Get to know the team — John Boyd

We are proud of our team at Claravine — collectively we have decades of experience in digital media and technology. I recently sat down with Chief Operating Officer, John Boyd, to learn about what led him to Claravine.
JR: Tell me a bit about your background in the digital analytics world. How did you come to be selling the Claravine product?
JB: I started off with Omniture (now Adobe) in 2004, in enterprise sales. I sold what’s now the Adobe analytics product for a few years until the IPO in 2007. Following that I founded a technology startup consultancy — helping small companies with their sales strategy and execution. As part of my consulting I continued to find and close deals for some of my clients, as well.
I started doing that for Claravine a few years ago — consulting on sales strategy, and co-pitching to the occasional client. My background selling Adobe Analytics gave me some context for this industry segment, and I immediately saw the opportunity for growth at Claravine. It wasn’t long before I came on board as a partner.
JR: Tell me more about how you see the opportunity for growth at Claravine?
I like that the market is identifiable and finite, with a product that addresses a specific pain point in the Adobe marketplace — a real solution for a real business challenge. The target market is big enough to have some running room, but specific. When I came on, Claravine already had some marquee customers in the door, so that was encouraging. My first conversations were with USAA and the LDS church, and I could see there was traction and credibility in the market. With more energy and discipline applied to the sales function, I felt sure I could make this company succeed faster than it otherwise might.
JR: Of all of us, you probably have the most day-to-day contact with the market. What do you hear from analysts? What’s shifting?
The biggest shift has been that the market has consolidated a lot. This is normal in maturing industries. Big fish swallow up smaller players, and in this case there are two dominant players — Adobe and Google. Recently, Google Analytics has become more of a force, competing for enterprise business. Adobe has dominance in the enterprise world, for now. I’ve been surprised that there aren’t more ancillary players in the market, companies like Claravine, coming in and solving point solutions for Adobe clients. I thought they might follow a growth model more like the one used by Salesforce, with a bunch of small companies attaching to their API and offering specific customer solutions. For now, there aren’t many app players in the analytics space. But I’ve heard talk about Adobe trying to move toward an app community model.
JR: Tell me a bit more about the consulting you did before joining TF.
My consulting has covered a wide range: IT security, all kinds of software and SaaS models. As such, I have a perspective that has considerable breadth, but is not as deep as some of our colleagues in the analytics world, so take this with a grain of salt.
JR: With that breadth of experience, what made you come back to digital analytics?
It wasn’t so much coming back to the industry, it was really the fact that I saw how strong the TF product was, and how strong the other partners’ brands and network were. Again, it was a relatively finite market that I understood. It helped that TF already had some momentum. I also think digital marketing people are fun to work with — it’s a good mix of creatives and scientific types, people who are technical, data-driven, and enjoy working in a constantly shifting environment
In my consulting work, I focus on good communication and dialogue. I have a passion for information, and I believe regular communication is what lets the truth bubble up. The task for business is a) to have accurate information about what’s happening and b) to assimilate it quickly. The better your data, and the more quickly you’re able to act on it, the better your competitive advantage.
Working with analysts — and specifically with a data quality product like Claravine, really suits my innate interest in good information. It’s the technological application of something I love — data quality — whether it’s in personal relationships, or in technology, to make business better. It’s kind of core to my DNA.