👋 Hi, it’s CJ Gustafson and welcome to Mostly Metrics, my weekly newsletter where I unpack how the world’s best CFOs and business experts use metrics to make better decisions.

DaaS (Data as a Service) isn’t just SaaS with a CSV upload. It’s the marriage of deep domain expertise, obsessive data hygiene, and tech-savvy packaging.
We’re pulling back the curtain on what it really takes to build and scale a vertical data business.
🔓 What’s inside this post (8-part breakdown):
📦 DaaS ≠ SaaSWhy Data-as-a-Service isn’t just software with a CSV upload—and how the monetization model flips when you sell answers, not features.
🛠 The Challenges of Starting a DaaS BusinessWhy it’s brutally hard to get off the ground, even with AI—and how Masterworks, FINTRX, and others built proprietary datasets from scratch.
🔭 Going Broad vs. NarrowZoomInfo vs. FINTRX: The tradeoff between horizontal reach and vertical depth—and why obsession always wins.
🔄 Building into WorkflowsHow DaaS companies become mission-critical by showing up in CRMs, slide decks, Slack alerts, and GTM plans.
🧬 Rolling Your Own DataWhy licensing other people’s data kills your margins—and how control over freshness, structure, and provenance becomes your moat.
🎯 Figuring Out Your Ideal Customer ProfileSegmentation beyond logos: how to sell by job-to-be-done, not just title or industry.
👥 Hiring for a DaaS ModelWhy data businesses need product-minded analysts, ambiguity-tolerant engineers, and sellers who speak the customer's language.
🧾 Summary + Key TakeawaysThe full cheat sheet: how to build, defend, and scale a vertical DaaS company from first row to last click.
Yeessh!..This clocks in at the longest piece I’ve ever written. My fingers hurt.
Subscribe to our premium content to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
UpgradeYour subscription unlocks:
- In-depth “how to” playbooks trusted by the most successful CFOs in the world
- Exclusive access to our private company financial benchmarks
- Support a writer sharing +30,000 hours of on-the-job insights