Ready to build your own Founder-Led Growth engine? Book a Strategy Call
Frontlines.io | Where B2B Founders Talk GTM.
Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
Actionable
Takeaways
Follow the Trail of Influential Data:
Throughout his career, Michael repeatedly found that qualitative insights in the form of customer quotes, video clips, and audio snippets were the most powerful drivers of decision-making, even when presented alongside reams of quantitative data. By identifying the data sources that have the greatest impact on key stakeholders, founders can focus their efforts on collecting and leveraging that information to shape strategy.
Develop Relationships Through Genuine Customer Discovery:
To land its first paying customers, Tetra started with a broad survey to understand pain points and opportunities, then engaged respondents through interviews and beta testing. By investing in deep customer discovery and working closely with early adopters to solve their problems, the company built strong relationships that organically led to paid contracts. Founders should prioritize genuine engagement with potential customers to validate their assumptions and create champions for their solution.
Quantify Your Impact on Efficiency and Headcount:
When selling to enterprises, Tetra focuses on demonstrating how its platform automates workflows, enables existing teams to accomplish more, and reduces the need for future hires. By quantifying the efficiency gains and opportunity costs of choosing their solution over additional headcount, the company makes a compelling ROI case. Founders should seek to translate their value proposition into tangible metrics around productivity and resource allocation.
Attract the Right Audience by Sharing Unique Perspectives:
Rather than simply aligning with prevailing industry narratives, Tetra has found success by sharing its own distinct, sometimes contrarian viewpoints through content like webinars. By leaning into their expertise and trusting their opinions, the company has drawn in enterprise buyers who are seeking fresh insights. Founders should be bold in articulating their unique perspectives and using thought leadership to capture the attention of their target customers.
Overinvest in Senior Engineering Talent Early:
Looking back, Michael wishes he had prioritized hiring a few highly skilled senior engineers in the early days of Tetra, even at a premium price, rather than optimizing for affordability. While it can be tempting to build a scrappy team of junior developers, the impact of experienced technical leaders who can mentor others and tackle complex challenges is immense. Founders should consider frontloading their engineering hiring with senior talent to accelerate product development and set a strong foundation.
Conversation
Highlights
From Private Equity to Product Innovation: How Tetra Insights is Revolutionizing Customer Research
When Michael Bamberger spent his early career at a private equity firm analyzing distressed media companies, he discovered something counterintuitive about data: sometimes the most valuable insights don’t come from spreadsheets and analytics dashboards. They come from conversations.
“When we are giving people word of mouth of real people in the form of quotes or video clips or audio clips directly from the horse’s mouth, that is what influences decision makers and strategic thinkers,” Michael shared in a recent episode of Category Visionaries. “We could have a dozen pages of charts and graphs and fancy prose about findings, and they would pale in comparison to the ten minute video clip of five people saying what frustrated them.”
This realization came after years of focusing on quantitative analysis. Working in private equity, Michael would dive deep into CRM data, product histories, and revenue metrics of distressed companies. But he quickly discovered that when dealing with struggling businesses, quantitative data often served as what he calls a “coroner’s report” – explaining why something failed rather than illuminating the path forward.
The pivot point came when Michael started simply picking up the phone. He began calling customers directly, asking why they chose to work with companies or why they stopped. These conversations proved transformative, leading him down a path that would eventually result in founding Tetra Insights.
But the journey wasn’t direct. First, Michael co-founded Alpha UX (now Feedback Loop), where his team tried to scale the process of conducting and analyzing customer interviews. They ran into a significant technical barrier: “We actually tried to scale doing that kind of work more readily. So doing lots of interviews, cutting them up into video clips by theme, by finding, by segment, et cetera. And unfortunately, weren’t able to scale that. The technology just didn’t exist.”
This challenge, combined with observing how research and insight work was evolving within organizations, led to two key realizations that would shape Tetra’s direction. First, qualitative insights in the form of audio and video clips were the most influential form of data Michael had seen in his career, but the technology to utilize this data effectively didn’t exist. Second, organizations increasingly wanted to conduct this research themselves rather than outsource it.
Tetra’s go-to-market strategy evolved from these insights. Rather than positioning themselves as a research agency, they built a platform that enables organizations to transform their qualitative data into actionable insights. The approach has resonated particularly well with enterprise clients, where Tetra has seen remarkable growth.
