If you are tasked with creating and continuously updating a major list of successful startup companies, it can be hard to know where to begin. A good starting point is to understand which industries are leaders in startup creation, which companies are leaders in those industries and which new companies are getting the venture capital funding.
First, let's look at the distribution of startups worldwide:
Source: Statista
Not surprisingly, A.I. and FinTech not only are leaders in startup creation, but they are also seeing some of the biggest inflows of venture capital.
FinTech can broadly be defined as companies focusing on new technology and innovation to compete with traditional means of delivering financial services.
To target this industry, Forbes' FinTech 50 2019 is a good place to start. Here you can find leaders in various segments of the industry. From there, using a service such as Owler, you can see top competitors for these companies.
For targeting companies focusing on Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), Forbes AI 50 is a good place to start. As above, you can quickly turn this list into hundreds of companies by finding their competitors.
If you are looking to prospect for potential customers of your product or service from your list, one thing to keep in mind is running out of money is consistently ranked as one of the top reasons startups fail. Even if the company appears quite successful today and is in a leading industry, it doesn't mean the company isn't cash strapped at the moment, particularly in the era of COVID-19.
You can leverage a startup database like Fundz to aid in this process, specifically by cross-referencing which companies on your list have received funding. Fundz also helps you have access to a continually updated stream of recently funded companies as soon as the company issues news or files with the government, so you can connect ahead of your competitors.
It can take a lot of time and effort to keep an updated list of startup companies matching what you are looking for. If your end goal is to develop a list of b2b target accounts, use technology whenever you can to aid in this process, not only to save yourself much time, but to help validate your selections before reaching out.
