Tracxn's Neha Singh on its role in building a data business and how early entrepreneurs can enter this booming industry

Private market intelligence platform Tracxn tracks private companies and startups globally and works with private market investors and large corporates who want to invest or acquire startups or are looking at emerging trends in their industry.

Though its core segment is the PE and VCs of corporate companies, founders, early-stage entrepreneurs and even those looking for a job can go to the platform to find market data and related information.

While it usually takes upto one or two weeks to get these details, the company claims entrepreneurs can get the desired information in a day or two using Tracxn. The platform also helps job seekers to get in touch with companies and helps them directly approach companies for job opportunities. 

Neha Singh, Co-founder and CEO of Tracxn, says, for investors looking at sectors and wanting to do a full scan on those and figure out all the companies, Tracxn makes it easy to source these details.

She says that even if an investor is just looking at one particular company and wants to figure out the competition, it’s global equivalent, and how large they have become, this kind of research becomes a whole lot more efficient.

The scope of the data industry and building a business in it

Speaking about how the data industry is rich, Neha explains,

“If you look at Bloomberg, it has more than $10 billion in revenue, and even after 40 years, it continues to grow and increase market share. These companies have fairly high margins and are dispensable businesses with high operating leverage. If you look at the top set of companies in the data business, they generate about $7 billion in free cash flow, which is one of the highest across industries.”

The digital footprint of companies is growing, and every industry has its different data needs. Neha says that Tracxn plays in the enterprise grade data for decision making space. Here they are typically working with high paying professionals, which is among the meatiest types of data available.

ALSO READ

[The Turning Point] From multiple pivots to an investor backing out, how unicorn PharmEasy found its niche

Early-stage entrepreneurs looking to start the ‘data’ business

Neha explains that firstly, the opportunity needed to start a 'data' business has to be large enough, i.e., the addressable market should have to be large and growing; not the current wallet share but its potential.

She says, “The size is not based on what the actual industry players are doing. You have to basically unfold the market and see if this is a large enough market, if data is going to be a critical part of their decision-making, and if the sector is growing. That is what I would say is seizing the opportunity.”

The second most important thing she suggests is having an affinity towards the market. She says that the founder’s connect to the founder problem-fit or market-fit is crucial because it takes time to get better at data. It takes a few years to become really good and for sales to become easy, and how deeply the founder connects to the problem will forge the company ahead. 

Lessons learned along the way on founder level

There are two basic hygiene points. Neha says that one of the things the founders should think about is just predictability. “You don’t have to be exact, but essentially your predictability in terms of business and how you see the next couple of years spanning out. I think that whenever you reach that point, that is a good condition to have,” she says.

Other than that, she feels the existence of maturity across the organisation matters a lot. Apart from the finance and legal teams, who have to be agile and strong enough to function at different levels, the other teams in the organisation should also have to be mature enough.

To know more listen to the podcast here

Time stamps

00:45 - What does Tracxn do and the explosive growth of private markets

05:15 - How to leverage Tracxn as an investor and an entrepreneur

07:47 - What it takes to build a data business.

13:30 - Building moats in a data business

19:45 - Tracxn’s go-to market process

22:13 - The ‘zero’ to IPO journey

29:06 - Most valuable lessons learned as a founder

YourStory’s flagship startup-tech and leadership conference will return virtually for its 13th edition on October 25-30, 2021. Sign up for updates on TechSparks or to express your interest in partnerships and speaker opportunities here.

For more on TechSparks 2021, click here