The initial analyst briefing for a startup (Startup Saturday)

As part of our Startup Saturday series we have suggested that AR should be a significant investment for emerging companies and how analysts can play a role in building market awareness.  We offered techniques for introducing yourself to an analyst - so let’s be practical about the presentation you use for your first briefing.
The most [...]

Why AR is more important than PR for a Startup [Startup Saturday]

Research by SageCircle, H&K (in multiple Technology Influencer Studies conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates), Lighthouse AR and other AR advisory groups has consistently shown that the most significant influence on purchases is peer recommendation and personal contacts.  Second is industry analyst opinion, which leads all other influence including advertising and PR.  For a [...]

Introducing yourself to an analyst for the first time [Startup Saturday]

Startups are often in the position of introducing themselves to industry analysts as they start or expand their AR outreach. In addition to the initial outreach, startups find themselves introducing themselves to new analysts because the analyst landscape is very dynamic.  Analysts change firms, but more importantly change coverages and areas of research.  This means [...]

To generate short list placements, you need to narrow your claims to analysts [Startup Saturday]

Founders and senior executives at startups frequent speak about the future of their companies and markets with grand sweeping statements about how they are going to change the world. They also will say that every enterprise and small business or consumer should buy their product or service. While these might be legitimate statements and required [...]

Portland’s tech startup community - Startupalooza [Startup Saturday]

Last Saturday I attended one of the events coordinated by Portland’s vibrant startup tech community and encountered entrepreneurs, executives, bloggers, analysts, and consultants.  Startupalooza (link) is one of the various ways that social media is helping to bring people together.  Organized through the web this event had capped the attendance at 200 people due to [...]

Are the analysts laggards or have startups neglected to brief them? [Startup Saturday]

Here is a comment from a blog that is representative on the attitude about analysts at major firms covering an emerging technology:
“…I think that the Social Revolution is being underreported by Gartner et al, because the enterprise world is a laggard …”
Or maybe the thought leaders and leading providers of an emerging technology market (in this case [...]

Commenting on analyst blogs to build relationships with analysts on the cheap [Startup Saturday]

One of the challenges for startups is how to build relationships with analysts when they do not have a services contract. Because many analyst firms put the analysts behind a paywall, startups cannot call up the analyst for an ad hoc conversation. Yes, one can do some relationship building via briefings and informal interactions at [...]

Startups, when was the last time you did an inquiry? [Startup Saturday]

Startups agonize about buying analyst services - influenced by the myth that analysts are pay-to-play - but then underutilize what they bought. As we always say, it is what you do with the contract that gets you the benefit, not the act of writing a check.
One of the biggest crimes is not using that retainer-based [...]

Startups should look for “bite-sized” services that provide AR insights and tools at modest prices [Startup Saturday]

Startups rarely have huge sums to spend on analyst relations and AR services. This is often perceived as a barrier to getting the help they need to get their AR programs launched or taken to the next level. However, there are some modestly priced services that startups can turn to.
Analyst Directories - ARinsights’ ARchitect and [...]

Should startups use PR agencies to do AR? [Startup Saturday]

This is a post that will no doubt irritate my PR friends, but the answer to the question about whether startups should use PR agencies for AR is “only for the boring stuff.” By boring, I mean interaction logistics and basic information dissemination. However, when it comes to building the relationship and developing credibility with [...]

Feedback from analysts on what a tech startup knows that would be really interesting [Startup Saturday]

In addition to last week’s post (see Startups have unique market insights that they can use as currency with IT industry analysts [Startup Saturday]) I also listed a question on LinkedIn Answers to see what sort of feedback I would get from analysts. I am glad I did as I got some really interesting and useful [...]

Startups have unique market insights that they can use as currency with IT industry analysts [Startup Saturday]

As we said in Should tech startups invest in analyst relations?, the currency startups should use with analysts is not euros, yuan, pounds, dollars, yen or pesos. No, the real currency is information (and the executive time to deliver the information).
Startups need to provide analysts with all the usual information such as strategy, ability to execute, [...]

Avoid emotion when building the analyst list for emerging tech markets [Startup Saturday]

Just as with larger firms, emerging technology companies need to rank and tier their analyst lists.  Ranking establishes the relative importance of the analysts and sets a priority, while tiering is the process of allocating resources.  Based on the available time, money, staff, executive support, and so forth you need to group the analysts into [...]

How end user revolts impact startups’ analyst lists [Startup Saturday]

Back in the 90’s I used the concept of “end user revolts” extensively when doing speeches at Gartner events. The idea always got approving nods of the head from the throngs of IT managers in the audience because most thought that end users were pretty revolting. However, I pretty much stopped using the talking point [...]

Why startups have their briefing requests turned down [Startup Saturday]

Marketing managers at startups and intrapreneurs (functions like an entrepreneur but within large companies) often get frustrated because their requests to brief an analyst are often turned down. They then start thinking it’s because they don’t have a contract with the firm (see Should tech startups invest in analyst relations?). Alas, the problem of getting a briefing accepted [...]

Startups can create business value by focusing on industry analysts [Startup Saturday]

There is great value for startups that sell to corporations or large governments to invest in analyst relations (AR). The analysts can: 

Bolster startups’ credibility by characterizing the startup as “viable” or an “up-and-comer”

Generate highly qualified leads by placing the startup

Why is it so difficult for startups and intrapreneurs to identify analysts to talk to? [Startup Saturday]

One of the most difficult tasks for a startup or intrapreneurs (functions like an entrepreneur within large companies) is to identify who the heck in the analyst community they should be targeting for interactions. Often the first few analysts that are contacted flatly turn the startup down leading to discouragement or a suspicion that it’s [...]

What is the ideal stage for startups to start working with the analysts or building relationships? [Startup Saturday]

Today’s post is an answer to one of the questions outlined in Should tech startups invest in analyst relations? The question is “What is the ideal stage for startups to start working with the analysts or building relationships?”
 
The rule-of-thumb answer for this question is “much earlier than you think.”

Gartner’s Cool Vendor annual research note set [Startup Saturday]

Often startups with interesting new technologies feel like there are no IT analysts that want to cover them. For example, they are usually excluded from signature deliverables like Forrester Waves and Gartner Magic Quadrants since they often don’t fit neatly into an existing market. Rather than give up, startups should consider targeting Gartner’s annual “Cool [...]

Should tech startups invest in analyst relations?

Last night I attended the Marketing SIG monthly meeting of the SDForum (an association for tech startups) because Dana Marks of Weber Shandwick and analyst Rob Enderle were talking about “Analyst Relations — It’s All About Influence.” It was a pretty interesting meeting. Rob was very candid and had a lot of funny stories about [...]