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Anand Sanwal

Executive Chair & Co-Founder, CB Insights · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveinvestorauthor@asanwal ↗LinkedIn ↗anandsanwal.me ↗

Sanwal co-founded CB Insights in 2008 and served as its longtime CEO before transitioning to Executive Chair in 2024. He previously managed the Chairman's Innovation Fund at American Express.

39statements → 7claims → 1claims resolved → 3.78/5average certainty → 1.11/5average debate potential → 12said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · 3 opinions · 24 insights · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Anand argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Sanwal: Most tech company exits are under $200 million
“Most exits of technology companies are sub- two hundred million dollars, so you read all of this sort of VC survivorship bias in the media.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 18:08 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Anand Sanwal on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Anand Sanwal said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Sanwal: Best practices produce average results and will not build exceptional companies
“Best practices are for losers, full stop. They're for people who want to be average. Like, nobody who follows best practices builds great companies or builds exceptional companies.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 23:45 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Opinion
Sanwal: Odds that VC alone changes startup trajectory are close to nil
“The odds that a VC alone is going to change the trajectory of your business is close to nil.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 4:33 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Giving early employees C-level titles causes organizational friction later
“If somebody's gonna be a CTO when you're three people, and then you get to 30, and that person no longer is relevant in that role, then you're gonna have to top them, they're gonna look like they took a demotion, it just creates all sorts of agita and anxiety …”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 8:06 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Consensus-driven culture results in a 'shit brown culture'
“If you give everybody input into what the culture's gonna become, you're gonna have a shit brown culture. And so what you got to do is say, nope, this is our culture, and we're going to spike on these two colors, and that's it”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 21:00 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Do not hire candidates with a track record of startup failures
“When you see somebody who's taking a lot of L's, like, you know, hey, I was at a startup, it failed, my prior startup had this problem, and you look at their resume, and it's just like a string of losses, like, don't hire that person.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 22:32 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Opinion
Sanwal: Focusing on personal branding as an entrepreneur is nonsense
“You know, if you care about your personal brand, and you really, if that's what, you know, like, all that shit is nonsense, so it won't be good for y'all.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 2:33 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Disclosure
CB Insights has reached ~$100M ARR without a PR firm
“We're kind of in that hundred million ARR category, and we don't have a PR firm still”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 5:26 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sanwal: CB Insights' outfunded competitors all failed or are struggling
“We've been outfunded by numerous competitors. They've all they've all failed or aren't doing very well. So, money is just oxygen. It doesn't buy you the ability to execute, and I think that's really important.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 9:20 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Selling SaaS products to startups is 'the perfect SaaS hell'
“We used to sell the startups in the early days, and maybe this has evolved, but, you know, they die, they churn, they require lots of support, they don't have a lot of money, so it's kind of like the perfect SAS hell.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 10:08 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Early-stage founders should prioritize revenue before fixing tech debt
“Don't worry about perfecting your tech too early. So again, this one changes with scale, but in the beginning, I remember we used to have conversations about, like, oh, we got tech debt, and I was like, hey, we don't have any fucking revenue. Like, I don't car…”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 11:43 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Hacker News Front Page Is Useless for Non-Developer SaaS
“Unless you sell developer tools, like, totally useless, right? We would get, we did get there a couple times. Our Google Analytics traffic spiked, and then we just got, you know, a bunch of people who said our product sucks in the comments, so that was fun.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 15:56 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Startups Should Innovate in Product, Not HR
“Don't try to innovate in HR. So your focus is to build a product, and your innovation should be in the product.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 16:13 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Conference panel discussions are useless for speakers and audiences
“Panel discussions by definition are garbage, because everybody agrees with each other, so don't participate in them. They're just, they're useless, For the speakers, they're useless for the audience. It's like a, it's just mutually self-assured destruction.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 19:07 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Needing a pros and cons list means you shouldn't hire someone
“When you're hiring somebody, if you're ever doing a pros and cons list, that tells, that means you shouldn't hire them. Immediately.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 20:32 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Opinion
Sanwal: MarTech and SalesTech vendors sell expensive software for fake problems
“MarTech and SalesTech vendors are so good at creating problems that don't exist. And so what you're going to end up buying is a lot of expensive software that you don't use for a problem that they've convinced you to buy.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 22:54 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Executive hires must contribute within 30 days, not 90
“90 days to get up to speed for execs is way too long. They should be contributing in 30 days. Like, I need to do a 90 day listening tour? That's bullshit. You gotta get in there and get some shit done quickly.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 25:29 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Managers who have never fired someone are not good managers
“If you haven't, if somebody has never let somebody go, they're not a good manager. At scale. Like, if you haven't, haven't had the hard conversation, that's a problem.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 25:40 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Do not convince job candidates who reject an initial offer
“If somebody says no to your offer initially, just let it go. Like convincing them. You're always gonna be, if they do come, you're always, they're always gonna be wondering, did I make the right decision? You're always gonna be wondering, are they happy? There…”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 26:09 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Study positive deviants in sales rather than averages
“What you actually want to look for is what people will call positive deviance. So the people who, with the same amount of information and the same training, are actually over-delivering, and that's who you want to study, right?”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 3:37 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: New hires decide career longevity in first 30 days
“People make a decision about whether they feel like they can build a career in your organization in the first 30 days”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 4:00 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Founders who hire under pressure will always regret it
“Never hire under pressure. So, we've had a senior VP role available, or a marketing role open for 15 months, and the team's like, Hey, this person's pretty good. Can we just hire them? Like, never do that. If you ever hire under pressure, you will regret it, r…”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 7:03 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: New hires you don't love immediately won't improve over time
“If you don't love them when they join, you're definitely not gonna love them in six months.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 7:23 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Founders cannot hire a savior without understanding the problem first
“There's no one hire messiah. It doesn't work out. You have to have a fundamental understanding of the problem before you can just go hire somebody.”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 13:29 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company
Insight
Sanwal: Never hire an executive without effusive reference checks
“Do hardcore reference checks on your execs. If you don't get effusive reference checks, Don't hire that person, right? If somebody that you're hiring at the senior level, especially, can't put together five people who are gonna say they're the best things in s…”
Anand Sanwal Jul 21, 2023 ▶ 13:40 Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company

Show 15statements(15 left)

The other half of the tape: Anand Sanwal's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 12 times in 6 episodes on Top Founders. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 8Mark Kilens 2Ken Hoppe 1David Appel 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00428320162017201820192020202120222023episodesmentions
02320162017201820192020202120222023episodes it came up in
001.51.53320162017201820192020202120222023episodesmentions per episode
2023 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2016 8 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
EP 437: SaaS $10m Raised, $8m+ 2015 Revenue, The Algorithmic Mckinsey with CB Insights CEO Oct 4, 2016 12m

Played on the show (1)

Episodes where a recording of Anand Sanwal was played rather than Anand taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
Don't do these 68 things in your SaaS company Jul 21, 2023 23m aired address
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