Accessing and finding startups is a type of activity that is being democratized given the vast number of tolls and platforms out there that can help anyone that is identifying these emerging organizations. Here you will find a non-exhaustive list of tools that you could use to help you source your next startup partner.

By definition deal flow is the total amount of investment opportunities a company has. In the context of startup up corporate engagement, the deal flow represents the different types of opportunities that a company will have in a given problem space.

Who could use this

Here you will only find the list of platforms that could help you have access to detail and relevant information around different startups. As a result the list of tools below could be used by any entity that is interested to get a deep insight into the startup ecosystem.

Needles to say that these tools could be also very interesting for startups that are in the process of raising money or trying to better understand how competitors are performing.

Framework explanation

This framework will basically provide a list of platforms that have relevant information to help you better manage your deal flow as well as providing high level advice in terms of the most challenging things that you will encounter during this very important activity.

A list of tools:

• CBinsights
• Crunchbase
• Tracxn
• PitchBook
• F6S
• Others...

(Please note that we will be updating this list as we will be getting feedback)

These tools could be very helpful if you want to manage your deal flow and get market insights by yourself. In theory you will want to have access to all information possible around potential new opportunities that you could benefit from.

You will not be able to work with all the opportunities that you will have access to, however it will be important to have access to as many opportunities as you could to increase the probability of finding high quality opportunities that, in turn, will result in better outcomes.

The big question for any corporate embarking in the corporate-startup engagement will be to think about owning and managing that deal flow process or hiring an enabler to do that on your behalf.

In short, when thinking about the deal flow you will need to think about improving the quality of your opportunities while managing the resources to do so.