Doug Camplejohn
(00:01)
Hi, this is Doug Camplejohn, and welcome to Revenue Renegades. This week, I’m incredibly excited to welcome Henry Schuck, the CEO and founder of ZoomInfo and several other companies before that, to the show. Welcome, Henry.
Henry Schuck
(00:15)
Thanks for having me, Doug. Great to be here with you.
Doug Camplejohn
(00:18)
As a fellow founder, I always like to start with the startup story. Many people may not know that ZoomInfo was originally DiscoverOrg when you started. I read that you started it while you were still in law school. Tell me about that-what was the aha moment?
Henry Schuck
(00:41)
I started it after my first year in law school, but I had worked at a similar company during college, from 2001 to 2005, at a small company called iProfile. I saw tremendous demand for data on companies and the people who worked there, and what projects they were working on, what their tech stack looked like. But there wasn’t much of a business around what we were selling-it was just a few college kids and the founder. I didn’t see a future at that company, so I left and went to law school. After my first year, a buddy called and said he wanted to start something similar but in a different market segment. He asked if I’d start it with him. Six weeks later, he quit his job, moved to Columbus, Ohio, and we agreed to start the business together. I put $25,000 on my credit card, he did the same, and we started building the data asset.
Back in 2007, building this kind of data asset was brute force. We spent half our days online and on the phone, calling into companies, figuring out who was in their IT departments, building out org charts. The other half of the day, we were marketing and setting up demos for our platform.
We figured out tricks to get phone numbers-like using Cisco or Avaya systems to access directories. It was a brute-force approach to gathering data and then taking it to market. The moment I realized we had a real business was when a sales leader from a cybersecurity company emailed me, echoing our founding thesis: there was a lot of information on Fortune-ranked companies, but almost nothing on mid-market companies. He wanted to become a customer. That was the validation I needed. We did $300,000 in revenue the first year, $800,000 the second, $1.7 million the third, $5.5 million the fourth, then $15 million, $25 million, and it just took off from there.
Doug Camplejohn
(04:25)
Amazing. And you were in law school this whole time? You didn’t drop out?
Henry Schuck
(04:28)
For the first two years, I went to law school, moving all my classes to the evenings. Most people take classes that are on the bar exam, but I just took whatever was available between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. so I could work until three. I ended up taking a lot of random classes. I finished law school, took the bar, and then, for the first time, I had evenings free. I remember coming home, having dinner, and watching American Idol. It was the first time I experienced what most people consider a “normal” evening. Finishing law school and focusing entirely on the business changed its trajectory, and I found I had more time than I knew what to do with.
Doug Camplejohn
(06:07)
That’s wild. When did you decide not to be a lawyer and go all-in on the business?
Henry Schuck
(06:16)
Basically right away. I wanted to finish law school and take the bar as a fallback, but I was fully dedicated to the business. I didn’t interview with law firms. I left my summer internship when we started the company. I was all in from the beginning but wanted to be a licensed attorney as a final safety net.
Doug Camplejohn
(06:51)
That’s impressive. What early decisions or strategies enabled that early growth?
Henry Schuck
(06:58)
We started in a tight niche: selling data on IT decision-makers to companies that sold to IT decision-makers, focused on mid-market companies. Our ICP was very focused-software companies, cybersecurity businesses, and services and staffing companies selling to IT. For the first 10 years, all we did was IT decision-makers at mid-market to Fortune-ranked businesses. Eventually, we expanded, but always with a focus on technology decision-makers and their teams.
Doug Camplejohn
(08:13)
I remember the first time I saw DiscoverOrg-I was blown away. Early on, you focused on premium, human-verified data while competitors did automated scraping. What inspired you to take that approach?
Henry Schuck
(08:19)
A couple of things. First, if you ask people nicely for a phone number or who they report to, they’ll often just tell you. One of our distribution partners told me that our direct dial phone numbers were unique-inside sales teams are much more productive with direct dials. That became our focus and a huge differentiator for years. We created dashboards to track our direct dial percentage and leaned into that advantage.
Later, in 2014, I met with Bombora, which provides intent data. They pitched us on ad data and engagement signals. After several meetings, I realized we could tell customers when their prospects were researching certain topics. We became an exclusive partner, and combining intent data with our company, contact, and technographic data was another big advantage.
Every year, I look for the next “direct dial” or “intent” epiphany that adds value and differentiates us.
Doug Camplejohn
(11:50)
You’ve spoken about your rivalry with RainKing, which you acquired in 2017. How did that rivalry shape your go-to-market and business?
