurship, and traveling.
My Bio
Reuben Cummings is an international speaker and trainer who uses data to show entrepreneurs and product owners how to make better decisions regarding their operations, customers, and products. Skilled in data analysis, software development, and entrepreneurship, he recommends and implements cost saving and/or revenue generating actions.
Reuben is Founder & Managing Director of Nerevu Development and has worked with clients including the UN Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), Moringa School, and Africa’s Talking. Reuben specializes in collecting and interpreting business data to uncover a path to increased profitability.
Reuben previously served in IT and Business Development roles at social enterprise Global Cycle Solutions (GCS) in Arusha, Tanzania; and was an analyst at MIDIOR Consulting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is Lead Organizer of the Arusha Coders meetup.
My Life
I first learned to code in BASIC at the age of 13 on a VTECH Pre-Computer POWER PAD. In high school I wrote games for my TI-81 calculator; and by college I had mastered Excel Pivot Tables and dabbled with with Linux shell scripting.
I graduated from MIT in 2005 with a degree in Chemical Engineering. During my time there I worked summer research internships at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Proctor & Gamble and soon realized R&D wasn’t my cup of tea. Not long afterwards I found out about the MIT E-Club and fell in love with entrepreneurship. Shortly thereafter, I co-founded Entreprelliance, an intercollegiate entrepreneurship organization; and CarboTran Technologies, a failed clean-energy startup.
Upon graduating from MIT, I had made my first website in PHP and began creating VBA Excel applications. I went on to found Pensero Group, a financial reporting and analysis consulting firm; and worked as a business consultant at MIDIOR Consulting helping clients develop new-product strategies.
Throughout this time, I developed database (MS Access and SQLite) applications, automated reporting solutions, and business intelligence systems. I also expanded my PHP and BASH scripting abilities.
Having lived in Cambridge, MA for ten years, I left the US in 2010 to work for Global Cycle Solutions (GCS) in Arusha, Tanzania. At GCS I worked on various projects including accounting and financial modeling, sales, marketing, strategy, ERP and reporting systems, employee training, and recruitment.
During this period, I found Python and fell in love with its simplicity and elegance. I soon replaced PHP with it as my language of choice for new script or web development projects. I use Python almost extensively for automating basic tasks, performing data analysis, and creating or integrating with APIs.
I left GCS in late 2012, to pursue freelancing opportunities in web and software development. Since then, I added offline-capable, responsive, web applications to my skill set.
In 2014, I founded the data analytics firm Nerevu Development.
My Interests
Finance/Investing
I started investing at the end of 1999 at the age of 17. Unknown to me at the time, I couldn’t have picked a worse period to begin… this was the beginning of the market collapse of 2000. I’ve learned a lot since then and am convinced about the principles of dollar cost averaging, passive index investing, and asset allocation. I’m also enamored with hedge funds and in the process of developing an application to unlock the secrets of replicating their returns.
Travel
I love to travel and have so far been to around 20 countries including 13 in Africa. I occasionally post pictures from my travels here.