Remodeling information into income: Interview with Lars Grønnegaard, CEO and Co-founder of Dreamdata

Are you able to share a bit about your background and the way your journey within the tech and information area started?

I began my profession with a powerful basis in product administration and UX design, working initially as a advisor. Later, I joined Trustpilot, the place I took on the function of Senior Vice President of Product. At Trustpilot, I realized the significance of constructing customer-centric SaaS merchandise, particularly as we expanded into B2B gross sales.

The defining second for me was realizing how disconnected our information was. We had invaluable insights unfold throughout advertising and marketing, product, and gross sales, but tying all of it collectively to grasp its affect on income was almost not possible. This expertise ignited my fascination with data-driven development, in the end resulting in the founding of Dreamdata as an answer to this challenge.

What impressed you to maneuver from a Senior Vice President of Product function to turning into the co-founder and CEO of Dreamdata

It got here right down to addressing a ache level I noticed up shut at Trustpilot. We had information from all instructions—advertising and marketing, product utilization, gross sales—however no unified solution to join all of it to income. Everybody was working exhausting, however we had been working with out full visibility into what actually drove gross sales.

My co-founders and I noticed this wasn’t a singular drawback to Trustpilot; it was a problem going through many B2B corporations. We wished to alter that, which motivated me to step away from my function and co-found Dreamdata. Our mission grew to become clear: to create a platform that connects advertising and marketing efforts on to income outcomes, serving to B2B corporations with the clear attribution they should scale successfully.

Reflecting in your early profession, was there a defining second that made you notice the significance of aligning advertising and marketing, product, gross sales, and buyer success?

Completely. At Trustpilot, it typically felt like every group—advertising and marketing, product, gross sales—believed they had been the first driver of income. However once you mixed everybody’s claims, the numbers merely didn’t add up. That was a turning level for me: it highlighted the necessity for alignment throughout these features, not simply in execution however in measurement. With out a unified metric tied again to income, silos and inefficiencies emerge. That’s after I grew to become critically occupied with attribution, discovering methods to attach the dots between product initiatives, advertising and marketing campaigns, and gross sales outcomes.

What are a number of the greatest shifts you’ve noticed within the B2B advertising and marketing and information panorama through the years, and the way have these adjustments influenced your method to enterprise?

One of many greatest shifts has been the complexity of the customer’s journey. It’s not led solely by gross sales; consumers are conducting their analysis independently, and sometimes 70-80% of the journey occurs earlier than they even have interaction with you. This places lots of stress on advertising and marketing to drive early engagement. Alongside this, the quantity of obtainable information has exploded, and lots of corporations are overwhelmed by it, struggling to derive helpful insights.

These shifts have formed my method at Dreamdata, the place we’re targeted on serving to corporations streamline their information and switch it into actionable insights. At this time’s B2B panorama requires shifting away from gut-feel choices to completely data-driven development—a philosophy that we reside and breathe at Dreamdata.

Trying forward, how do you assume information and know-how will reshape the B2B advertising and marketing area within the subsequent 5-10 years? Are there any rising traits that you simply’re significantly enthusiastic about?

B2B advertising and marketing will change into much more data-driven and automatic. AI and machine studying will convey predictive analytics to the forefront, enabling entrepreneurs not solely to investigate previous efficiency however to anticipate future traits. One other main development is deeper personalization at scale. As information turns into more and more accessible, corporations can have the flexibility to craft hyper-targeted messages for the best viewers on the good second. This heightened precision will improve advertising and marketing effectiveness, making each funding extra accountable and impactful.

For corporations attempting to undertake a data-driven method, what do you see as the largest challenges or misconceptions, and the way can they greatest overcome these hurdles?

One of many greatest misconceptions is that turning into data-driven merely means gathering extra information. In actuality, most corporations have already got an abundance of knowledge; the problem lies in connecting it and making sense of it. Stitching collectively information from numerous programs—CRM, advertising and marketing platforms, gross sales information—is complicated, and it’s simple to get misplaced with out a cohesive technique. My recommendation is to start out with alignment. Get advertising and marketing, gross sales, and product groups talking the identical language and looking out on the identical information. Solely then are you able to make choices based mostly on an entire, actionable image.

What are your prime three suggestions for startups trying to create a go-to-market technique that’s actually data-driven and results-oriented?

• Begin with clear, unified information: Your choices can solely be as correct as the info you base them on. Consolidate all related information right into a single platform to make sure consistency.
• Align groups from day one: Get advertising and marketing, gross sales, and product on the identical web page early. Siloed groups result in fragmented methods that lack full optimisation.
• Iterate rapidly: Don’t await good information to start out. Implement a technique, analyze the outcomes, and iterate. The sooner you possibly can undergo this cycle, the earlier you’ll uncover an efficient technique.

Each founder faces powerful instances—whether or not it’s a missed fundraising aim, difficult retention charges, or a partnership falling by way of. Are you able to share an expertise the place issues didn’t go as deliberate and the way you moved previous it?

In fact. Early on at Dreamdata, we tried an outbound gross sales technique that utterly flopped. We assumed hiring salespeople would naturally herald clients, however our target market—B2B advertising and marketing and operations leaders—didn’t reply nicely to chilly outreach. We rapidly needed to pivot and lean right into a extra genuine method. That’s once we doubled down on LinkedIn, sharing our experience and constructing a group presence. It wasn’t an prompt success, however it grew to become certainly one of our most useful development channels over time.

Lastly, for entrepreneurs and enterprise leaders studying this, what’s one unconventional piece of recommendation or lesson that’s been key to your success, however may not be apparent to others?

Don’t be afraid to be a bit contrarian. If everybody goes in a single path, generally it pays to go the opposite approach. Early on, we selected a marketing-led go-to-market technique whereas many B2B corporations had been nonetheless targeted on sales-led approaches. It felt dangerous, however it grew to become certainly one of our greatest choices. Belief your instincts, and don’t be afraid to carve your personal path.