“Since 2020, our revenue has more than doubled each year, and we’re on pace to continue that and surpass that this year,” Michael shared. Even more impressively, enterprise customers who have been with Tetra for over two years show an average growth rate of more than three times year over year in terms of active users and data volume.
What makes this growth particularly noteworthy is that it’s happening during a challenging period for tech companies. Michael attributes this success to a focused approach on expertise-driven content marketing: “Sharing our expertise and our opinions has been hugely valuable. We have unique and often counterintuitive perspectives on the world that we serve, and we’re not afraid to share them.”
This strategy has proven especially effective in enterprise sales, with Michael noting that they’ve “signed large six figure contracts from people who just watched a couple of webinars. That’s their only interaction with our brand.”
Looking ahead, Michael envisions Tetra becoming the standard platform for companies that prioritize user experience and rely on customer insights. “We are the best solution for companies that take this work really seriously and rely on these insights,” he explained. “In the next five years, we should be the de facto standard, deployed broadly across these types of companies.”
For founders navigating their own go-to-market journeys, Michael’s experience offers valuable lessons about the power of challenging conventional wisdom, finding unique insights through direct customer interaction, and building trust through expertise-driven content. Sometimes the most valuable data isn’t in the spreadsheets – it’s in the stories customers tell.
Recommended Founder
Interviews
Pierce Ujjainwalla
CEO of Knak
Pierce Ujjainwalla, CEO of Knak: $25 Million Raised to Empower Enterprise Marketers with Codeless Email and Landing Page Creation
Jared Siegal
CEO and Founder of Aditude
Jared Siegal, CEO and Founder of Aditude: $15 Million Raised to Build the Future of Publisher Monetization
Dan Rua
CEO of Admiral
Dan Rua, CEO of Admiral: $28 Million Raised to Build the Future of Visitor Relationship Management
Zack Rosenberg
CEO and Founder of Qortex
Zack Rosenberg, CEO & Founder of Qortex: $11 Million Raised to Build the Future of Video Analytics
Tom Lee
Co-Founder of LOVO AI
Tom Lee, Co-Founder of LOVO AI: $7 Million Raised to Build the Future of AI Voiceovers
Ksenija Rohrkamp
Director of Marketing of Buynomics
Why Product Marketing Should Be Your First Category Creation Hire
Max Elster
CEO & Founder of Minoa
Max Elster, CEO & Founder of Minoa: $2.7 Million Raised to Build the Go-to-Market Value Intelligence Platform
Marty Ringlein
CEO & Co-Founder of Agree.com
Marty Ringlein, CEO & Co-Founder of Agree.com: $3M Raised to Transform Contract-Based Revenue Management
Chris Golec
CEO and Founder of Channel99
Chris Golec, CEO and Founder of Channel99: $5 Million Raised to Power the Future of B2B Marketing
Vitaly Pecherskiy
CEO and Co-founder of StackAdapt
Building stackadapt: how three founders turned failure into a 1,600-person company | Vitaly Pecherskiy
Chris Strahl
CEO of Knapsack
Chris Strahl, CEO of Knapsack: $7 Million Raised to Build the Future of Design Systems
Cassandra Gholston
CEO & Founder of PartnerTap
Cassandra Gholston, CEO & Founder of PartnerTap: $9 Million Raised to Revolutionize Partner Orchestration
Leena Joshi
CEO of CloseFactor
Leena Joshi, CEO of CloseFactor: $15+ Million Raised to Automate Repetitive Sales Processes
Natasha Woods
Senior Director Communications of The Linux Foundation
How GitLab’s comms team workshopped the “iPhone for DevOps” analogy for CNBC’s IPO interview | Natasha Woods
Steve Keifer
Chief Marketing Officer of Ordway
100K Outbound Emails Monthly Without Getting Blocked
Sangram Vajre
Co Founder and CEO of GTM Partners
