Anand Sanwal, CB Insights // What's Next?

CB INSIGHTSTM1#DATADRIVENNYC@CBINSIGHTSCB INSIGHTSTM

WHAT’S NEXT? AND LESSONS LEARNED BUILDING A DATA COMPANYSEPTEMBER 8, 2015

CB INSIGHTSTM2#DATADRIVENNYC@CBINSIGHTS

CB INSIGHTSTM

CB Insights is a National Science Foundation backed company that uses data to provide VCs, corporate strategy, M&A teams and business development professionals with intelligence on emerging companies and disruptive technology trends.

CB Insights is based in NYC, is revenue-funded with an amazing talented team and growing like a weed.

To see how our data can make your life easier, visitwww.cbinsights.com

www.cbinsights.com [website]@cbinsights [Twitter]@asanwal [Twitter]


ABOUT US

#560

A few of our customers...

Mentioned by media over 500 times this year


Revenue-funded

Profitable & growing like a weed

24 people at the end of 2014

53 now and 70 by year end


What’s Next?

In God we trust, all

others must bring data


PROBABILITY TRUMPS PUNDITRY


WE’VE SEEN IT PLAY OUT IN OTHER FIELDS USING PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

Political Forecasting

Professional Sports


BUT MASSIVE BUSINESS DECISIONS STILL RELY ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ON PUNDITRY

• Who do we acquire?

• What’s the next big high-growth industry?

• Who is our next customer?

• Which startups/emerging threats might be disruptive to our existing business?

• What is our competitor’s strategy and likely next move?

• Which emerging business models, products, companies are gaining momentum?


CUZ TODAY, WE RELY ON MBAS

• Management consulting

• Industry analysts

• Sundry advisors


AND SO DECISIONS GET MADE LIKE THIS

Predictive analytics is not about replacing intuition but challenging and augmenting intuition


YOUR NEXT GREAT INVESTMENT (OR THREAT)

To find out which companies might be next to ascend, CB Insights, which tracks venture capital and start-ups, conducted an analysis for The New York Times. CB Insights used a proprietary software tool called Mosaic, which analyzes dozens of factors about a start-up, including the amount of money raised by a company, employee turnover, news and social media mentions, awards, customer growth and partnerships. It also examines the overall health of the industry in which the start-up competes, as well as what can be known about the quality of a company’s investors.

CB Insights won a grant from the National Science Foundation to build Mosaic, using machine learning and data science to turn unstructured text into a quantitative tool to measure company health.


MOSAIC - MONEYBALL FOR STARTUPS

Can we solve the thin file problem?

Score companies on the 3 Ms

• Market• Money• Momentum


YOUR NEXT ACQUISITION


THE NEXT HOT MARKET - FOLLOW THE MONEY


THE NEXT HOT MARKET – GOING BEYOND MONEY

Bring in other factors to identify hot, emerging industries:

• Money• Media sentiment• Chatter (news & social media)• Hiring activity in the industry• Quality of investors• Size & quality of acquirers• Past exits


THE NEXT HOT MARKET – SPOT THEM EARLY

Get alerted here


YOUR NEXT CUSTOMER

Sales processes are hopelessly antiquated

• Company similarity engine

• Ideal prospect profile to identify more companies like those

• Identify the lead and then give you ongoing intelligence to nurture that lead until they become a customer


WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOUR COMPETITORS?


WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOUR COMPETITORS?

The Business Social Graph showed Goldman’s bets in blockchain and bitcoin vs peers like JP Morgan Chase who’ve not made moves in the digital currency space.


LESSONS LEARNED

BUILDING A

DATA COMPANYYour mileage may vary(these are not rules)


COMMUNICATE WITH

PEOPLE LIKE THEY ARE


IF YOU’RE SELLING B2B, DON’T BE THE LOW-COST PROVIDER


DATA AND CONTENT ARE GREAT TO GET ATTENTION


DON’T BUILD IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SANDBOX

“Don’t be a Google Bitch,

don’t be a Facebook Bitch,

and Don’t be a Twitter Bitch.

Be your own Bitch.”


WE’RE NOT SELLING DATA. WE’RE SELLING WHAT DATA ENABLES.

Look good in front of your boss, customers, partners, etc.


GOD ALGORITHMS ARE TOUGH TO SELL (ESPECIALLY RIGHT OUT OF THE GATES)

Build trust & credibility with your data over time.

Offer visibility into how the algo works and it’s drivers.

Then predictive analytics and God algorithms become more practical.


BIG COMPANIES WHO WANT TO “PARTNER” BUT HAVE NO MONEY ARE A WASTE OF TIME

“Joint value creation”


Distribution partnerships

sound good but...they almost never work


ONCE YOU HAVE DATA, CUSTOMERS WILL TELL YOU WHERE THEY WANT YOU TO GO


CB INSIGHTSTM

CB Insights is a National Science Foundation backed company that uses data to provide VCs, corporate strategy, M&A teams and business development professionals with intelligence on emerging companies and disruptive technology trends.

CB Insights is based in NYC, is revenue-funded with an amazing talented team and growing like a weed.

To see how our data can make your life easier, visitwww.cbinsights.com

www.cbinsights.com [website]@cbinsights [Twitter]@asanwal [Twitter]

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Anand Sanwal, CB Insights // What's Next?

Data & Analytics