Henry Schuck
(12:11)
The biggest difference was cultural. DiscoverOrg was younger and hungrier-we had a chip on our shoulders and wanted to prove ourselves by beating RainKing, which had VC funding and experienced leaders. Every deal mattered to us. RainKing, on the other hand, didn’t see us as a real competitor. That hunger was a competitive advantage for us.
Doug Camplejohn
(14:10)
Was that your first acquisition?
Henry Schuck
(14:13)
Our first acquisition was iProfile, which was smaller. RainKing was the first significant acquisition.
Doug Camplejohn
(14:20)
What was it like merging those two cultures?
Henry Schuck
(14:25)
It was actually great. People at RainKing knew internally that they needed to change. We came in confidently because we were running similar businesses, but ours was growing faster and more efficiently. With RainKing, we could say, “Let’s do it our way,” and it worked. With ZoomInfo, it was different-they had higher growth, we had higher margins. We had to marry the best of both and be more nuanced. It was a more challenging integration.
Doug Camplejohn
(17:07)
When the acquisition was done, I was impressed that you didn’t just keep the DiscoverOrg name. You recognized more brand equity in ZoomInfo and made the switch.
Henry Schuck
(17:23)
Yes, there was more brand equity in ZoomInfo, and it’s a better name. I named DiscoverOrg but was never particularly proud of it. Some board members were more attached to the name, so we did a transition-“ZoomInfo powered by DiscoverOrg” for a year, then dropped the DiscoverOrg part.
Doug Camplejohn
(18:05)
You took ZoomInfo public during the pandemic. What gave you the confidence to move forward?
Henry Schuck
(18:21)
The business was performing well, and there weren’t many high-margin, efficient, high-growth businesses in the public market at the time. We did investor meetings and felt confident. When COVID hit, we watched for a month to see if the business continued to perform-it did. We were the first company to go public after the lockdowns, and it was a successful IPO. Managing a public company is different-you have a constant scoreboard, so you need to stay focused on building a durable, long-term business.
Doug Camplejohn
(19:47)
What advice would you give founders transitioning from private to public?
Henry Schuck
(19:53)
My biggest learning was that, as a private company, I had years of experience with my board-they knew me and trusted me. As a public company, your shareholders don’t know you. You’re judged on quarterly results and forecasts. The only way to build trust is to tell people what you’re going to do and then beat it. If you’re not sure you’ll hit your numbers, set expectations accordingly. No one wants to be surprised by a miss.
Doug Camplejohn
(22:58)
One of my favorite phrases is “happiness is reality minus expectations.” You’ve grown through multiple acquisitions. How do you think about acquisition targets and aligning with your vision?
Henry Schuck
(23:19)
Today, I think about it in several ways. First, we want to own the interface for account executives, account managers, and customer success managers. Most of their work happens in email, spreadsheets, and a bit in CRM. CRM has lost its place as the source of truth for go-to-market teams-most reps manage their business in spreadsheets. I look for acquisitions that embed ZoomInfo into those workflows.
Second, I look at data. There are many aggregators but few data originators. If I find a company originating data in a unique way, that’s interesting. I also look at international opportunities-if someone has nailed ZoomInfo for Japan or the Nordics, that’s compelling. Finally, I consider whether our go-to-market engine can leverage the acquisition and if it serves the enterprise segment.
Doug Camplejohn
(26:54)
What do you think about aggregators like Five by Five?
Henry Schuck
(27:11)
I think Five by Five is an interesting data originator and would put them in that category.
Doug Camplejohn
(27:18)
You mentioned the system of engagement for reps. Companies like Clari, Gong, and Outreach are also vying for that space. Do you see them as competitors?
Henry Schuck
(27:42)
Everyone is trying to own the account executive and account management workspace. Earlier, we all benefited from the SDR use case-providing data for calls or emails. Now, integrating into the workflow of account executives and managers is more challenging. Other systems are tied to CRM, but the data there is broken. Go-to-market AI hasn’t taken off like support AI because first-party data isn’t enough-you need third-party data to enrich it. There aren’t many great providers of that.
Doug Camplejohn
(29:41)
At Fliptop, my last company, we found the only reliable CRM data was what reps needed to get paid. The rest was unreliable.
Henry Schuck
(30:22)
It’s a master stroke and also unfortunate for CRM providers. The data is a mess, but because CRM never provided it, it’s the customer’s problem. Of course, CRM should be pre-populated and dynamically updated with company and contact data, but it isn’t. That’s great for CRM, not for users.
Doug Camplejohn
(31:30)
Let’s talk about AI. You’ve introduced ZoomInfo Copilot. How do you think about AI in your product portfolio?
