Outsell 𝘼𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝘼! Assessment™
How ironic that over at Anthropic human error let code out of the barn door and the firm issued a copyright takedown for remedy. Wonders never cease. While IP owners finally have the upper hand Anthropic gets a taste of its own medicine. Doesn’t code want to be free??
Thankfully Q1 is over. Since 2020, Q1 has frankly been crazy. Something or someone dashes our plans. First Covid, Capital Riots, Silicon Valley Bank melting down while ChatGPT took off. In 2024 we couldn’t get PE deals done. In 2025 it was a new (old) administration and DOGE. Fast forward to 2026 and well… need I say more?
At RevvedUp last week, I shared that for a gazillion years our industry was driven by enterprise budgets whether marketing funded or end-user/library funded. Enterprise budgets ruled the day. It’s why data, media, information services, has been so stable. The businesses are predictable, profitable, steady as they go. Investors love them; PE dove in and never looked back.
We have sized this industry for 30 years and you can tell time by it. It always grows in low single digits. Outliers by segment? Sure (healthcare, risk, events post-pandemic.) Some sectors will grow faster situationally but the norm is a beautiful thing.
Now those enterprise budgets are getting whipsawed by geopolitics and AI. They are the bellwether to watch. Our industry is no longer driven by economics; it’s driven by geopolitics which drives the economy and ultimately our industry. Layer on GenAI and it is never a dull moment.
Just like in Formula 1 the rules change every so often. This year the rules changed again.
Geopolitics, next gen professionals, ROI and outcomes are our only measuring stick. In the field of AI we are moving from assistance to agents and the era of embedded intelligence.
We painted a picture of the industry value chain and how so many companies are still at the bottom — data, reference, editorial → media, events, research.
Leading firms ensure data is smart — AI ready, fed into other’s platforms, offering the hooks into the AI layer or being that layer. Our value chain shows pureplay software firms and then the intelligent systems layer and it’s plain as day why pureplay SaaS vendors and their PE owners are quaking in their boots. They don’t have embedded third-party data within them. The data exhaust coming off the software isn’t being used to create meaningful benchmarks and the SaaS firms don’t own any of the data anyway. And the SaaS players aren’t the intelligence system of choice for the workflow or agentic layer they need to support. They are in a nutshell ‘empty pipes.’ The modern-day equivalent of an empty suit.
They must go up the value chain or go bust. Market share leaders will have a standing chance. It’s always hard to rip out the incumbents. But the litany of software companies with no moat? It’s not going to be pretty. Even the incumbents have to get their act together because their sales as a disservice (SaaD) models are a travesty, their software bloated, and customers will simply say enough just as Outsell did with both NetSuite and later Marketo.
Small start-ups are using Claude Code to build their finance systems. We heard from two of them last week at RevvedUp. It’s plenty good. Will big enterprise want to vibe code their way to the future? Doubtful — they want to build planes or deliver cosmetics, or food, or life-saving drugs. They don’t want to build a CRM or ERP. But the writing is on the wall for the thousands of SaaS providers who will be caught when the tide goes out.
So many of these firms are investor backed. The PE owners of so many information firms and SaaS businesses are trying to figure out where their portcos sit relative to AI. That’s why we developed the Outsell Accelerate A! Framework™ and the assessment that runs behind it. Five pillars — 130 questions, an hour of your time.
You’ll have a scorecard, a prescription and know how you stack up to a peer group, companies in your portfolio, in your sector, or relative to the industry at large. We’re making it available — take the assessment today.
A picture is worth a thousand words and we want you to have yours:
Do you have an AI strategy? Are you operationally ready? How are you using AI to drive operating efficiency in six key functional areas? Are you using AI in your product and generating revenue? Hint: Here’s 10 ways information businesses of all stripes are doing it today!
And last — are you generating revenue from licensing content to big tech or customers for LLMs? These are the key pillars to Accelerate A! and unlock its promise. Let us unlock your potential. We moved the industry through the last three major platforms — print to digital (the web,) mobile, and to the cloud. Now, you’re racing on the fourth big track.
As in Formula 1 and at RevvedUp 2026 you can’t just drive to survive. We say drive to thrive. We’ll share more on that front next week. Meanwhile contact us for your Outsell Accelerate A! Assessment™!