Behind the Category: Creating the Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Category with Sangram Vajre
Tara Robertson
Director of Marketing of ContactMonkey
Why ContactMonkey Spent 50% of Marketing Budget on Events in 2025
Alex Reynolds
Alex Reynolds, CEO & Co-Founder of Vendelux: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Event Intelligence
Robert Thelen
CEO & Founder of Rownd
Robert Thelen, CEO & Founder of Rownd: $3.3 Million Raised to Build the Future of App Onboarding
Hikari Senju
CEO and Founder of Omneky
Hikari Senju, CEO and Founder of Omneky: $10 Million Raised to Empower Brands With AI-Powered Ads To Maximize Performance
Andrew Forman
Founder of Givz
Andrew Forman, CEO of Givz: $3 Million Raised to Make Donating, Not Discounts, eCommerce Brands Ultimate Growth Lever
Sam Mallikarjunan
Co-Founder & CEO of OneScreen
Sam Mallikarjunan, Co-Founder & CEO of OneScreen: $10 Million Raised to Power the Future of Offline Advertising
David Walsh
Founder & CEO of Limelight
How Limelight validated the B2B creator market by interviewing 100+ creators before building | David Walsh
Jonathan Legge
Co-Founder and CEO of &Open
Jonathan Legge, Co-Founder and CEO at &Open: Over $35 Million Raised to Create the Future of Corporate Gifting
Anthony Lye
Chairman & CEO of Quid
Why the next great tech companies will sell outcomes, not software | Anthony Lye
Sarah Gavin
Interim Chief Marketing Officer; Chief Communications Officer of Zendesk
How Zendesk rebuilt a 40-person in-house comms team in 9 months and eliminated all agency spend | Sarah Gavin
Ori Entis
CEO and Co-Founder of Staircase AI
Ori Entis, CEO and Co-Founder of Staircase AI: $5 Million Raised to Power the Future of Customer Revenue Growth
Vinay Jain
Founder of MadMen AI
Vinay Jain, Founder of MadMen AI: $4.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of AI-Powered Marketing Platforms
Rush Shahani
Co-Founder & CTO of Persana AI
Rush Shahani, Co-Founder & CTO of Persana AI: $2.3 Million Raised to Power the Future of GTM
Matt Krebsbach
Senior Vice President of Thought Leadership & Brand Awareness of Acquia
From Politics to PR: Building Unassailable Market Position
Rebecca Corliss
VP of Marketing of GrowthLoop
Why GrowthLoop Ditched Paid Ads for Influencer Marketing
Daniel Saks
CEO & Co-Founder of Landbase
Daniel Saks, CEO & Co-Founder of Landbase: $12.5 Million Raised to Power the Future of GTM Automation
Marc-Alexander Christ
Co-Founder of SumUp
Marc-Alexander Christ: the Story of SumUp ($8.5 Billion Valuation)
Franklin Morris
Vice President, Marketing of Alloy.ai
Why ChatGPT Converts 30x Better Than Your Website
Tine Karlsen
Co-Founder & CEO of Vev
Tine Karlsen, CEO and Co-Founder of Vev: $7 Million Raised to Power the Future of No-Code Visual Design
Dan Malgran
VP of Marketing of Steno
Dan Malgran, VP of Marketing at Steno: Elevating Legal Tech with Revenue-Driven Marketing Strategies
Jonas Rinde
CEO of Nomono
Jonas Rinde, CEO of Nomono: $15 million Raised to Power the Future of Podcasting
Pulkit Agrawal
CEO & Co-Founder of Chameleon
Pulkit Agrawal, CEO & Co-Founder of Chameleon: $15 Million Raised to Build the Product Adoption Category
Jason Zintak
CEO of 6sense
Jason Zintak: The GTM Story of 6sense ($5.2 Billion Valuation)
Creating the Marketing Automation Category with Mark Organ
CEO of Eloqua
Creating the Marketing Automation Category with Mark Organ
Stephen Karaolis
Marketing Director of Cleary
Stephen Karaolis, Marketing Director at Cleary: Mastering Speed to Market – The Key to Dynamic Content Strategy
Elio Narciso
Co-Founder & CEO of Scalestack
How Scalestack landed MongoDB as their first enterprise customer through cold email | Elio Narciso ($3.1 Million Raised)
Danielle Pederson
Chief Marketing Officer of Amaze
Why Amaze Markets Experiences Over Channels
Marty Kausas
CEO & Co-Founder of Pylon
Marty Kausas, CEO & Co-Founder of Pylon: $20 Million Raised to Build the First B2B Support Platform
