The “Google Search” of Business Analytics: How ThoughtSpot Changed a $189B Market

In the era of information overload, it can be difficult and time-consuming for businesses to sort through their data and extract meaningful insights — and even trickier to find people who know how to do so. Thanks to ThoughtSpot, organizations no longer need to look to analysts and data scientists to complete these tasks. ThoughtSpot’s AI-driven analytics platform, which has a Google Search-like interface, makes it easy for the average business person to get insights from their company’s data in seconds.

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When Mission North began working with ThoughtSpot in the fall of 2017, the company had an enviable pedigree but was flying under the radar outside of a niche group of data professionals. Created by the co-founders of Silicon Valley success story Nutanix, ThoughtSpot was growing quickly and carving its path in the new category of search and AI-driven analytics. That said, when it came to media mindshare, ThoughtSpot was often eclipsed by data visualization stalwarts like Tableau and mid-market upstarts like Looker.

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ThoughtSpot needed a strategy that would catapult its unique vision for the evolution of business intelligence (BI) to the forefront of media, analyst and industry conversations.

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Our team knew the best way to build ThoughtSpot’s credibility was to lean into the brains behind the operation. We highlighted the executive team’s successful history to garner the attention of top-tier business and technical media, including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, TechCrunch and Business Insider. We also saw the opportunity to pursue company culture stories that would showcase ThoughtSpot’s innovative leadership approach and unique values. By connecting with publications like Forbes, Inc, Fast Company and the Silicon Valley Business Journal, ThoughtSpot demonstrated how these values run deep within the company and the product.

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We leveraged ThoughtSpot’s successful $145M Series D fundraising in May 2018 to solidify the company’s position as the leader in data analytics. The campaign resulted in more than 50 pieces of coverage, including Fortune, Barron’s, Reuters, CNBC and Axios. While managing a pipeline of news announcements and proactive pitching, the team also managed a thought leadership campaign about the company’s vision for data literacy and access.

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In November 2018, the team built on the success of the fundraising campaign by launching the latest version of ThoughtSpot, which made analytics as easy to use as a consumer app. The product narrative advanced ThoughtSpot’s point of view that search-based interfaces and AI-driven analytics were the new requirements for BI success.

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When competitors Tableau and Looker were acquired in June 2019, the Mission North team sprang into action and pitched ThoughtSpot executives for commentary about the changing dynamics of BI and how these acquisitions would impact innovation. ThoughtSpot was soon at the center of a massive industry trend story with coverage in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and InformationWeek. All eyes were on one of the remaining pre-IPO innovators in the hot data analytics space.

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ThoughtSpot was named a Leader in the Gartner 2019 Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms — the fastest company to move from the Visionary to Leader Quadrant in its history. Following this recognition as the breakout star in augmented analytics, ThoughtSpot closed a $248M Series E round in August 2019, which garnered over 60 articles, including pieces in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Business Insider and TechCrunch, as well as an interview with CheddarTV.

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In just 18 months since kicking off with Mission North, ThoughtSpot has challenged the industry’s notion that you need to be a technical expert to understand BI and analytics, and become widely regarded as the new de facto leader in the space.

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You can learn more about our work with ThoughtSpot by reading the full case study here.