Skip to main content

How one popular financial analyst blogger uses Power BI to engage readers

Headshot of article author Lukasz Pawlowski

Creating compelling stories that attract readers in a sea of competitive publications and content choices has never been harder. By using the unique capabilities of Microsoft Power BI, Seeking Alpha Financial Analyst Dallas Salazar has risen above the pack to write attention-grabbing articles on financial news. Since beginning to use Power BI in early 2016, Salazar has seen a noticeable positive impact to the speed and clarity of his research.

“Writing for a data-based firm, I appreciate the flexibility of Power BI which enables me to focus on providing analysis, insights and guidance instead of building complex calculations and queries,” said Salazar. “I’ve been able to go from building data to building insights and writing content made stronger by the context the visuals provide.”

Salazar also leverages SandDance, a plug-in for Power BI, that provides ease of use for data visualizations, pattern identification, trends and insights. The app supports a new genre of visualizations, where every data element is always represented on the screen and is part of a custom visual in Power BI. It allows you to have more control over the information so you can customize the intuitive user experience.

“Data is driving innovation and creating more opportunities than ever before,” said Salazar. “By leveraging the data, I can build more intelligence into my research by using tools that bring my stories to life. This is literally the future of my firm.”

Salazar is CEO of an Austin-based enterprise consulting firm that specializes in private company lifecycle management, including taking companies public. He also consults for publicly traded companies with market caps ranging from $100 million to $500 million.

Salazar specializes in deal flow management and is often the referring and closing source of joint ventures and broader M&A. Data is key to helping him identify opportunities to shareholders, investors and paying subscribers of his blog.