Great ideas, execution, team members – a lot of people have a lot of different ideas about what it takes for startups to succeed. The companies that grow into hits take on near mythic status and encourage others to pursue similar fortunes even though nearly everyone is aware that most startups don’t survive.
So what’s the real story? Who gets funded? What’s a winning company look like? Can numbers tell us who will survive, who’s on the cusp of greatness?
Analytics for Partnering and Investing
A lot of money is on the line – for investors, for pitching founders, for entrepreneurs looking to back a winner. IPO headlines spark dreams. Founders vie to join accelerator and incubator programs. While the economy wobbles, venture capitalists continue to favor technology companies… Underneath the noise and the news, Mattermark works to provide data-based, deal intelligence.
Mattermark combines big data, curated news, and analysis to empower both firms and entrepreneurs to “research, prospect, and track the fastest growing private companies.” Analytics cover the following variables and more:
- Business Model
- Vertical Industry
- Co-Investors
- Funding Stage
- Geographical Location
- Web & Mobile Usage
- Organic & Paid Acquisition
- Social Media Following & Engagement
“Management consultants are more than 2x more likely to be venture-backed founders than engineers”
Would you have guessed that to be true? Mattermark is full of such insights. The company specializes VC deal sourcing, but has also turned itself into a force for qualifying leads. A beginning subscription plan – designed for founders, angel investors, and startup employees – begins at $99/month per user. This price might be steep for the bootstrapping beginner, but the information provided is vital.
Startup workers excel at learning and adapting, BUT, if they have a common Achilles heel, it might be a “What can you do for me” mindset. Intensely focused on their companies and dialed into their niche markets, they tend to see the world through their own startup-colored glasses. A tool like Mattermark is a great reality check, a way to better understand the startup ecosystem as a whole and to keep perspective.
Mattermark is helmed by CEO and Co-founder Danielle Morrill. Her career has given her opportunities to understand startups from multiple vantage points – as a founder, marketer, community manager, developer and analyst. Her project Referly was a 2012 graduate of Y Combinator. Prior to working on her own startups, Danielle served as the Director of Marketing at Twilio.
Fortunately, there’s another way that entrepreneurs can benefit from Danielle’s knowledge without dropping a dime. Follow her on Twitter for her sharp commentary on startups and investments.
