Crunchbase – Tool

Crunchbase Project

About a month ago, I assembled a little sheet that allows a user to navigate companies within the Crunchbase open source data set, which provides information about startup activity on companies in various industries.

While sources like Indeed do a good job of aggregating job postings at a single point in time, it paints an incomplete picture of the number of job vacancies that could be open at that point in time. I wanted to address another issue – what companies within different industries resided in what regions? Hiring needs at different companies change on a rather random basis, so I thought it would be helpful to help my friends create a “watch list” of companies within a specific industry so that they could

  • Discover Companies within specific industries
  • Explore what Companies are doing within different industries (links to websites are included in the sheet)
  • Locate Companies in varying regions

I also thought it would be beneficial for my friends because I’ve learned that a company’s funding history (date since last funding round + amount raised), can be indicative of a company’s hiring strategy. Tools like LinkedIn are great means by which to expand one’s professional network. Helping friends discover and explore different companies is one step closer to helping them connect with future coworkers/ companies.

I started to play with the data, and I started to work on scaling the project to include the entire dataset, but got bogged down with obligations for work. So so far, the dataset includes only Companies located in California. My sheet features two separate search fields that enable a user to

  1. Search for Companies by Industry
  2. Search for Companies by Region

The sheet autopopulates this data based on the search criteria listed above.The file is available for download if you click here (2mb XLS file). I’ll make periodic updates, but am making it available for now.

Navigation

The primary focus of the dataset is to highlight companies by industry and region. In cell F6 in tab titled “menu,” companies are listed in order of frequency they occur in the database. The top 25 industries by representation in the database are as follows:

Picture1

There are a total of 517 different industries represented in the dataset. To view a full list, click here.

User Interface

Navigation1

Two primary cells control the interface of the sheet, each via dropdown menu:

  • Cell F6 Controls Industry Navigation
  • Cell N7 Controls Region Navigation

Left Side Pane: Industry Summary

  • Number of Companies by Region
  • Median Funding
  • Average Funding

Middle Pane: Funding League Table

  • Top 20 Companies within each Industry Ranked by Amount Funded
  • Date of Last Funding Round
  • Link to Company Website

Navigation2

Right Pane: All Companies within Industry in Chosen Region

  • Company Website
  • Total Funding
  • Status (Acquired, Operating)
  • Headquarters
  • Number of Funding Rounds
  • Year Founded
  • First Funding Date
  • Latest Funding Date