Sam Fonoimoana
Founder & CEO of Datajoin
Sam Fonoimoana, Founder & CEO of Datajoin: $3.5 Million Raised to Help Brands Leverage Customer Behavioral Insights
Justas Malinauskas
CEO & Co-Founder of Whatagraph
How Whatagraph generates 500+ marketing qualified leads monthly through competitor pain point SEO | Justas Malinauskas ($10+ Million Raised)
Omed Habib
VP of Sapient AI
Omed Habib, VP of Marketing at Sapient AI: A Technical Founder’s Guide to B2B SaaS Marketing
Daniel Erickson
Founder and CEO of Viable
Daniel Erickson, CEO of Viable: $9 Million Raised to Build the Future of Customer Feedback Analysis
Cory Schmidt
Head of Marketing of Heyflow
Mastering Organic Growth: Insights from Heyflow’s Head of Marketing
Tyler Strand
Co-Founder and CTO of Air
Tyler Strand, Co-Founder and CTO at Air: $38 Million raised to Build the Creative Operations Category
Adrien Menard
CEO and Co-Founder of Botify
Adrien Menard, CEO and Co-Founder of Botify: $82 Million Raised to Build the Future of SEO
John Jahnke
CEO and Co-Founder of Tackle.io
John Jahnke, CEO and Co-Founder of Tackle.io: $148 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cloud Go-to-Market
Canay Deniz
CEO & Co-Founder of Ren Systems
Canay Deniz, CEO & Co-Founder of Ren Systems: $8.8 Million Raised to Build the Future of Relationship Intelligence for Dealmakers
Ishveen Jolly
CEO and Co-Founder of OpenSponsorship
Ishveen Jolly, CEO and Co-Founder of OpenSponsorship: Over $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Sports Influencer Marketing
Katy Carrigan
CEO of Goody
Katy Carrigan, CEO of Goody: $32 Million Raised to Build the Future of Corporate Gifting
Patrick Woods
CEO and Co-Founder of Orbit
Patrick Woods, CEO and Co-Founder of Orbit: Over $22 Million Raised to Power the Future of Communities
Woody Klemetson
Founder of AskElephant
How AskElephant achieved 400% growth with zero marketing spend | Woody Klemetson
Taylor Lint
CEO and Founder of Swantide
Taylor Lint, CEO and Founder of Swantide: $7 Million Raised to Revolutionize How Companies Design and Build Their GTM Infrastructure
Jonathan Corbin
CEO & Co-Founder of Maven AGI
Jonathan Corbin, CEO and Co-Founder of Maven AGI: $28 Million Raised to Build the Future of Customer Experience
Andy Mowat
CEO and Co-Founder of Gated
Andy Mowat, CEO and Co-Founder of Gated: Over $3 Million Raised to Build Noise Cancelling Headphones for Email
Lars Grønnegaard Hansen
CEO and Co-Founder of Dreamdata
Lars Grønnegaard Hansen, CEO & Co-Founder of Dreamdata: $12 Million Raised to Build the Future of B2B Revenue Attribution
Thomas Millay
CEO of DemandJump
Thomas Millay, CEO at DemandJump: Over $25 Million Raised to Power the Future of Content Strategy
Philipp de la Haye
Senior Vice President of Marketin of FrontNow
AI Will Cut Marketing Teams to 2 People – Here’s the Playbook
Marc Bernstein
CEO and Founder of Balto
Marc Bernstein, CEO and Founder of Balto: $52 Million Raised to Power the Future of Contact Centers
Sam Kellett
Head of Marketing of ProfitMetrics.io
Why ROAS Is Lying to Your CFO About Campaign Performance
Rajat Mishra
Founder & CEO of Prezent
Rajat Mishra, Founder & CEO at Prezent: Over $24 Million Raised to Build the Presentation Productivity Platform Category
Parry Bedi
Co-Founder and CEO of Tingono
Parry Bedi, CEO of Tingono: $7 Million Raised to Help Companies Boost Net Revenue Retention
David DeWolf
CEO & President of Knownwell
David DeWolf, CEO & President of Knownwell: $2 Million Raised to Build the Future of Commercial Intelligence
CEO and Co-Founder of Sendoso
Creating the Sending Management Category with Sendoso’s Kris Rudeegraap
Creating the Go to Market Category with ZoomInfo’s Bryan Law
CMO of ZoomInfo
Creating the Go to Market Category with ZoomInfo’s Bryan Law
Ashish Nagar
Founder & CEO of Level AI
Ashish Nagar, CEO of Level AI: $35 Million Raised to Power Contact Centers of the Future