Sign inJoin
6
1 Comment

🔢 Data as a Service: Insights as a Service, Competing with AI, Cold Sales Agencies

by dru_riley

In this Trends.vc Report, we talk about how data marketplaces make it easier to buy and sell data, how AI will streamline data management, branded metrics, boosting margins and more.

💎 Why It Matters

You can gain a competitive edge by fueling your decisions with the right data.

🔍 Problem

You need to make better decisions.

💡 Solution

DaaS helps you focus on your core competency. While outsourcing data collection and processing.

🏁 Players

DaaS Companies

  • Ahrefs • Search queries, volume, links, keywords and more
  • Abstract API • Data on phones, emails and more
  • Hunter • Database of verified business and work emails
  • Built With • Analytics, advertising, hosting, CMS and other tools that websites use
  • Apollo • AI-powered database of B2B leads
  • Quandl • Data on private jets, jobs, forex transactions and more
  • WordStream • Ads and keyword grader

Data Tools

🔮 Predictions

  • We’ll see more data marketplaces. Data can be a hard sell. Marketplaces will foster transactions with curation, ratings and more.
  • Consumers will opt in for active and passive data sharing.
  • AI will help us save time collecting, cleaning and interpreting data. It doesn't need to sleep, eat or rest.
  • NewtonX uses AI for audience research.
  • Crayon uses AI to separate signal from noise.
  • Gazelle uses AI to forecast fast-growing companies.

☁️ Opportunities

  • Build an AI-powered data analytics tool. Let users use AI to clean, analyze and visualize data.
  • Build a cold sales agency to help customers get more sales.
  • Offer Insights as a Service. Data is a means to an end. Insights get you closer to the “job to be done.”
  • Build branded metrics to escape competition. Others referencing your metric will lead to free marketing for your company.

🏔️ Risks

  • Artificial Intelligence • Customers will go straight to insights. Making DaaS companies obsolete.
  • Depreciation • Data becomes less accurate, reliable and useful over time.
  • Platform Risk • You’re subject to the DaaS provider’s datasets, outages and fees.

🔑 Key Lessons

  • DaaS is cheaper than in-house data management. You don't need to spend time, money and energy to build and maintain your own infrastructure.
  • Price your DaaS based on the value you create. It is easier to charge $1,000 if you help your customers make $100,000.
  • Data loses value over time.

🔥 Hot Takes

😠 Haters

“AI will make DaaS companies less relevant.”
While AI can process data more efficiently. It can only process data that it has access to. To protect their moats, DaaS companies will lock data behind walls. AI won’t reach it unless a breach occurs.

“AI companies use data to train their models. Without permission.”
When was the last time you read a privacy policy? Non-AI companies use privacy policies to “simulate” your consent. Coresignal offers 660,000,000 employee records parsed from LinkedIn, Crunchbase and more. You never know when another “partner” adds you to their dataset.

“Some DaaS companies resell data from companies like Crunchbase. Which kills margins.”
Protect margins by adding value. Offer unique insights, branded metrics, productized services and more.

“Governments can make it hard to operate in the DaaS space.”
Stay away from regulated industries. It is easier to share B2B leads than patient data.

“Profiting from personal data is unethical.”
Sell anonymized data that doesn’t link to people.

“Companies like Clearview AI make it easier to spy on people. This can lead to less privacy, more surveillance and abuse of power.”
While such tools can be misused. They can make our communities safer by lowering crime, fraud and risk. DaaS is just a tool. We define its purpose.

🔗 Links

  1. Who’s Offering Data as a Service? • The tweet behind this report.
  2. What is Data as a Service • Pros, cons and case studies of DaaS integration.
  3. The Empty Promise of Data Moats • How to build durable data moats.

📁 Related Reports

  • ChatGPT • Automate work and save time coding, writing, researching and more
  • Curation as a Service • Find signal in the noise
  • Crowdsourcing • Leverage the time, energy and experience of others to reach your goal
  • No-Code • Build products faster, cheaper and better without writing code
  • Agencies • Help your customers solve problems without hiring and managing large teams

Do you want to get the next Trends.vc Report? Join 50,000+ founders discovering new markets and ideas.

dru_riley's avatardru_riley
on July 4, 2023
Say something nice to dru_riley…
Post Comment
  1. 1

    Hi Dru, thanks for the report! Did anything change up to now in early 2024? How would you see specialized data such as job postings in the current ecosystem? I collect and sell job postings as datasets (e.g., on AWS Data Exchange) and via an API on RapidAPI (see https://jobdatafeeds.com/) and would like to learn more how I can find more customers.

    Techmap․io's avatar Techmap․io
    ·
    3 years ago
    ·
    Reply