Big data for little devices

Currently in private beta, Wild said Keen has big plans coming up, including building its own visualization layer and exiting from private beta into a freemium business model. Even though enterprise developers will likely always be Keen's revenue-generating users, Wild said the company's advisers have pushed the importance of building a strong developer base in order to attract mindshare, improve the product and, maybe most importantly, spur bottom-up adoption of Keen by their employers a la New Relic.

The company as well faces an upcoming challenge

Spraetz noted the company as well faces an upcoming challenge, though it's one most startups would kill to have: Though Keen currently runs on dedicated infrastructure in SoftLayer's cloud, it keeps racking up cloud computing credits on other platforms just as Rackspace and Amazon Web Services as it makes its way through programs just as TechStars, and it has has to think of some creative ways to use them.