In this episode of the Full Throttle Leaders podcast, host Michael Falato interviews Scott Kaye, Chief Revenue Officer of Dataview, a $4 million‑run‑rate fintech startup focused on data‑driven customer acquisition for mid‑tier lenders. Scott recounts his 30‑year career in the information industry, from early roles at Black Knight and CoreLogic to a nine‑year stint as head of sales at Deluxe, before joining Dataview in 2023. He describes Dataview’s market – mortgage, personal, auto, student, credit‑card, and home‑equity lending – and its value proposition: custom AI models, a white‑glove concierge approach, and rapid, flexible decision‑making that outpaces larger competitors. The conversation covers the primary buyer personas (CMOs, CLOs, heads of sales), how AI has compressed model‑building cycles from months to days, and the company’s “crawl‑walk‑run” pilot framework for new clients. Scott shares contact details (email scott.k@dataview.io, phone 954‑494‑4105) and emphasizes the importance of proof‑of‑concept engagements to demonstrate differentiated performance.
Chapters
Hello everybody, Michael Falato here again. Uh, GTM Full Throttle is my company, Full Throttle Leaders is my podcast. Got Scott Kay here from Danaview. Scott, how you doing, brother?
Doing great, how you doing? Happy Friday.
Happy Friday. So we talked a little bit before about this podcast and I want to get your story, who you are, what you do, why you do it, and your journey. It's not a Dataview, uh, hey, let's do a commercial. It's more about where you and why you picked to, you know, join Dataview. Is it the CRO, right?
I am CRO, correct. Yep.
Yeah, so, you know, please give a little background who you are and then the Dataview story a little.
Absolutely. So, uh, first, thanks for having me on. Um, appreciate the opportunity. So I've been in the information industry for the last 30 years. I've worked at some very large companies, started my career off in the real estate prop data space, so working for companies like Black Knight, CoreLogic, and then I made a transition in 2014 to a smaller data-driven marketing company here in South Florida. They were based out of Boca. private equity backed. Came in as head of sales in '14, loved it. It was a completely different technology and data sale than what I had been doing before, but I really enjoyed the strategy and the data science that goes behind building solutions that help clients deliver better results in their marketing for customer acquisition. So really enjoyed that. And but shortly thereafter, the company went out to market and was sold. So I joined in May of— April of 2014, I think it was. We closed in like October of 2015 and we got acquired by a company called Deluxe.
Yeah.
Deluxe is based outta Minnesota. Probably know them best as a check printing company.
Yeah.
I think they've been in business for over 110 years. Deluxe was on a pretty aggressive acquisition strategy, looking for companies that talk to sell solutions into the financial services space, which is where they're, you know, where they focus. So it was a strategic acquisition. It was great. But I went from back from an entrepreneurial, you know, company back into the large corporate world, which was fine. was head of sales for the next 9 years. So in 2023, I parted ways, uh, did some consulting for a year, and then in May of 2014— it's kind of a funny story— but, uh, reconnected with some folks that, um, we have roots, uh, in common denominators, let's just say, in the industry. And they were looking to expand their current business in back into a financial services credit-based data company, and they were looking for someone to help them get to market. So when I—
That's about 2 and a half years at Dataview.
Sorry, go ahead.
That's about 2 and a half years. Yeah.
So that was Dataview. So it was a startup. Joined in May of 2014. Really, I mean, when I read the job description, quite honestly, it was, it was almost like it was written for me. So it matched my background pretty well. So joined the company.
How big is the company? How big is the company?
Um, so we're on about a $4 million run rate. Um, so 2 and a half years in, we're privately held. Um, so we still are in a growth mode. Um, but we're doing well. We spend a lot of time in the personal loan space. Um, I've hired a couple of folks to help join me in our go-to-market to build out our automotive strategy. So we're calling on auto refi companies, we're calling on auto fintech companies, and we're also building out a strategy to call on the auto dealer groups. So it's a, it's a, it's a good market for us. It's, it gives us the ability as a small company to kind of be a differentiator, um, which I love. And I'm, I'm loving being back in that entrepreneurial world, you know, where we can make fast decisions, we can help clients quickly. I don't have to go through the, the red tape. Some of the larger corporations.
You grew up in New York?
Yeah, so I'm originally from New York, uh, Jersey. Every time I say New York, my wife corrects me and says, no, you're from New Jersey. But I grew up in— yeah, I grew up in Bergen County, which is basically the GW Bridge.
So, uh, my, my black belt jiu-jitsu professor is from Bergen County, who I trained with.
Yeah, you know where?
I just know it was Bergen County Police.
Okay, gotcha. Yeah, I grew up in Teaneck, um, New Jersey. So, um, yeah, but I moved to Florida in— it's been almost 30 years.
Wow, wow, a long time.
Yeah, currently residing in Delray Beach. We raised our kids down here. They, they went off their way, and we're, uh, we're, we're living a more simple, you know, uh, urban life in Delray Beach.
