6. What Can You Learn?
•Size
•Location
•Relationships
•Products
•Customers
7.
8. How can I find this information?*
• Industry – IBISWorld
• Market Sector – Mintel Oxygen
• Company – Hoover’s
• Competitors’ Funding – TechCrunch
• Academic Research – LexisNexis
• General News – Google
• Trade Associations
* Like an Academic
9.
10.
11.
12. How can I find this information?*
• Consumer products – Amazon Customer
Reviews
• Service Businesses – BBB Reviews
• Salespeople
• eBay Completed Listings
• Apps – Google Play, iTunes Store
* Like a blue-pants research ninja
13.
14.
15.
16. Why Does Anyone Care?
• Entrepreneurs
• Don’t waste your time
• Leverage the mistakes of others
• Partners
• Gives you credibility
• Willing to partner
• Investors
• Gives you credibility
• Double Check
Good afternoon, I’m Kapono Curry.
I’m the operations manager for the Florida Angel Nexus
I work on vetting companies, market and industry research, financial analysis, and pre-investment due diligence
I also serve in portfolio monitoring and support for our FAN members
Now all of that sounds fancy, I want you all to keep in mind that at heart I’m just a surfer kid from Kaua’I
For those of you unaware of the 50th state, I want you to know that Kaua’I is a small dot in the center of the pacific ocean
Where one would suggest that paying attention to what is swimming with you
Can save your life
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be focused on executing
Neither am I saying you should quit in the face of competitors
I would suggest that there are ways you can leverage your time
I would suggest there are ways you can spend your competitions’ money
I would also suggest that Competitive research can be used as a form of customer validation if you use it right
And I would propose that spending even one hour doing competitive research can save you years of frustration,
So you don’t pay the opportunity cost of your time in pursuing something your competitor has already pivoted away from
Sun Tzu wrote “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
The gentleman on the right is Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. He is famous for his use of extensive planning before battles and his ability to force his enemies to confront him on his terms.
Why am I mentioning them?
Both of these famous commanders used information, specifically research and planning to give them an unfair advantage,
allowing them to defeat much larger forces with limited resources and manpower
What can you learn about your competitors?
You can learn their size, how many people do they employ?
Location, are they closer to your customers than you are? Where are they manufacturing?
Who do they work with? Who do they compete against?
Who are their customers and why do they love them? What do their customers despise about them?
The most valuable things you can learn will all come from their failures
You will want to know how they failed and why?
Where did they fall apart?
How did they pivot afterwards?
What business models keep them alive?
This is the most important slide in my presentation
These are the Academic information resources that contain qualified data
Please take out your phones and take a picture of it
Access to some of these resources can be very expensive, your local library may have access
And if you or someone you knew goes to UCF
You have access to it there
Now this is a useful list, lets put it to work
Say you were an educational toy manufacturer
You could look at IBISWorld to find out trends within your industry, the full report contains a wealth of information
You could use this to identify trends in your industry, who the largest players are, what makes them worried?
Or say you were a website focused on travel
You could look at Mintel to find out what the market wants and who it is rewarding with cold hard cash
Perhaps you were an OTT content streaming and Multiplexing company
Would you like to know what noteworthy achievements your competitors had accomplished recently?
Would you like to know who is willing to buy an entire startup that meets their criteria?
Don’t be scared to look for relevant information sources in unusual places
A big problem with academic research sources is they tend to lag behind in new industries and new market sectors
Be prepared to get weird to find the objective data you need
Say you were a game developer, how would you find your competition?
Scroll down to the bottom of your own app page to see what Google Play thinks is similar
Click on the best rated competitor
Look at their reviews to see why their customers hate them, find out why they love them
Just in case you were a software developer doing workforce management, say you had an innovative time keeping solution
Would you want to know about a Miami startup that adds facial recognition to anyone’s time management software?
Would you want to partner with a Florida Company who is a startup just like you who is passionate about everything Florida, Florida Tech, and Florida Startups?
What if you were a resource to Bloggers who put on conventions?
Would you like to know who puts on the biggest blogging conventions? Who is recognized as being the best blog resource?
Now the question becomes, who cares about this kind of analysis and why?
As entrepreneurs you should be focused on executing, don’t waste your time solving a problem that doesn’t exist
Leverage the mistakes of others, find out how they failed and why? Are you better suited to solve that problem?
As you approach other businesses for partnerships, your knowledge of the competition will lend you credibility and ultimately win key partnerships. Some of the companies you identify as competitors may be willing to partner with a more savvy leader
Lastly, sophisticated investors will not only expect this research to have been done, they will always double check. Be prepared to narrate why your business will succeed in spite of competition, be prepared to be surprised by what the investors discover.
On the investment note
I’m excited to be a part of a movement in the Florida Investment Community, there are brilliant groups putting their money where their mouth is
We love to work with Venvelo out of Rollins, one of their board members sits on our board as well
Rhys Williams out of New World Angels
Tamiami Angel Fund
Florida Institute for Commercialization of Public Research
Arsenal Venture Partners and the Florida Opportunity fund
Idea Fund Partners
And the list goes on
The point is that there is money here in Florida. You probably wont be able to raise $1M with an idea written on a napkin, however, for those willing to put in the hard work and to work smart, the money is hungrily waiting for you
I want to point out the context of my opening photo.
There are two photographers in this picture, one in the picture and the other taking the picture
Only one of them has a shark swimming at them
Which do you want to be?