Henry Schuck
(31:44)
For AI to work in go-to-market, you need a unified data layer across systems: CRM, call, email, calendar, all married to third-party data. Once you have that, you can apply AI agents to tasks like meeting prep, account prioritization, account planning, research, and follow-up. The first Copilot feature was account prioritization. We learned just how messy CRM data is-often, we can’t even reliably tell which accounts are in a rep’s territory. We acquired SetSail to help aggregate activity up to the right accounts. Once we have a clean, unified data asset, we can deliver relevant prioritization and signals, and Copilot can draft messaging with context about the account. We believe a human should still be involved to perfect the message, but we set up everything from prioritization to engagement.
Soon, we’ll launch the Go-To-Market Intelligence Platform, allowing sales and rev ops leaders to manage the unified data layer, use AI to augment it, and push the right things to the right people at the right time.
Doug Camplejohn
(36:14)
It’s fascinating how data quality issues persist. Even at LinkedIn, reps managed territories in spreadsheets, not CRM.
Henry Schuck
(36:26)
It’s crazy that it’s 2025 and that’s still the case. I recently did roundtables with our account executives and managers. Enterprise reps said they couldn’t get a clean list. We’re solving this for our customers, but it’s still a challenge internally. It’s a problem for every go-to-market organization, and we have an opportunity to win in that category.
Doug Camplejohn
(37:42)
Do your reps still use a “shadow CRM”-Notion, Evernote, Google Sheets, etc.-even with ZoomInfo?
Henry Schuck
(37:57)
Yes, people still use a shadow CRM. I expect that to be solved before the end of the year with our May launch. We’re using feedback from those teams to build what’s needed. We won’t have succeeded until our reps manage their books inside ZoomInfo.
Doug Camplejohn
(38:38)
AI is the most exciting technology I’ve seen, but keeping up is like drinking from a fire hose. How do you stay ahead of trends?
Henry Schuck
(38:57)
I have a great chief product officer who’s always a few steps ahead. We drive into the office together and constantly share ideas. I also created a “go fast” AI lane at ZoomInfo, led by our chief AI and strategy officer, who prototypes cutting-edge ideas before bringing them to the broader engineering team. I also experiment on my own, prototyping things and following tech Twitter to stay on the cutting edge.
Doug Camplejohn
(40:23)
Let’s wrap up. If you could automate one task forever using AI, what would it be?
Henry Schuck
(40:39)
I’d love to automate all my travel booking. It sounds easy, but there’s a lot going on in my mind: making it back for my daughter’s play, managing dinners, minimizing time away from family, coordinating with people in other cities. If AI could replicate all those considerations, it would be a huge relief.
Doug Camplejohn
(41:43)
I use a service called Essentialist, but I still end up changing flights myself. It’s never 100% right.
Henry Schuck
(41:53)
Exactly. My executive assistant does a great job most of the time, but there’s always that last 10-15% where I need to adjust something.
Doug Camplejohn
(42:15)
What’s something you’re passionate about that might surprise people?
Henry Schuck
(42:28)
Public libraries. I grew up in them-doing homework, studying, checking out books. When I studied for the bar, I used libraries all over Las Vegas. I contribute to public libraries in my neighborhoods; they’re a great community service.
Doug Camplejohn
(43:08)
I love that. What’s one thing you can’t live without in your daily routine?
Henry Schuck
(43:13)
My morning routine. I wake up around 5:30, spend an hour with my wife before our daughter wakes up. We have coffee, play Wordle, and catch up. Then I spend 45 minutes with my daughter, go to the gym, cold plunge, walk her to school, and then go to work. Missing that routine can throw off my whole day or week.
Doug Camplejohn
(43:58)
Jack Dorsey once said his morning routine-sleep, meditation, exercise, and learning-helps him run two companies. Even if the day is tough, it sets a positive tone. I think your routine does the same, especially with time for your daughter.
Henry Schuck
(45:00)
It takes real discipline. It’s easy to give up on the routine, but once you have it, you notice the difference and never want to miss it.
Doug Camplejohn
(45:15)
How can listeners keep in touch with you and support ZoomInfo’s mission?
Henry Schuck
(45:20)
I’m active on LinkedIn-Henry Schuck. You can email me at Henry.Shuck@zoominfo.com. I’m also on X (Twitter). I’m pretty available.
Doug Camplejohn
(45:35)
Awesome. Henry, thank you so much for taking the time. I’ve loved this conversation.
Henry Schuck
(45:39)
Me too, thanks for having me, Doug. Great to see you.
