Sep 14, 2015 · 26m · mad
Anand Sanwal, CB Insights // What's Next? (Hosted by FirstMark Capital)
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Anand Sanwal, CEO and Founder of CB Insights, presents at DataDrivenNYC to demonstrate how data-driven predictive analytics can replace traditional punditry in strategic corporate decision-making. He also shares candid, practical lessons on scaling a profitable B2B data startup from inception to market leadership.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Matt holds 7.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Matt as informed peer 0.8 Guest teaching 3.5 Guest disagreement 1.7 Matt pushing back 0.5
speaking balance: gold is Matt, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 25:00 Challenging VC network value
Anand bluntly asserts that most VCs overstate their network value and lack proprietary deal flow, directly teasing the host.
Hardest push from Matt ▶ 25:10 Host defends FirstMark deal flowMatt humorously interrupts Anand's claim about VCs lacking proprietary deal flow by declaring 'We, we do.'
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 16:35 Reframing Bloomberg vs McKinsey positioningAnand reframes Matt's comparison to Bloomberg by explaining that CB Insights targets the advisory and intelligence market dominated by McKinsey.
Matt holds his own ▶ 19:12 Synthesizing data startup sales realitiesMatt demonstrates industry depth by articulating how data startups usually falter trying to sell raw data before realizing buyers only pay for emotional outcomes and solutions.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Matt as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Matt pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CB Insights Background and Growth | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Anand gives a monologue presentation introducing CB Insights and its focus on replacing intuition with predictive data analytics. As this is a solo presentation, host-side metrics are zero. | |
| Spotting the Next Unicorns with Mosaic | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Anand presents the Mosaic scoring model to address thin-file private companies using Market, Money, and Momentum signals. Host-side scores remain zero during this monologue portion. | |
| Data Applications: M&A, Markets, Leads, and Competitors | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Anand details practical data applications like topic modeling for M&A and tracking competitor strategic bets like Goldman vs JPM. Host scores are zero due to the monologue format. | |
| Lessons Learned: Communication, Pricing, and Data Control | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Anand delivers candid advice on avoiding low-cost pricing models and controlling primary data sources to prevent supply chain risks. Host metrics remain zero for this solo presentation section. | |
| Lessons Learned: Value Selling, Trust, and Partnerships | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Anand strongly cautions against unpaid corporate partnerships and advocates selling business outcomes over raw algorithms. Host metrics are zero as the monologue concludes. | |
| Q&A Session: Vision, Growth, and Industry Insights | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Matt engages with informed observations about selling solutions versus raw data and pushes back jokingly when Anand claims VCs overstate network deal flow. Anand educates the audience on why CB Insights targets McKinsey rather than just Bloomberg. |
Statements from this episode (14)
CB Insights has taken no outside capital besides NSF grants
“We're back by the NSF, so it's the only money we've taken”
Business lags behind sports and politics in adopting predictive analytics
“Political forecasting, professional sports have sort of adopted predictive analytics and used it to make better decisions. The business world really hasn't, right?”
CB Insights collaborated with The New York Times to predict unicorns
“Last week we worked with the New York Times on trying to predict The next unicorns, right?”
CB Insights is running pilots with legacy credit bureaus
“I don't think we're going to be a replacement for, ah, the DNBs and experience of the world. You know, we're sort of actually doing pilots with them to see if we can integrate our data into their risk models, right?”
CB Insights received 143 sales emails after NSF funding announcement
“We had a funding announcement. It was a small, the NSF funding a couple weeks ago. I've been tracking it. So we've gotten a 143 inbound emails from salespeople.”
JPMorgan is avoiding blockchain and digital currency, unlike Goldman Sachs
“When you compare that, for instance, to JP Morgan, you don't, you see JP Morgan has sort of avoided the digital currency space, right? They're not doing anything in blockchain or Bitcoin you know, like Goldman is, right?”
Sanwal advises B2B data startups against being the low-cost provider
“Do not be the low-cost provider. Like, just do, like, again, I'm going to be very emphatic about these, this advice, but You know, your mileage may vary. We started at some ridiculously low price, like, just don't do that.”
CB Insights stopped licensing third-party data to avoid platform risk
“Now that we've been burned a couple times by some big companies that, you know, made a strategic decision to go in a different direction, we no longer build in other people's sandboxes, right? We're gonna go get the data ourselves”
Selling predictive algorithms requires giving visibility into underlying drivers
“I think if people don't know who you are, and you come out and say, hey, I can predict X, Y, and Z really well with this score it's a really tough sell. So I think, you know, you have to build trust and credibility. You have to give visibility into the drivers…”
Unfunded corporate partnerships with startups are always a waste of time
“Oh god, yeah so big companies will come to you. If you're a startup here, they'll come to you and say, hey, we don't have any money, but we want to do a partnership, and like, they'll use terms like joint value creation. Like, you should just run fast from the…”
Distribution partnerships almost never work for startups
“And then, sort of similar, distribution partnerships sound good, but they almost never work.”
CB Insights sees a bigger opportunity competing with McKinsey than Bloomberg
“I, you know, I really think of us more, to some degree, going after, like, McKinsey, right? So if you think about McKinsey services as a pyramid, there's sort of that bottom layer, which is sort of, you know, what are my competitors doing, and where are market…”