HubSpot acquires Clearbit
What it means for the sales tech landscape
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This morning, HubSpot announced their acquisition of Clearbit, here's why it's the biggest news in B2B SaaS this quarter (bigger than Clari buying Groove), and what's next 👇
First, consolidation is obviously happening.
The last ten years of a bull market / ZIRP environment led to the explosion of tools in the B2B SaaS world.
The smartest companies could get a slight edge on their competitors by buying "best-in-class point solutions.”
But, it's gone too far (and doesn't work in a downmarket). There are *too* many tools for Ops to stitch together. Too many workflows for Managers / Enablement to teach Reps. Too many screens for Reps to work out of.
Everyone knows this (even vendors). That's why you see the tagline "We're the single plane of glass" on so many websites and marketing copy today (/giphy eye roll)
So, what actually matters?
Everything is consolidating into one of three categories:
System of Record (CRM/data warehouse)
System of Action (Sequencing, Call Recording, Dialer, Chat, etc.)
Underlying Data Layer
"But isn't data a commodity that is trending to zero?"
Not exactly
And here's why:
- It's still the new oil (every single SaaS company has to buy one) and
- Proprietary datasets are becoming increasingly important in an AI/LLM-fueled world
There's a fourth layer that I still think is missing in the stack, and that's the layer of Intelligence (it's what we set out to build at Groundswell—a new category).
This *sort of* exists today, with things like Lead Scoring, BI tools, and internal data modeling to kick off prioritization.
Fundamentally, this is a data problem (Outreach/SaleLoft/etc don't have access to all the data necessary to build a true 'intelligence' layer; the CDW is the place where the most data lives, but the data model... or lack-thereof... is the problem with the CDW).
Anyway, this is a topic for another day. Back to the Clearbit acquisition.
"All of business is either bundling or unbundling"
-Jim Barksdale
I think this is one of the most important macro-trends of business, and we're watching a cycle turn over in front of our eyes right now in SaaS-land.
GTM tech is in a season of bundling.
And HubSpot just made a huge move, bundling data into their offering.
There is a race to build the best all-in-one solution that combines these 3 layers:
System of Record
System of Action
Underlying Data Layer
So, what happens from here?
System of Record companies just showed their willingness to get into the data game (now in all 3 categories).
System of Action players will get into the Underlying Data Layer space (Gong, Clari, Outreach or Salesloft will pick up LeadIQ, or build internally).
Data companies (like ZoomInfo and Apollo.io) have already gotten into the System of Action space, maybe they'll go for System of Record someday (but probably have enough to build in the System of Action space for now).
Let’s see how this all pans out.
See you next time,
B.