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Day: May 11, 2021

York IE Launches Market and Competitive Intelligence Platform

Posted on by York IE

(Manchester, NH, May 11, 2021) — York IE™, a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm, today launched general availability of Fuel™, its market and competitive intelligence platform that helps B2B SaaS startups gain a competitive edge.

Fuel is a SaaS platform that provides digestible data and insights so busy entrepreneurs, operators and investors can enhance their strategic growth. With the most accurate and connected private company profiles, plus news and original research, Fuel best enables the startup community to track and find insights about a market, its trends and its influencers.

As part of Fuel, York IE also launched Fuel News, a site dedicated to highlighting the best owned content from early-stage B2B SaaS and other fast-growth companies.

“Taking a market-in approach to company building means you build your strategy around market and competitive intelligence,” said Kyle York, CEO, York IE. “Having worked with hundreds of successful startups this is the best way to drive strategic growth. Yet finding the time and skillset to do that independent research is hard and, as a result, often gets pushed to the side. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for entrepreneurs, operators and investors to make this type of research part of their everyday workflow.”

Fuel Platform

Fuel helps accelerate strategic growth and adds value to everyday workflows by allowing individuals and teams to:

  • Make market and competitive intelligence searches go from days to minutes
  • Curate companies into custom watchlists so you know your competitors better than they know themselves
  • Get in-app or email alerts on content, funding announcements and acquisitions so you’re always sharing the latest information
  • Use Market Pulses to stop guessing and instead create data-driven messaging, product and thought leadership content strategies

York IE originally built Fuel to support its own investment and advisory services practice and to advance its mission of reshaping how startups are built, scaled and monetized. The platform proved so useful that York IE quickly made it available to its investment partners, portfolio companies and advisors.

“Market and competitive intelligence is my job but it’s not my job so it is done in stolen moments but it is so strategically valuable,” said Paul Heywood, Chief Revenue Officer, Puppet. “Fuel makes it easy for me to have my finger on the pulse of the industry.”

Fuel News

Fuel News, home to the best content for operators by operators, publishes the latest ideas, insights and trends from early-stage B2B SaaS leaders, including original content from York IE and its vast network of analysts, thought leaders and advisors.

Fuel News allows you to:

  • Stay informed on the hottest topics within your industry
  • See what your competitors and comparators are talking about
  • Curate market POVs that can influence your messaging and product strategy
  • Publicize your company’s original content

“Your go-to-market strategy is all about data,” said Gil Allouche, CEO, Metadata.io. “Once I know the key performance indicators for our GTM strategy, in addition to using leading indicators to track market momentum, I can combine them into a strategic GTM plan and accelerate growth. You also need to have a strong pulse on the market – your prospects, your customers, and your competitors – so you can provide your own, clear voice to the conversation. I believe in the power of good thought leadership. I’m glad York IE is shining a spotlight on it and providing a platform to show this data.”

“Innovation is needed in startup investment and support,” said Will Mitchell, CEO, VETRO. “I am glad York IE has stepped up. They are playing an entirely different game. Fuel will be a big help for companies that want to intelligently grow.”

To make market and competitive intelligence part of your daily workflow, visit fuel.york.ie/signup.

ABOUT

York IE™ is a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm helping reshape the way companies are built, scaled and monetized. Through Fuel™, its SaaS platform for market and competitive intelligence, hands-on advisory services and selective early stage B2B SaaS investments, York IE supports ambitious entrepreneurs, operators and investors on their quest to scale startups and disrupt markets. Play the long game at york.ie.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kate Campbell, VP, Advisory Services, York IE
kate@york.ie

Fuel Your Startup Growth — And Realize Your Big Vision

Posted on by Kyle York

We have a big vision for York IE: to reshape how startups are built, scaled and monetized.

Having a vision is easy. Realizing it is hard — and it takes consistent execution with a commitment to playing the long game.

We’ve been doing that since September 2019, when we launched our investment practice. With our team’s long history of angel investing, this was the logical place to start. Our syndicate model, with no management fees and deal-by-deal economics, enables us to create aligned incentives with our entrepreneurs. It also creates a faster, flexible and more transparent relationship for our investment partners.

