Founder Inst Traeger 101111

8/3/2019 Founder Inst Traeger 101111

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Start-up Research

October 2011



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Disclaimer (!)

• Research is both art and science.

• The info you find has to have some basis in reality as itrelates to you.

• The art is knowing where to look.

• The science is knowing when and how to apply what you’vefound to your situation.

• The expectation is that you know (and note) where youfound the info so that you can cite it to an interested partyshould you need to (‘No I didn’t pull it out of the air…’).



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Where to Start

You need to define what it is that you need.

Research can constitute many things:

• Market research

• Investor research

• Product research

• Operational Research

The bottom line is most startup-up research is answering thequestion:

How do we compare to <something> about X??



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How do we compare?

• You’re building your b-plan, planning for your company’s future,but only have public or large companies to compare yourself to.

• You know about other successful small companies doing similar things and want to know how you compare.

How do you figure out how other successful small companies did it

when they were your size?

Things like:

How much cash did they raise when they were our size?

How many units were they actually able to produce or services couldthey sell?

What’s the real size of the market?

If you’re wanting to work with the government, what were others ableto do?

But where? How?



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How Much Did They Raise?

How much did xCo raise when they were at our stage?:

Challenge: private investments are not publiclypublished. Well, no, maybe.

Anything over $1M usually is filed with the SECunder Form D. Sometimes smaller investments.

• Do a Form D search at www.sec.gov



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Researching Investors –Are they a good fit for us?

Use social / digital media analytics to determine if an investor is agood fit for your company. Why?

You always want an investor to come to you with more than money –you want them to bring connections, introductions, success for the

company.

• Use Twitter, Facebook posts, LinkedIn data and other sources todetermine what an investors preferences are.

• Search the press release archives of venture firms for info on their investments into the company you’re interested in.



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Competitors - What Did They Say?

Check the press release archives of the company to see if they’vebragged about how much they raised? No record, no problem.

• Use The Wayback Machine at www.archive.org to search for oldweb sites of the company and year you’re interested in.

No company info but know who / what firms invested? No problem.

• Search the press release archives of those firms for info on their investments into the company you’re interested in.



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Are our product targets valid?

How many widgets xCo produce when they were at our stage?:

• Again, check the press release archives.

• Next, if they sell to the federal government check:

• www.fedspending.org

• www.usaspending.gov

• www.fpds.gov

To see what exactly they sold and when and for how much.



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Summary

You can find meaningful info in many FREE places.

The key is to find information that is relevant to YOU

and use it to your best advantage.

Questions?

Founder Inst Traeger 101111

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