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Analyzing startup development: websites and tools

I use a whole range of publicly available sources to analyze the development of my startups. This includes:

  • Crunchbase.com / Dealroom.co
    Information on funding reasons, investors and VCs involved, number of employees in the startups
  • LinkedIn
    I follow some startups to stay informed of what posts they post on LinkedIn. The approximate number of employees as well as the development of the number of employees over time and the average length of employment can also be read.
  • Trustpilot
    How many ratings has my startup received over time? What is the average rating of the service/ product? How does the number of ratings and the average rating develop over time?
  • Similar Web / Google Trends
    How does the ranking of the website develop over time/ how does the traffic on my startup’s homepage develop?
  • Companies House
    Depending on the size of the company, only a little or a lot of information is available here:
    How has the loss/profit developed in recent years?
    How has the number of employees developed?
    How has sales developed or what sales development would I expect based on the development of inventory on the reporting date?
  • Google/ Apple App Store
    How is my startup's app rated, how many downloads does it have? How are downloads and average rating developing over time?
  • Web Search / News Search
    What articles and news will be published about my startup and on what kind of websites? What trends can be derived from these articles?
  • Product reviews (number & star average) on Amazon
    How do customers rate the product? How is the average rating of the products developing? How is the category ranking of the products developing? In which EU countries is the startup active in selling products via Amazon?

Not every source is relevant and helpful for every type of startup. However, the sum of the above sources can often reveal very precisely in which direction a startup is developing.

What other sources have I forgotten, what additional information do you use to evaluate your startups? Write it in the comments!

Philip

I have been investing in startups since 2014. In recent years, my portfolio has grown to over 150 investments of various sizes. On my blog I regularly report about crowd investing and my investments.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Martin 2 Aug 2021 Reply

    Hello Philip, there are some other tools worth mentioning in connection to startups:
    – CB Insights: much better than Crunchbase
    – ECF Buzz Company Tracker / blog
    – webpage of the startup
    – websites of competitors, if any

    Have a nice day
    Martin

    1. Philip 9 Aug 2021 Reply

      Thank you Martin.
      I will take a look at CB Insights. ECF Buzz I personally don't follow. Would not use it myself, but it can of course act as a counterpole (negative opinion) to balance my own thoughts.

  2. Florin 11 Oct 2021 Reply

    I use the cityFALCON app, a startup financed via Seedrs, to monitor the news for other startups as it saves a lot of time used to search for news for each individual company.

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