DCDR Becomes Decis Intelligence

Hey there

TL;DR, DCDR is becoming Decis Intelligence as this better reflects what the app does and the name is much less confusing. The switchover will be automatic, so there’s nothing you need to do.

When I chose the name Decider for the app, the URL DCDR.io was an easy-to-remember — and, more importantly, affordable and accessible — domain to use for the app.

Plus, I thought that people would easily connect DCDR to Decider, so there wouldn’t be much confusion.

Turns out I was wrong there….

However, the change isn’t just because the name I chose was confusing: it’s also because what the app is now doing is significantly different. Originally, DCDR was more focused on risk assessment and incident reporting and while those elements are still sitting there in the code base, I wasn’t able to properly mature these elements and get them to market effectively.

(In the meantime, my friends at HumanRisks and platforms like Hawksight have done a great job putting powerful, lightweight security risk management tools into the hands of security managers so there are simply better, more mature products out there now.)

Instead, the greatest interest has been in the geopolitical threat assessment element: something I originally thought would be a nice-to-have addition to DCDR. So, the side project that started with the ‘So What?’ newsletter back in late 2022 is now the mainstay of what I’m working on, even though this wasn’t my plan.

In a classic case of famous last words, in late 2023, I told a friend, “I’m not trying to build a J2 [intelligence] service”…before pivoting into exactly that in January.

Now, we* process thousands of news stories daily and compress these plus hundreds of thousands of data points each month — from conflict incidents to weather-related events, market behavior, and commodity data — into concise, fast, easy-to-use geopolitical tools for decision-makers. Decis.ai then wraps these up into a desktop and mobile app, news summaries and data feeds that integrate directly into users’ workflows.

So, it’s safe to say I’m not running a risk assessment app anymore.

Hence, the switch to Decis Intelligence, Decis.ai and a funky new logo.

So there’s a new product, new name, new email, and new blog all of which is changing as we speak.

But don’t worry, there’s nothing for you to do.

I’ll be working on the plumbing so the emails still work, the websites redirect, and you’ll be added to the Decis Intelligence blog** so you can check that out for yourself.

So there’s a lot that’s new but at the same time, this is a return to familiar ground.

Some of the tools I’m building now started as sketches I drew back then, imagining a way to automate risk and intelligence assessments. 

So, it’s taken me a while to bring these ideas to fruition. But I’m pleased to finally be back, working on what I’m most excited about: building the tools that will help you make better decisions, faster.

Carpe tomorrow!

*OK, this is very grand: it’s still mostly just me and the robots full-time but I have some folks supporting me too.

**If you’re also subscribed to my personal blog on risk, crisis, and whatever takes my fancy, that’s a whole separate setup at andrewsheves.com.

And as always, I don’t want to spam your inbox. If you don’t like the newsletter, you don’t like me, or you just get too much mail, hit unsubscribe below.