Shawn Cao

About

I spent 18 years in big tech, building digital products like applications, search engines, and big data infrastructure, with roles at Microsoft (8 years), Facebook (5 years), and Pinterest (3 years). My startup journey began with Nebula, an open-source analytics engine, and grew into creating accessible products for underserved communities. With Columns, our mission is to make data storytelling simple for non-technical users. We achieve this through fast cloud-based data processing, analytics, AI, and exceptional design. We also support a financial data product, Fina (fina.money)

Work

Founder & Leadership at Fina

Links

Maker History

• 

  RechartBuild and share interactive data apps with your clients

  Oct 2025
• 

  Columns5 minutes from data to story
  ColumnsApr 2025
  Columns for NotionJun 2023
• 

  FinaCreate Your Ultimate Personalized Finance Tracker!
  Fina MoneyNov 2024
  FinaMay 2024
  FinaMay 2023
• 

  VisitVisualize your data from a single command at your terminal

  Aug 2022
• 

  Visualize your real-time streamsConnect your real-time data and analyze it interactively.

  Mar 2022
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Joined Product HuntNovember 14th, 2021