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Inspire your entrepreneurial pursuit: Lessons from 6sense’s CTO and co-founder, Viral Bajaria

Every business works to tell the story of what they offer, to whom it solves problems for, and what sets them apart. Capturing this (and nailing it!) will set the path for every other decision going forward. But it’s easier said than done, right? Well, business growth is a journey — it begins, grows, and renews. 

“There’s no destination. There’s just evolution,” said Viral Bajaria, CTO and co-founder of 6sense in a recent podcast episode of The Intent Data Exchange.

6sense Revenue AI helps B2B organizations achieve predictable revenue growth by putting the power of AI, big data, and machine learning behind every member of the revenue team. Viral shared some of the most valuable lessons he learned building 6sense and reinventing its business model when the market asked for something else. 

Regardless of industry or business size and dynamics, there are lessons Viral shared every entrepreneur should understand:

  • Don’t get comfortable
  • Don’t forget about your “why”
  • Uncertainty is an opportunity for improvement

Don’t get comfortable

“I always say challenge the status quo,” he said. “Every founder and every entrepreneur or any executive should always think about it that way. Or you don’t end up changing. You don’t end up challenging. Let’s challenge the status quo.”

“Many times in entrepreneurship, or when you start something, you [tend to] go with what your gut feeling says versus what the data says at that point,” he continued. 

"I tell every founder, every entrepreneur: When things are good, you overlook the data and what you should be doing. That's what you should NOT do. You don't end up changing. You need to challenge the status quo."

Viral Bajaria CTO & co-founder, 6sense

Don’t forget about your “why”

Simon Sinek said that defining your “why” is how you explain your purpose — the reason you exist.

 “[We thought] what we do has to be something else, something that a B2B marketer or B2B seller cares about is what we should be doing,” said Viral.

But people have far more technology and data at their fingertips than ever before, so how did 6sense break through the noise?

Sometimes it takes asking the questions within the question to find your business purpose and guide your decisions. It’s important to reflect often and think differently to set your business apart for your target audiences — aka Viral’s previous tip on challenging the status quo!

“We looked around us and we’re like, ‘if we don’t do something, if we don’t change ourselves again, and we don’t really innovate ourselves, again, we are going to be like all these other companies.’”

Uncertainty is an opportunity to improve your business

No business is immune to failures. But acknowledging the setbacks steers the company to capture the next opportunity. 

“We hit a roadblock in 2016 where we found it was hard to grow because the market was asking for something else,” said Viral. He explained how 6sense broadened its capabilities using not just the materials at hand but building new features and functions that help customers act on that.

“Once we fixed our sales enablement and customer use cases, it has been up, up, and up for us. We’ve been five straight years of 100% growth now and I still feel we’re still getting started.”

Click here to listen to the full conversation with Viral and hear his vision for the future of the industry and the opportunities and setbacks that are shaping 6sense’s success. And never miss an episode of The Intent Data Exchange by following us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or anywhere you get podcasts.

Listen to other episodes of The Intent Data Exchange podcast

How important is the agile “test-and-learn” approach, with Matt Diiorio from MetLife

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How to be an impactful leader focused on problem-solving, with Dan Staresinic from Siemens

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Unlocking bottlenecks: How Intent data influences change, with Paul Logue from SAP

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