What are the best industry research platforms?

January 08, 2020

by a searcher from Babson College - F.W. Olin Graduate School in Hingham, MA, USA

I recently spoke to a fellow searcher, and he is in contact with a family office manager interested in investing in small business deals.

The catch is this guy is keen on industry focused searches, and would require a term-paper sized analysis on what industries would be in the scope of the search, fundamentals of companies operating in the industries, and that these industries would be large enough (given any geographic constraints) to reasonably identify an opportunity.

My friend suggested the AtoZdatabases platform for some initial research, but it doesn't have great filters overall to find relevant info.

Are there any other good resources which may provide company and industry details, given a many direct (not broker assisted) search?

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Reply by a searcher
from University of Vermont in New York, NY, USA

One could likely obtain research that supports (or even enhances) an investment thesis, but (1) the research is likely to be unreliable (regardless of source) and (2) inconsequential in the bigger picture of most lower-mid-market companies that are likely search-fund acquisitions. I like to test various research sources with claims they make about facts I actually know. More often than not, they are off by orders of magnitude, rendering their products useless if one is seeking actual data but perhaps useful if seeking only to prove a case to a prospective investor. Moreover, let's say the data is provided now; this means it's probably a year or more old any way....and now we're going to spend up to another year searching for the target and more months closing the deal...and then a couple of years running the deal. By this time, the data is so outdated and no one is ever going to look back. My advice: Skip the research and look for companies that are growing organically, either in whole or in part, i.e. specific product lines or categories. My response probably won't be popular with everyone, but it works for me..

Reply by a professional
from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Boston, MA, USA

I agree with Doug - most platform research solutions 1) deal with larger companies, 2) get outdated quickly, and 3) are not always reliable. I would add that their findings are generic -- meant for everyone, They can educate you on the market and competitors, but you still need to do the hard work of digging deeply into your target firm to find the specific insight you need to know. If you or your team can't do it, hiring a research consultant makes sense. Data is nice, but insight makes deals work.

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