At Sales Funnel Professor, we’ve been practicing ABM since SalesLoft was still a lead list provider and before Apollo existed, so it’s not that common that a product comes along that excites us. But Databar CEO David Abaev and his team have built something worth taking a deeper look at — especially as a Clay alternative.
We’ve been working with the platform and had the opportunity to sit down with Databar CEO David Abaev to ask him some questions about the past, present, and future for Databar.
Table of Contents
About David Abaev
David Abaev is the founder and CEO of Databar.ai, an innovative prospecting platform launched in 2021 that integrates 90+ data sources. With a background in investment analysis at AltaIR Capital, TSG Entertainment, and financial institutions, David combines analytical rigor with technological innovation. He founded Databar after identifying systemic inefficiencies in how businesses gather and utilize data throughout their sales processes.
Q: David, we’ll get to Databar momentarily…but let’s talk about you first. Where are you from and how did you get involved in technology in the first place?
A: I grew up in the United States in a bilingual household, speaking both English and German. My journey into technology wasn’t particularly linear. At NYU Stern, I was primarily focused on finance and economics, but I always found myself drawn to how technology could solve business problems more efficiently.
The pandemic actually accelerated my interest in data and coding. During lockdown, I undertook a personal project analyzing over 108,000 coronavirus articles from various media sources. It started as just something to keep my coding skills sharp while stuck at home, but it turned into this fascinating dive into media narratives. I even wrote what I jokingly called the ‘108,246th article’ about it.
That project showed me how powerful data analysis could be when applied to real questions. I love taking mountains of messy information and finding the patterns that actually matter. When you can turn data chaos into clear insights that help someone make a decision — that’s when it gets exciting.
How He Got Started in Tech
Q: What was your first “real” job? What did you learn?
A: My first substantial role was as a Research Assistant at NYU Stern, followed by an analyst internship at Forum Ventures. Those experiences laid the groundwork for my analytical approach, but my position at TSG Entertainment really shaped my professional outlook.
At TSG, I was analyzing investment opportunities in the film industry – evaluating projects like Avatar and Deadpool. The stakes were high, and the decisions had significant financial implications. That pressure to make the right call based on the data — that’s something you don’t really get in school.
Founding Databar: The Origin Story
Q: Connect the dots for us…what led you from there to founding Databar? What did Databar set out to do when it first came into existence?
A: After TSG Entertainment, I moved to Interaudi Bank as an Innovations Analyst and then to AltaIR Capital as an investor. In these roles, I personally struggled with the enormous amount of time spent on research and data gathering. As an analyst, I was constantly jumping between various databases and specialty tools just to find specific information.
This wasn’t just my problem. I’d spend hours manually building spreadsheets, copying and pasting information, and trying to keep everything updated. It was incredibly frustrating to realize I was spending 80% of my time on research.
Working at AltaIR Capital made this even more apparent. Not only was I experiencing this challenge personally, but I was seeing the same pattern in the portfolio companies we invested in. Their sales and marketing teams were facing the same issue — spending most of their valuable time on manual research rather than having meaningful conversations with prospects.
This firsthand frustration led directly to the founding of Databar in November 2021. The concept was simple because it solved my own problem: create a spreadsheet that fills itself. Automate all that tedious research. The vision was to build a platform that would automatically collect, structure, and enrich data from various sources — a single source of truth.
Professor’s Note
At Sales Funnel Professor, we’re frequently asked to share thoughts about the future of sales and marketing. In the context of sales funnels, Databar fits most directly in account-based marketing (ABM funnels).
Broadly, one major impact is less spray and pray and templated outreach and more personalization at scale, both of which reduce acquisition costs and shorten sales cycles.
What Databar Does Today
Q: Obviously, the platform has become quite comprehensive since then. Can you give us a synopsis of the product in present day?
A: Databar now has four main components that work together to create a complete prospecting solution:
- Data Collection: You can build lists using filters, Google Maps data, CRM imports, or existing CSVs.
- Waterfall Enrichment: Our engine taps 90+ premium providers. If one can’t find an email, we check the next — often achieving 80–90% match rates.
- AI Automation: From categorizing industries to generating personalized openers, AI is embedded deeply into how users work with data.
- Integrations Hub: Databar connects with CRMs, email tools, and platforms like Zapier. It’s a unified system.
Professor’s Note
A generational shift has occurred with lead provider/research tools.
Whereas in the past, you would query Zoom Info, Seamless, or even a less branded lead provider who might or might not have accurate data on a particular person/company you wanted to talk to, now tools like Databar expose all their various sources of information and allow you to use them sequentially.
You might try Hunter.io, People Data Labs, and others all within a single Databar query to ensure you get the quantity and quality of prospects needed.
This sequential approach has become known as “Waterfall enrichment” and is available in Clay and Databar.
Who Should Use Databar
Q: Who should use it?
A: Go-to-market teams, sales reps, marketers, RevOps professionals — really anyone needing accurate data to drive outreach. We see both startups and large enterprises using Databar. It levels the playing field.
What Users Can Achieve with It
Q: What can they accomplish that they couldn’t without it?
A: They can build prospect lists 5–10x faster, with much better data quality. For example, identifying SaaS companies using specific tech that recently raised funding — that’s a task that normally takes hours. With Databar, it’s minutes. Also, CRM data enrichment helps keep contacts accurate over time.
Tech Stacks & Integrations
Q: “Tech stacks” have been around for quite a while. What tools and skills need to be in the mix for Databar to make sense?
A: All you need is a CRM and maybe an outreach tool. Databar feeds those systems with verified, enriched data. Our platform is intuitive — if you’ve used a spreadsheet, you can use Databar. The real value is that you get access to 90+ data providers through one interface and subscription.
Client Success Stories
Q: Can you share a client success story?
A: OnHires, a Web3/AI/FinTech recruiting agency, cut research time per role from 3 hours to 15 minutes and doubled response rates. Pryzma, an Amazon consulting agency, consolidated three tools into one and increased lead speed by 10x.
What’s Next for Databar
Q: What’s around the corner for Databar?
A: Intent-based data, native website visitor tracking, deeper CRM syncing, and smarter AI-driven workflows. We’re focused on helping teams act on the right data at the right time.
Clay vs Databar: What Sets It Apart
Q: Clay achieved unicorn status recently and agencies are charging to implement it. What’s your take?
A: It means the tools are valuable — but if you need consultants just to make it work, it’s not scalable. Databar was built to be simple and effective without expensive implementation fees.
Q: How does Databar’s approach differ?
A: It’s intuitive. We use spreadsheet-style UX, pre-built templates, and now an AI agent that builds workflows based on prompts. It’s fast, flexible, and scalable without complexity.
How to Try Databar Yourself
Q: For someone who hasn’t tried Databar yet, how can they see what it has to offer?
A: Book a demo or start a free trial. We’ll build your first prospect list together. If you come with a real-world challenge, we’ll show how Databar can solve it right on the call.
Professor’s Note
Databar uses a hybrid billing model that makes it significantly more affordable that many SaaS model list providers. Instead of paying a large annual contract that includes a number of users seats regardless of how much data you pull, you instead choose a base plan and then can pay ad-hoc for extra data pulls in a busy month.
As you start to use more and more, your price per “pull” drops on the higher usage plans.
