How do startups use industry analysts for growth?

The University of Edinburgh Business School is running a fascinating new research project – and they need help from startups in the South West. 

The key question the survey is seeking to answer is are B2B tech startups able to leverage industry analysts in their race for market breakthrough? Startups, VCs, accelerators and analysts around the world are gathering data for a first-of-its-kind report to identify the success patterns. 

Analyst relations as a business function is one of the most “under the radar” and critical success factors in b2b tech.

Analysts like Gartner, Forrester and IDC are consistently highlighted as top influencers of technology and buying decisions. Hence, leading vendors make sure that industry analysts know and understand their offerings.

But are startups and scaleups aware of this part of the playing field? How do they use it in their race for market breakthrough? What are the success patterns?

Chris Holscher, the initiator of the research project, tells us, “Analyst relations practitioners and leading VCs agree that innovators benefit most from early and strategic involvement of industry analysts.

“North American startups appear to have developed an edge over European competitors here. But this field has never been comprehensively analysed – until now.”

The University of Edinburgh Business School and a group of analyst relations specialists are asking young companies on both sides of the Atlantic and globally about their work with industry analysts.

Professor Neil Pollock, leads the Entrepreneurship and Innovation research at the UoE Business School. He explains, “We have lots of anecdotal evidence already – now we want the broadest possible basis of hard data.

“The views from startups that have no experience with analyst relations yet are just as important to us as the views from those who have worked with analysts already. In addition, we also gather the perspectives from VCs, accelerators and analysts themselves to get the first-of-its-kind 360° view on the topic.”

Chris tells us, “It is critical for the SSIA survey to cover the full variety of views from many regions. From Startups and Scaleups, from VCs and Accelerators. Experienced with Industry Analysts or not. We want a 360° picture for maximum value of insights.

“South West startups have an advantage in that TechSPARK decided to support this project early! Participants will benefit from the findings ahead of publication: Peer orientation, success patterns, investment levels. If you’re among the first 500 you can win one of 40 private sessions to discuss the impacts on your specific segment.”

Shannon D’arcy, Partnerships Exec at TechSPARK says, “We want to ensure startups in our region have the optimum level of support to be firmly on the radar of top influencers and leading vendors.

“Collecting this data to get a holistic perspective will be hugely beneficial to our startup community as the earlier the candidates can be identified, the better business analysts can support them.”

The survey is now live and the research team is working to get it into as many hands as possible. You can expect to see results in early 2022; all participants will get invitations to webinars that explain the findings.

Chris adds, “We can only do this with you – experienced with analysts or not: Make your voice heard and you’ll be the first to get the insights.”