Erik Torenberg sits down with Anand Sanwal, CEO of CB Insights. Over 900,000 people turn to CB Insights for the insights they share in their newsletter. Riverside.fm is a presenting sponsor of Media Empires. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/MediaEmpires + use code MEDIAEMPIRES for 20% off individual plans.

In this conversation, Anand and Erik discuss data collection, scaling across different technology markets, media and data businesses, and more.

Media Empires is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: www.turpentine.co

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RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

🎙️ECON 102 W/ NOAH SMITH - Keeping econ entertaining - Noahpinion author Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg break down business news and politics every week.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1696419056

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6q7Gn5lP8TTtBPuV1NJSGs

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We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.

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TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Episode Preview

(02:00) What is CB Insights

(02:45) What CB Insights does

(03:30) The needs of the CB Insight customer

(07:00) Scaling to a thousand markets

(12:16) Evolution of CB Insights

(15:58) Which data is most helpful to collect?

(17:51) A dataset Anand would want to acquire

(19:45) Events and Community

(21:32) The Future of CB Insights

(23:15) Increasing density of coverage

(26:48) Perspective on past opportunities

(28:30) Litmus test for what is worth Focusing On

(30:08) Breadth of data front

(32:38) Private analyses

(34:25) Data business idea: startup-investor pitches

(38:16) Data business idea: Reference checks

(39:12) Online reputations

(42:20) Which media businesses should be data businesses?

(46:10) Scalable and programmatic ways of acquiring data

(48:50) If Anand was starting today

(49:44) Building a data business on top of a successful media company

LINKS:

CB Insights: https://www.cbinsights.com/

SOCIALS:

Anand's Twitter: https://twitter.com/asanwal

Anand's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandsanwal?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Erik's Twitter: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg