Doing research is key to any business. But as the data collection field grows, entrepreneurs everywhere need to know how to leverage its power. These veterans talk about starting up a research firm focused on Enterprise Technology, and what entrepreneurs can learn from paying attention to the right trends.
From Left to Right - Brad LaScolea, Allan Rothstein, Norman Rothstein, Thomas DelVecchio (Sitting) and Sagar Kadakia
In the past decade, data gathering has evolved radically as businesses and entrepreneurs everywhere capitalize on collecting it, organizing it, and selling it. We have more access to more data today than we could ever know what to do with. Want to purchase a new microwave? You can sift through endless reviews, reports, press releases--not to mention recommendations from your social network--in order to find your best option.
So the question becomes: what do we do with this data? How can we make good use of it? And for the entrepreneur: How can I turn this data into a business opportunity?
Enterprise technology refers to the information technology (IT) resources and data that are shared across any company. It is an integral aspect of business structure--as important as marketing or finance to any start up. By understanding the trends in this field, we can begin to understand how to let this data inform our business decisions. Thomas DelVecchio, of ETR, says, “the future will be driven by technological advancements and that those advancements will largely be born from the enterprise space.”
From Left to Right - Sagar Kadakia, Thomas DelVecchio, and Brad LaScolea
ETR is a technology market research firm working in this very space. By compiling an ecosystem of data about enterprise technology, they are able to predict trends in the field and inform an infinite number of business decisions.
The ETR leadership team--founder Thomas DelVecchio and co-founder Norman Rothstein, along with Sagar Kadakia, the Head of Data Science--strive to collect the best and most comprehensive data, helping investors channel their funding, helping entrepreneurs focus their resources, and helping companies everywhere benchmark their technology efforts. They do so by convening over 3,600 companies and surveying their procurement plans.
SM: A technology market research firm is a relatively new species. How did ETR get off the ground?
ETR: First, we needed proprietary data from high-level, in-demand people. Before anything else, we had to build a qualified community of corporate IT leaders that were willing to repetitively participate in surveys and that was balanced and populated so as to be representative of global IT demand. This was contingent on the community composition that we believed could provide us with this data.
Then, only after years of repeating this process of standardized surveys while growing the community in a deliberate and measured manner, could we even backtest the data so as to confirm or refute our hypothesis - that was the idea of ETR. Thankfully for us all, our hypothesis was confirmed (whew!).
Trying to sell our service and data in year one without any proof that what we were doing would even work was less than easy, but we sold the vision of what this would become to those with vision.
Thomas DelVecchio: I believe nothing good in life is ever easy – so I often find myself seeking difficult challenges because mistaken as I may be or not, I believe there’s great reward and fulfillment on the other side.
SM: How do you actually conduct the research for ETR and where does it come from?
ETR: We effectively capture the behavior and intentions of information technology officers at large enterprises, whose decisions will have a real market-shaping impact, at scale and in real-time. We do so by developing programmatic surveys, generating quantitative data, which are primed for qualitative queries. After that, we track historical trends and correlations which generate contrarian ideas about what the market and face of technological ubiquity will be in the future.
From Left to Right - Allan Rothstein, Norman Rothstein and Thomas DelVecchio
SM: What tips do you have for fledgling entrepreneurs?
ETR: First, don't startup just to have a startup. Solve a real problem that you care enough about to not only survive the hardship of trial and error, but also to thrive on the grinding work of the iteration and reiteration process.
Next, your team matters. A good team is essential to the launch of your product. Don't hire or give founding equity to someone who will be more appropriate at a scaled stage.
Don’t forget to do your homework. We work with entrepreneurs all the time by identifying pain points at large enterprises and connecting them to mentors at enterprise scale companies facing issues that the entrepreneur is working to solve.
If you're a passionate entrepreneur or startup that could use either a proof for your concept, a new problem to solve, or a technology mentor then you really ought to consider looking at our platforms vLAB, our virtual accelerator program for entrepreneurs hacking on problems that our data has identified as critical to the future technological landscape and VENN, our platform for high-touch engagements between the tech and financial ecosystems.
ETR’s Advice To Young Entrepreneurs
If you're still a student, take advantage of programs that help you cultivate hard skills, such as computer science, math, statistics, etc. In school, you have more access to resources and mentorship to help support any entrepreneurial venture you can think of, hack together, and test in the market. Business knowledge is easier to access independently.
If out of school, while you have less infrastructure to lean on, you have all of the opportunity in the world to go after experiences that will teach you how to ideate, test, ship, iterate and scale an idea. Hold multiple roles throughout your career - this breadth of experience will rapidly teach you enough about people, what works in business, what doesn't, what you care about, and your strengths and weaknesses. And be mindful to think of “your career” as not one role at one organization, but rather what your entire body of work over your lifetime will be.
Sagar Kadakia: Be open to new ideas, support and applaud radically different approaches – ideate by any means possible. Be ambitious, stick to your dreams and foster the dreams of others.
If you would like exclusive access to our data platform and technology ecosystem, send an email to access@etr.plus. For consideration for the vLAB program, access to our resources, VENN, and strategic inclusion in our greater ecosystem of industry leading technologists and investors, apply at etr.ai/pitch