Kresge Research Guides: ES 250 Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Company Research

Company valuation

Finding a better way to valuate companies in the Digital World
From the Knowledge@Wharton site, the author says that in "a world rapidly switching to digital business models, the old ways of classifying industries and measuring business performances do not suffice."
Methods for Valuation of Seed Stage Startup Companies
From the Angel Capital Association, with links to additional information on the Venture Capital, Berkus, Scorecard Valuation and Risk Factor methods.
Ten Top Techniques for Startup Valuation
From the consultancy Startup Professionals, Inc.
How Startup Valuations Work - Measuring a company's potential
Founders and Funders provides this infographic and article on the process and the concepts behind valuation

Company information and financials

Performance ratios

Industry and company financial ratios help compare a company against other companies in an industry, or generally measure financial performance. Industry ratios are an aggregate measure of performance, often broken down by company size.

Business Ratios and Formulas: A Comprehensive guide (ebook)
An ideal tool for measuring corporate performance, this authoritative resource allows managers and auditors to pick and choose the tools they need to best assess their organization's performance. Each formula includes a complete description, explanation of the calculation, an example, and cautions regarding its use. The cautions are of particular use, since they describe those elements of a measurement that can be modified to deliver misleading results, different measurements that may work better in certain situations, usage on a trend line basis, and which other measurements should be used to reinforce indicated results.
16 Financial Ratios for Analyzing a Company’s Strengths and Weaknesses
From the The American Association of Individual Investors, a quick guide to company performance ratios
Financial Ratio Analysis

Company Directories

D&B Hoovers
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Profiles for nearly twenty-four million companies world-wide. Includes contacts and emails, analysis of company operations, actions and changes, plus additional data points such as technologies used at a company. OneSource also includes RMA Industry performance ratios, analyst and industry research reports for each company.
PrivCo
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PrivCo contains business and financial research for over 600,000 non-publicly traded corporations, including family-owned, private equity-owned, venture-backed and international unlisted companies. Search for Venture Capital (VC) fundings, private Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) deals, Private Equity (PE) deals, and general company information. Private company profiles contain financials, corporate structure, key contacts, investors and industry information.
Technical notes: Personal account using @umich.edu email required.
PrivCo Video Tutorials
Mergent Intellect
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Global directory of public, private, and home-based businesses featuring data from the Hoover's and Dun & Bradstreet directories. Available financial data, executive contacts, and company family trees are included.
Mergent Online
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Current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, annual reports, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, long-term debt, bond ratings, capital stock, insider trading and supply chain for US and foreign companies. Mergent Online also provides access to Investext analyst reports.
Help guide

Technical notes: Company reports and financials can be exported to Excel.
Help guide