E94 - Eli Goodman (Co-founder & CEO of Datos)

In this episode, we speak with Eli Goodman, co-founder and CEO of Datos, a clickstream intelligence company built for institutional and enterprise markets and acquired by Semrush. After more than two decades across the data ecosystem - including senior roles at Comscore and close work with Gartner - Eli founded Datos in 2020 with a clear focus on trustworthy, high-integrity data in a space shaped by regulation, risk, and long-term dependency. This is a conversation about responsibility, judgment earned over time, and building something that is meant to last. What We Dig Into: The Weight of Founding Eli describes entrepreneurship as constant vigilance. “It’s not that you’re sleeping three hours a night. It’s that you always have one eye open.” Founding, for him, is not about freedom. It is about responsibility. “If you’re not figuring it out, it’s not getting done.” People trust you with their livelihoods. If you care, that weight stays with you. Managing People vs Being Responsible for Survival Eli draws a clear distinction between leadership inside an established company and founding something from zero. “Every day you wake up and the first thing you think is: when are we out of money?” In a startup: • There is no institution behind you • No inherited structure • No one else to catch what you drop The company exists only if you keep it alive. “Milk Gate” - When Small Things Reveal Bigger Realities One of the most memorable moments in the episode comes from what Eli jokingly refers to as “Milk Gate”. Early in his career, he describes a company-wide meeting where leadership reprimanded the entire office for drinking too much free milk - milk that was meant for coffee, not cereal. “It didn’t really make sense why the general manager had to sit everyone down about milk.” At the time, it felt irrational. Easy to take personally. In hindsight, it became clear what it really signaled. The company was nearing a sale. Costs were under scrutiny. Every dollar suddenly mattered. “When something feels out of place, it usually is.” The lesson is not about milk. It is about learning to read context instead of ego. Small, insignificant-seeming moments often: • Reflect pressures leadership is not articulating • Signal structural changes before they are announced • Only make sense once you zoom out Learning Not to Personalize the Wrong Things Eli connects Milk Gate to another early-career moment - pitching an idea that leadership dismissed. At the time, it felt like rejection. Later, he understood it as disinvestment. The takeaway: • Not every “no” is about you • Sometimes it is about timing, incentives, or exit dynamics • Experience teaches you what to internalize and what to observe Why This Episode Matters This episode removes mythology from entrepreneurship. It replaces bravado with responsibility and hype with durability. It is especially relevant for founders building infrastructure, data, or long-term platforms. You’ll Walk Away With: • A grounded view of founder responsibility • A lens for interpreting small but meaningful business signals • Clarity on funding alignment and incentives • A practical people-management framework • A reminder that sales still start with humans • A long-term view of trust as strategy Measured. Honest. Earned over time. Enjoy your listen