PolysharesPolyshares Check your data

RESEARCH WITH STAKES

Analysis produced because someone had to act on it, not to be published

Your firm has produced a great deal of original research — sector notes, diligence work, competitive analysis, market sizing. It was done because a decision depended on it, which makes it markedly sharper than material written to be read.

Check your data Six questions, roughly two minutes.
Research done for a real decisionConclusions with reasoning attachedBounded licence, scope agreed first

WHAT FIRMS HAVE PRODUCED

Four kinds of research sitting in most firms' archives

Almost none of this was ever reused after the decision it was produced for.

Sector and market work

Sizing, structure, dynamics — written for a specific question rather than as a general overview.

Diligence memos

Investigation of a specific target or opportunity, with the concerns and the recommendation recorded.

Competitive analysis

Assessment of other players, usually more candid internally than anything said publicly.

Position papers

The firm's considered view on a question, with the argument laid out for colleagues to attack.

WHY THIS MATERIAL IS DIFFERENT

Research with consequences is written differently

  • The conclusion had to be defensible to someone who would act on it and complain if it was wrong.
  • Sources and limits are stated, because the author needed to be clear about what the analysis did not cover.
  • Confidence is graded. Work like this distinguishes what is known from what is inferred, out of self-protection.
  • It ages into something testable. Analysis from five years ago can be checked against what happened.

    • THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

    What firms ask about analytical work

    Much of ours was done for clients who own it.

    Then ownership sets the boundary. Your own internal research, methodology and sector work is frequently unencumbered, and that is where scope starts.

    Our research is out of date.

    Age is not a problem. Analysis that can be checked against what actually happened is more useful than analysis that cannot.

    Does published work count?

    Published material is already public. The value sits in the unpublished working analysis and the internal debate around it.

    What would this be worth?

    Deals typically land between $100K and $2M. Reasoning density is what moves the number, and research work usually scores well on it.

    SPEAK WITH A MANAGING PARTNER

    The analysis you filed and never reopened

    Six questions and a short conversation. Nothing you tell us leaves Polyshares.

    Check your data