Factors.ai: Democratizing B2B Marketing Analytics with Account-Based Attribution

In the world of B2B marketing, the buyer’s journey is rarely a straight line. It’s a messy, month-long maze involving multiple stakeholders, dozens of LinkedIn clicks, several whitepaper downloads, and countless website visits—most of which happen anonymously. For marketers, this "dark funnel" makes it nearly impossible to know which campaign actually drove the revenue. Srikrishna Swaminathan, Co-founder of Factors.ai, is building the tool that finally illuminates this path. By connecting every digital touchpoint to a specific CRM account, Factors.ai is turning marketing from a guessing game into a growth science.

Srikrishna Swaminathan’s background is steeped in high-scale performance. An alumnus of IIM Calcutta, he spent years at Google and was a Vice President at InMobi, where he helped build an affiliate business to over $100 million in revenue. In March 2020—just as the world went into lockdown—he teamed up with fellow InMobi leader Praveen Das and ex-Google engineer Aravind Murthy to launch Factors.ai. Their mission was clear: to build a global SaaS platform that democratizes enterprise-grade marketing analytics for B2B teams.

The Problem: The Fragmented Marketing Funnel

Most marketers live in a world of silos. Google Ads tells them about clicks; LinkedIn tells them about impressions; the website tracks "hits"; and the CRM tracks deals. None of these systems talk to each other effectively. This leads to massive inefficiencies—companies often double down on "leads" that never convert to revenue while ignoring the subtle touchpoints that actually drive high-value deals.

"B2B marketing is very different from B2C," Srikrishna explains. "It’s not about one person buying a pair of shoes. It’s about five people from one company interacting with your brand over six months. If you don't have a platform that connects all those dots, you are essentially flying blind."

The Solution: A Marketing "Operating System" for Growth

Factors.ai is a B2B marketing analytics platform that integrates with all major ad channels, website analytics, and CRMs (like Salesforce or HubSpot). It uses proprietary algorithms to identify which specific paths lead to the highest ROI, allowing marketers to optimize their spend in real-time.

Building a Remote-First Unicorn Bridge

Launching a startup in March 2020 was a trial by fire. Srikrishna and his co-founders had to build their culture and their product in a completely remote environment. Despite the lack of physical meetings, they successfully raised $5.6 million from top-tier investors like Elevation Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners.

"Entrepreneurship is about freedom," Srikrishna reflects. "It’s the freedom to choose what problem you want to solve and who you want to solve it with. Building a company from zero to one after being in a unicorn like InMobi was a humbling but exhilarating reset."

Lessons in B2B SaaS Leadership

For Srikrishna, building a product is about more than just code—it’s about empathy for the user and relentless focus on the right "factors" of growth.

1. Customer Obsession is Not Optional

The early version of Factors.ai was built on feedback from actual marketers. Srikrishna emphasizes that you should never build in a vacuum. "I still spend a huge portion of my week talking to customers. If you don't know their daily pain, you can't build their daily tool."

2. Hire for "Ownership" Mindset

When recruiting for a lean team, Srikrishna looks for people who want to be more than just employees. "We want people who see this as their own company. In a startup, there are no predefined roles. You need generalists who can manage uncertainty and take the initiative without being told."

3. Focus on "Sanity" Metrics

Srikrishna warns against "vanity metrics" like website hits or lead counts. Instead, he focuses on Churn Rate, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and Revenue Retention. "If your churn is increasing, something is fundamentally wrong with your product value. You have to be disciplined with your data."

The Meaning of Entrepreneurship

To Srikrishna, entrepreneurship is the ultimate form of independence. It’s the ability to choose your own challenges and take more time to think deeply about a specific domain. He defines a founder as someone who is willing to "read their own grave" and jump in, committed to not coming back up until the vision is a reality.

Factors.ai is proving that Indian SaaS can compete at the highest global levels. By solving the attribution puzzle, Srikrishna Swaminathan and his team are ensuring that for B2B companies, marketing is no longer a "dark art," but a powerful engine for predictable revenue.

About the Guest

Srikrishna Swaminathan is the Co-founder and CEO of Factors.ai. An MBA from IIM Calcutta and an engineer from RV College, Srikrishna is a veteran of the digital advertising and SaaS industries. He previously held leadership roles at Google and InMobi, where he built massive-scale performance marketing businesses. Under his leadership, Factors.ai has emerged as a key player in the B2B marketing analytics space, raising millions in venture capital and serving a global clientele.

Factors.ai is an account-based marketing analytics and attribution platform that helps B2B companies make sense of their complex buyer journeys. By unifying data across website, ad platforms, and CRM, Factors.ai provides marketers with the insights they need to optimize their spend and accelerate revenue growth.