So far it is working: Since launch we’re one of the most active investors in New England, having invested more than $11 million across 24 deals. More importantly, though, is the quality of companies we’ve invested in. Sometimes, when I look at the companies in our portfolio, I can’t stop smiling.

We learned quickly that for many startups, money is not the obstacle. They need help navigating the myriad of challenges they encounter trying to grow their business. The traditional options they can turn to for help are expensive, antiquated and ineffective. We knew there was a better way. So in June 2020, we took our second major step: launching our advisory services practice and making it available to any startup whether we are an investor or not. Our approach is simple: act as an extension of the operating team and drive value in all aspects: product and market strategy, business growth and go-to-market, marketing and communications.

So far it is working: Since launch we have helped more than 40 companies in a variety of ways from raising a Series A to being featured on Good Morning America to redefining an entire market category.

You typically won’t find investment and advisory services together in the same firm. But at York IE, adding value is our obsession. We want to make it as easy as possible to add value for as many companies as possible, in as many different ways as possible.

That’s why we’ve taken our third major step today: launching Fuel, a market and competitive intelligence platform that will continue to evolve into a true strategic growth platform. (We have a very exciting product roadmap!) To learn more about Fuel, check out our announcement.

Fuel allows every startup a self-serve, low-cost opportunity to access York IE’s growth help. While we are offering it to the general public today, we have been using it ourselves along the way to help us research and track our investments and service our advisory clients. It has been so valuable to us that we want to open it up publicly and provide that value to the startup community.

Our aim is for as many startups as possible to sign up and use all of Fuel’s data, insights and content to help them grow their companies. We anticipate many of these companies will want white glove advisory services help, which we will be happy to provide. And, as we get to know some of these companies, we hope we can also invest capital in them to additionally fuel their growth. Fuel is the foundational platform for all that we do.

York IE is one holistic flywheel with the aim of helping your startup grow. We’re not an investment firm that does other stuff on the side. We’re a scalable, growth-oriented business that invests. We’re entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs. We’re operators helping operators.

There is a difference — and it’s one the entrepreneurs we work with understand and appreciate. Because that’s how they would do it, too.

What Is Fuel News?

Posted on by Adam Coughlin

Fuel News is home to the best content for operators by operators.

At York IE we believe that to truly understand a company, you have to get closer to the source. Our Fuel News team reviews original, owned content from B2B SaaS and other high-growth startups and shares the most in-depth, insightful and educational pieces with readers daily. We also create our own original content, courses and research based on our years of experience helping companies grow.

If you’re an early-stage B2B SaaS company, it’s likely too early for you to receive a lot of third-party media recognition. Your chance to share your voice is through your owned content, and we want to shine a spotlight on it. Content that tackles an industry-wide problem, establishes a strong point of view or provides helpful tips and tricks can be extremely valuable to operators, investors and even industry juggernauts.

To truly be heard, however, you also need to listen. To stand out from the crowd and become a brand that people want to do business with, you need to have your finger on the pulse of the market. You can only add your own clear voice to the conversation if you know what competitors, comparators and customers are talking about.

Whether you’re a startup founder, a product strategist at a Fortune 100, a business development rep or professional investor, Fuel News will help you:

  • stay informed on the hottest topics within your industry;
  • see what your competitors and comparators are talking about;
  • identify new companies and talent to keep an eye on;
  • generate new content ideas; and
  • publicize your company’s messaging.

If you’re interested in a particular market category, subscribe to our daily watchlists.

And to continue the conversation with us, please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Why Fuel News?

Posted on by Adam Coughlin

At York IE, we have long been champions of drumbeat marketing.

It’s not enough to know your company and product well. What are the trends in your market? How do you address those trends differently than your competitors or comparators? The answers to those questions should form the basis of your messaging. Drumbeat marketing says you then take that messaging and hammer it through your owned, earned and paid channels—and it always starts with your owned channels.

If you’re a startup that is still seeking third-party media validation, your owned channels are the best outlet to make your case as a company. And oftentimes the best way to do that is by not talking about your company or your product at all.

