Venture Scanner

Deal Discovery Is a Process

May the Right Company Win the Deal

A couple years ago after Autodesk purchased short form video creation app Socialcam, my co-founder Jereme Monteau and I asked each other why Socialcam out of all the other video creation apps? Was Socialcam the best fit for Autodesk’s strategic needs? It may very well have been the best fit for Autodesk’s needs, but we wondered if Autodesk acted with a full understanding of the video creation category.

Startup Scanning Should Be a Daily Corporate Habit

I recently came across an incredibly telling chart by Richard Foster, co-author of Creative Destruction and a Director at Innosight. The chart shows the average length of time corporations last in the S&P 500. In 1958, the average corporation lasted 61 years. In 1980, the average was 25 years. Today it is about 18 years. See full Innosight report.What leads to corporations losing their leadership position and how can they prevent it? Foster notes that the root-cause lies in the inability to reinvent the corporation. The pace of innovation and startup activity continues to only accelerate, meaning reinvention must happen in an ongoing fashion as part of the corporate DNA. Corporations must keep a pulse on emerging innovations, understand trends and insights, and take actions that will keep them relevant. This is our key mission at Venture Scanner, to enable corporations do just that. Nader

What is a Venture Scanner scan?

Last week I wrote about why we started Venture Scanner and why it’s important. Today I want to share what a scan is.The simplest description of a scan is a one stop shop for data and insights on any emerging technology sector. It includes a dynamic map of all the companies in the sector, curated daily news, and original analyst insights. We aim to make it easy to continuously keep a pulse on sectors of interest, monitor companies, or find opportunities.Our approach is one part technology and one part analyst context. Our technology aggregates available data on companies and organizes companies into clusters. Our analysts then arrange these clusters into dynamic maps that represent a technology sector like 3D Printing, Retail Online to Offline, Financial Technology, etc. Our technology then continuously refreshes the scans while our analysts build an ongoing insights layer on top of the data.The insights layer is derived by fully immersing ourselves in the sectors we cover. Our analysts are in regular contact with the companies in a sector, derive what the drivers for success are, and spot trends as they emerge. These insights combined with the underlying data enable our customers to make informed decisions and take action.Through Venture Scanner you can answer the following questions:Who are the companies in a technology sector?How do the companies stack up against one another?What are the key drivers for success in a sector and which companies are exhibiting them?Our scans are dynamic and updated daily, so you’ll rest assured knowing you are not missing material events.Nader

Why are we working on Venture Scanner?

A lot of people ask me why we are working on Venture Scanner.