CB Insights Sells List of Dying Tech Startups for $4,895 | Hacker News Reader

CB Insights Sells List of Dying Tech Startups for $4,895

cbinsights.com

58 pointsdmor26 comments

Hi - Anand from CB Insights here.

Couple of clarifications/answers based on comments below:

1. We look at cash-on-hand along with scores from a technology we've built called Mosaic which looks for signals of strength or stress at private companies (a bit more on Mosaic here - http://www.cbinsights.com/mosaic/). So while cash remaining is an important input, we look at other measures (industry health, investor quality, HR activity, etc) to ultimately create the list.

2. Startups are not the intended customer for the list. However, corporate M&A teams, corporate HR teams/recruiters/VCs looking to recruit talent and IP buyers are the customers. The list is a shortcut for their efforts.

3. We're seeing a lot of the above folks buy the report which is a function of (a) it's not easy to find info as we've got the most seed data out there and (b) it is cheaper than alternatives, i.e. recruiters, consultants, trying to do in-house

4. 0% of the data is from Crunchbase. We started a company initially called ChubbyBrain and the CB in our name is a tribute to our humble roots.

If any other questions, don't hesitate to reach out or ask in the comments. Happy to help.

I just tried using Mosaic; looks interesting. But it asks for an email in the final step. Where is this final step?

Is CB considering Bitcoin as a payment method?

We're waiting for Stripe to integrate Bitcoin and then we will. Until then, we are happy to take the more old-school American dollar :)

Any discounts for those on the list?

Your startup might find itself on that list pretty quick if it's in the habit of shelling out $5k for dubious data products...

I guess the only way for a startup not to die is to raise funding, I mean it's not like it's going to make tangible profits or anything over 13 months.

Yeah, I found this notion amusing too. The only way not to die is to raise money?

I think you have a process patent in there somewhere. Let me know when I need to license it when I get money to buy food.

It's a bit like the universe has folded, back onto 1999.

So someone should take Crunchbase and sort for startups that raised a seed without a follow-on round within 13 months.

Would that not be the same info?

I can think of one way to find out for sure.

Probably where the information come from. The price seems to be more a function of the limited market of potential customers than anything amazing about the data contained.

I assume they are pulling from Crunchbase, but it's not like people have any incentive to keep Crunchbase updated (in a lot of cases, you don't want people to know you just raised $1.5mm a year or two after your initial seed money).

> (in a lot of cases, you don't want people to know you just raised $1.5mm a year or two after your initial seed money).

Why? What kinds of signals does that send?

To channel Biggie Smalls via Ben Horowitz, "don't you know Bad Boys move in silence and violence?". If competitors don't know you're well funded, they're more likely to ignore you. On a more practical level, it keeps the bottom feeder companies which troll crunchbase/techcrunch/etc and spam you with recruiting/etc. offers for months away. There's not a lot of upside in letting people know you're funded before a product is launched.

The problem I have with this list is you might not need to raise further capital. Capital for equity is the most expensive form of money compared to say a bond or loan from a bank.

That's a bit expensive to see if I'm on the list.

The return of FuckedCompany is upon us... sorta

Does anybody know where to get something similar to this, but not focused on startups? That is, a more general "dying companies" list? That seems like something that could be useful... are there services that generate that sort of thing, or are you limited to just "the rumor mill" and what-have-you?

Why not sell for an even $5,000?

If you had a charge card with a 5k transaction limit, this would give a little wiggle room.

The same reason that things sell for $1.95 instead of $2.00.

Convention? 99cent pricing is a hotly debated topic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing

Less rounded numbers seem slightly more considered and thus a justified cost rather than a number pulled from the air.

In this case though I think it would've happened like this:

  "How much?"
  "What about almost $5k but not quite $5k?"
  "$4,995?"
  "No, people will know that's basically $5k."
  "$4,895?"
  "Yeah OK, let's run with that and see if anyone bites."

It creates the implication in some people's minds that it's based on the content. I.e., x companies that are likely to sell if you offer to pay for their lunch and take on their debt at $50 each, y companies that will need to pay back their moms, aunts, and grannies at $25 each, and z companies that will end up in a bidding war with the other people buying the list to look for cheap acquisitions at $10 each.

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