So who do you sell Dataview to mostly?
Yeah, so our market is really, um, it's lenders. Uh, it's lenders that cross a number of different verticals, from mortgage to personal lending to auto, as I mentioned those 2 before, student lending, credit card, home equity. Um, we do some auto warranty work as well. So really, our target markets are, are mid-tier lenders that are looking to develop better strategies for their customer acquisition. So new customer acquisition is really kind of where we focus. And our data is not just, you know, data is data, right? It's not a question of is your data better than somebody else's? Our data is somebody else's, but what we do with that data to help our clients and the intelligence that we build around that data is kind of where we differentiate. I mean, just to give you an example, in the personal loan space, we build custom models for our clients. I have one client that we've grown really well with over the last year and a half, to the point where he's shifted all his business to us because our models and the performance of those models have increased his response rates, which have increased his conversion, which increases profitability. And just through that strategic partnership is kind of where we shine. And the kind of white glove concierge approach that we bring is a bit of a differentiator. So I know this is not an info— so I don't want to get too deep on all that. But so, yeah, so my role is really to make sure that, you know, we're bringing the right accounts in, we have the right go-to-market strategies, and we're building the team around all that.
And who are the personas that you sell to inside those companies?
Yep, mostly it's CMOs. Yeah, CLOs, chief lending officers, head of sales, people that are mostly responsible for that top line. You know, while they also have an eye on the bottom line, they gotta build their funnel and grow their customer base, and that's kind of where we step in.
Okay. And tell me a little bit about like your best strategy, tip, tactic, or even just an AI tool that you really love that kind of changed a lot of your efficiency on time or just loving the whole part of that tech.
Yeah, that's a great question. So, you know, AI gets to be used pretty generically by a lot of people these days. I can tell you where I've seen the improvement specifically on what we've been doing for clients is around the ability to gather the intelligence at a much faster rate and to be able to make those assessments. There's still that human component to selection, but the ability to pull in massive data, the ability to analyze it quicker and determine best path, you know, and change course, of course. Our ability to Modify on the fly is much faster. I can tell you, in the old days before AI, you know, it would take a team of data scientists to analyze the data, to make the recommendations, and that could take 2, 3 months. Now we're doing it in days, if not faster. So it's really changed a lot of what we do and how we do it. It's kind of entwined in everything that we do these days. I mean, I use it heavily on the prospecting and customer intelligence side, and it's also used on the tech side and on the backend.
Okay.
I think, yeah, I think the biggest thing, Michael, about us is really kind of being— we're made up, we're a small company. Sometimes, you know, the brand isn't there and people will say, well, who is Dataview? Why should I move what I think is working today to come to you guys? It's a great question. We get challenged with that all day long, every day. But the differentiators that we bring, the experience— our team is— the company's new, but everybody in this company has 15+ years in this industry. So we bring a lot of experience and expertise to the table. That's a lot. Yeah, it's a huge differentiator. And like I said, our biggest benefit in my— from my perch is, you know, We're not— we can make decisions fast. I can get you into market faster than my competition can. I can— I don't have the overhead that my competition has, so I can be a little bit more flexible and creative on the pricing strategy. So it's a great place to be. I hope it will stay that way for a long time as we continue to grow. But that's kind of, you know, where we're at today in the evolution.
How would someone get ahold of you and who should get ahold of you?
Yeah, what was the last part of that?
Said who should get ahold of you?
Yep, yep. Yeah, so that's a great question. How— the how is you can go to www.dataview.io. There are sales opt-in forms. If somebody wants to get more information, then we can have somebody contact them. They can always reach me directly, scott.k@dataview.io. Or my cell phone number, I'm happy to give that out also if you think that's appropriate. 954-494-4105. So reach me anytime, call me anytime, email me anytime. I'm happy to engage as quickly as possible. The who is the biggest question. I think I might just mention this. The biggest question I get is What I'm doing today is working. Why do I wanna shift over to you guys? What are you gonna bring that's different? It's a great question, and I don't try to disprove what's working for somebody today. I think the value of what we can do is give us a chance to do a pilot, give us a chance to do a proof of concept.
Crawl, walk, run.
What's that?
Crawl, walk, run, you know?
Exactly. That's a great statement because our business is very much a crawl, walk, run. Nobody jumps in and says, I'm gonna buy, you know, 10 million records You, you know, it's how do we, how do we carve out our niche? How do we improve? How do we analyze, learn from it, and then build on it? And that's kind of how our whole, you know, mantra has been with our client base today.
So yeah. Well, thanks for being on the show. We like to keep them short so people have the attention span. And feel free for people to reach out to, to, uh, Scott. Um, information on Michael Palato. Obviously, everybody should know me by now because I do a lot of these, but I'm doing roundtables and masterminds and podcasts to build your top of funnel and earn trust with people and create these things like, like what you're doing here, roundtables, and use those content and put them in Opus, put them in some sort of Blaze.ai and make some more content and team up with people. So thanks for your time and we'll talk.