Buyers are savvy. They are not immediately receptive to product-focused content from companies they know nothing about. But if you have something interesting to say, they are willing to give you a chance to say it. By providing content that solves a problem, demonstrates a unique perspective, or otherwise provides value to your audience, potential buyers are more likely to listen to what you have to say about your company and your product.

We launched Fuel News to shine a spotlight on this type of content and create a flywheel effect that further benefits startups:

Fuel News levels the playing field. We don’t care how much funding you have or what accelerator you emerged from or how many people follow you on Twitter. If you create compelling content that educates us and makes us think, we’ll feature it. Our hope is that this additional visibility will help companies attract funding and followers.

Fuel News is a natural extension of our drumbeat marketing strategy. Every day we encourage startups to develop a strong, unique voice. We do it directly with the startups we work with through our advisory services, but we want every startup to have the same brand-building opportunity.

That’s why we’re rewarding companies for creating great content.

Why Competitive Market Intelligence Is So Important for Startups

Posted on by Mike Veilleux

Competitive market intelligence can be a real accelerator for you, personally, as well as for your startup.

To say the life of a founder is busy is a vast understatement. Building a product or service at the same time you’re trying to sell it, build a team, develop a brand and more … and now you need to do competitive intelligence? Most founders find it hard to justify the time, but it’s critical to work this into your daily routine.

The right competitive intelligence and market research will help you:

  • have the right perspective to aid in funding or partnership conversations;
  • keep your team aligned for optimal decision making; and
  • build your personal brand and your company’s brand.

Competitive market intelligence does not need to be time consuming, hard or complex, which is why we’ve built our Fuel platform.

Why is Competitive Intelligence Important?

Competitive intelligence and market research helps you be the most prepared person in the room, no matter the conversation. Whether a partnership, fundraising or other strategic conversation, constantly delivering value, having good market insight and being knowledgeable about your competitors and comparators are great ways to build credibility over time. Companies and markets are always changing and evolving, and the only way to continue to be the most prepared person is to be actively listening.

Knowing your competitors and your market cold isn’t sufficient, however. Your company needs to be aligned with your learnings, and competitive market intelligence can help.

In my career at Dyn, I led product management for our email delivery product. I loved being engrossed in the market, learning the competitive landscape, exploring partner opportunities and more. Where I can honestly say I lacked was consistently aligning my team and the broader company on those things. With Fuel, you can create watchlists of specific companies and share them with your internal team members, so you can all be on the same page.

If you asked everyone in your company who your competitors are, or where your best strategic partnership opportunities are, do you think they would all have the same answer? With an aligned view, driven by your competitive market intelligence, your company can take a market-in perspective and bring a more balanced approach to your customers.

Market Intelligence Throughout the Startup Lifecycle

Finger on the Pulse

Keeping up with the news — what the players in your market are doing and saying — is a crucial part of competitive intelligence and market research. But when your space is full of other early-stage companies that don’t get much mainstream media coverage, how can you keep up?

Fuel makes it easy to listen to markets — even for busy entrepreneurs. Fuel News curates the best owned content from early-stage companies across multiple areas of technology, enabling you to get quick insights on a market as a whole. It even summarizes articles, extracts the three key points and delivers content directly to your inbox, making it as frictionless as possible for you to get the news you need.

You can also use this content to develop your own story, do you agree with these perspectives? Have a different twist on them? Share the articles, and your own takes to continue to grow and amplify your brand.

Larger Market Research

It’s important for competitive market intelligence to be digestible so you can make it part of your routine. But sometimes research is a larger effort.

When the time comes to do a bigger piece of research, like for a pitch deck, investment rationale or strategic offsite, Fuel also provides the key elements to support your efforts, including:

  • funding trends or the latest funding events in a market;
  • identifying similar companies in the same market; and
  • diving deep on specific companies to understand their differentiation.

I once heard someone say that if you want to have more ideas, you need to increase the randomness in your life. Essentially, with more experiences, you’ll be able to apply forms of your experiences in different ways and make better decisions.

Making competitive intelligence and market research a core part of your business growth strategy is the way to increase the experiences you have within your market.