Like all worthy objectives, it’s nuanced.
Startups want analysts to praise their products and shout their brand to the world. Analysts are intent on accurately portraying the market…their value and reputation depends on objectivity. These two goals can be mutually exclusive, and the path forward is complex. But, so worth it.
How do the sides come together? This was a meaty topic to pose to three experienced industry analysts: Roy Illsley of Omdia, Jon Collins of GigaOm and Merv Adrian, a BARC Fellow (formerly Gartner). I asked them how an analyst can help a startup stand out from the crowd.
Jon Collins first clarified why analysts are influential. He says, “While industry expertise is table stakes, the biggest asset analysts have compared to buyers is the luxury of time to speak to vendors and evaluate what they offer. As advocates for technology buyers, analysts can offer objectivity and breadth of visibility. For vendors, therefore, it's about putting your product in context of what the end user is solving for, That's the primary goal. If you understand this, then your product is far more likely to be talked about.”
Merv Adrian warns that analysts can “trash their reputation quickly if they are perceived as uncritical, telling buyers what’s great about whoever’s paying them. Analyst firms that position themselves as independent, trustable commentators need to ensure that the work they do with vendors is objectively defensible.”
As a startup, your interactions with them must always be mindful of the fact that the analyst’s primary allegiance is to the enterprise buyer.
So how does a startup get talked about?
Analysts don’t cover or mention every startup they meet. They’ll listen to you, but they will only pass your story along if you offer something truly unique and differentiating.
Roy Illsley says, “If a startup has got something that really captures me, the vendor will know it, because after the first meeting I’ll tell them it’s really good, and I'll want to continue the conversation.”
Analysts respond when the startup has a strong value proposition, but according to Roy, “In most cases, it’s not unique. There are at least 10 other vendors I know doing exactly the same thing. A good value proposition says 'we do X to deliver Y value', but doesn’t just claim they're the best.
“This gets you to a point of trust. When I know the vendor well, I know the warts and all, so when I talk to a CIO I can be honest about what they do and what it means. It’s advocacy, but it’s honest advocacy because I have to protect my value to that CIO. Omdia, or any reputable firm is absolutely not pay-for-play because it would destroy our value.
“So I can give honest advocacy, but it’s not the full on approval rubber stamp that some people are looking for.”
Jon adds. “I will start talking about a vendor on the basis of the honesty of the vendor. If you give me a bunch of generic blah, blah, blah, you will get a flatline, zero response from me. If you tell me our startup is really keen on addressing this particular challenge, I might say, “Oh, yeah, that is a big challenge.’ Now we’re getting somewhere.
“When the startup makes the mapping between what they’re trying to solve and what the world needs, you’re starting to do the analyst’s job for them. You add value and educate the analyst. We analysts weren’t necessarily understanding the particular space as well as we could. You’ve been thinking about this a lot. Now I’m thinking about it a lot. And I want to talk to you again. You’re 100% on my radar. And then when I do go to end user organizations, I'm going, ‘There's a challenge you haven't addressed there. You know, Acme and Co solves for this.’”
Jon continues, “You don't start a startup to build a better database than Oracle. You start a startup because you go, ‘Oh, my God, there's a gap in observability right now. Let's call it observability of cloud native solutions.’ And you’re first to market with that term. As a startup, don’t try to make it look like you can beat incumbents at their own game. That’s crazy. You've got to show that you do something completely valuable, completely differentiated and completely unique that makes you stick in the mind.”
Merv says, “The big hurdle to get over is clearly articulated differentiation, and finding the analysts for whom it is in their coverage.
“If you can put those two pieces together, you've got a shot at it…and if it turns out that it truly is disruptive and interesting, differentiable, and you've got a customer or two, you can get attention and coverage.”
What do analysts actually do when they encounter a startup worthy of their support and attention?
Roy explains, ”Startups that want to get ahead see analyst firms as an opportunity to accelerate their growth, but it doesn’t work like that. We can help get your name out by social media, for example, but we’re not going to say that your solution is the ‘best.’
“Omdia has a research agenda set out for the next year, which covers key topics. If a startup falls into one of those key topics, if they’re on the radar, if they are worth writing about, they will be covered in those reports.
“Additionally, we produce Market Disruptors Reports, which is about a topic, for example, Platform Engineering. We include a range of vendors, but we don’t compare them. They are part of the same ecosystem, but not competing. The vendors included have convinced me that they have a story worth telling. The Market Disruptors Report is how I can tell it independently and show how it fits in the bigger picture.
“Otherwise, If I encounter a startup and I quite like what they are doing, I’ll give them a shoutout on social media. I won’t go into any great details, but it will raise the profile. I do talk about quite a few startups once I’ve gotten to know them, when they’ve said some things of interest.”
Merv talks about this experience with startups at Gartner. “When you look at Gartner's Magic Quadrant, the vendors likely to be featured are those with significant market presence, because at the end of the day, Gartner customers consider vendors that are commercially significant, not just technically interesting. They want to know what’s on the leading edge, but only at the point at which Gartner is willing to say that a vendor is demonstrably commercially viable. You have to get over that hurdle first before significant coverage happens.
“Cool Vendor is the only significant place where startups would get written about and published in a Gartner document. Analysts submit interesting vendors and make the case to a central team about why they’re important. But it’s up to that team, and only a small percentage of the submissions get published.
“I also can write a blog post, and If I write a lot of blogs, I may cover them there. Not all analysts do.
“As an analyst, what I can mostly do for startups is talk about them in an end user inquiry. I may be talking about, for example, AI models. And I say, you know, I just talked to a very interesting startup two weeks ago. They haven’t got a lot of market presence yet, and I can’t tell you that I’ve talked to a bunch of their clients, but I think they’re interesting and you should check them out. What they’re doing is promising.
“That would be a good inquiry performance for me… and most analysts want to do that job well.”
Merv compares this to his new firm, BARC, which is smaller, more aggressive, and more eager to grow. They do strategic consulting to help a vendor be successful.
Many firms, including Omdia and GigaOm, provide services and content for vendors. But you can’t buy a favorable report from them, any more than you can from Gartner or any respected analyst firm.
You may not be aware that analysts also offer services to vendors. Merv says, “While Gartner and other big firms will do strategy sessions, they basically listen, tell you what they think and leave. BARC will help you with strategy formulation and execution steps. This is very attractive for small vendors who don’t have the staff for this kind of work.”
“Many startups have an origin story,” says Jon. “They may have set out to solve a specific problem, or they spotted a new market opportunity. What analysts can bring is the broader picture, how well the solution will land in different scenarios or contexts. Along with general advisory, we do persona work with vendors to help them communicate with audiences outside their core experience – either across different roles, or up the chain of command.”
Conclusion
Analysts don’t exist to promote vendors, but when they encounter startups they believe in, their support will develop. A startup first needs to prove itself with a well-articulated and differentiated value proposition because analysts are very interested in startups that solve real problems for end users. In the course of supporting those end users, analysts will suggest young companies with innovative ideas. These mentions give startup vendors validated credibility in the market.
Merv ends with some excellent advice. “Get help. Startups don't know how to work with analysts. They don't know how to tell the story, what's likely to move the needle, and they almost certainly don't know which analyst in a large firm is the one to whom they should be talking to.”
Can analysts promote startups? Let’s give that a “nuanced yes.” It makes a brand stand out in the market, when done right.
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About the author
Robin Schaffer leads Schaffer AR, an analyst relations agency supporting B2B tech vendors, especially startups and scaleups.
Robin is a prominent voice in the analyst relations community and the author of Analysts on Analyst Relations.
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