Owler

Owler is an American Internet company headquartered in San Mateo, California. It crowdsources competitive insights[2] by providing news alerts, company profiles, and polls and allows members to follow, track, and research companies in real time. The company was founded in 2011 and has over 3.5 million active users.

Owler, Inc.
FormerlyInfoArmy, Inc.[1]
TypePrivate
IndustryInternet services
Founded2011
FounderJim Fowler
Rajan Madhavan
Tim Harsch
Key people
Tim Harsch (CEO)
Jim Fowler (Executive Chairman)
RevenueUS$ 3.3 million
Number of employees
88
Websiteowler.com

History

InfoArmy was founded in 2011 by Jim Fowler, Rajan Madhavan, and Tim Harsch. Fowler previously founded Jigsaw (now called Data.com), another crowdsourcing Data as a Service platform that was sold for 175M to Salesforce Inc. in 2010.[3]

InfoArmy launched publicly in June 2012,[4] and had 28 employees as of October 23, 2012.

InfoArmy began as a crowdsourcing model where two-person research teams would compile one report on each company. Most researchers were stay-at-home parents, freelance workers, and international BPO workers.[5] Access to InfoArmy's reports cost $99 for a year-long subscription and three quarterly reports.

In January 2013, InfoArmy announced that its business model would not be sustainable in the long term.

On February 1, 2013, InfoArmy relaunched as Owler, Inc. using a different business model.[6] Owler offers a free mobile and online platform for company information and interactive business news.[7] Members can choose to "follow" a set of companies, and Owler provides a personalized newsfeed and daily email summary of the latest news on those companies. Owler members can also sign up to receive immediate notifications when major business events (such as funding, acquisitions, or leadership changes) occur. The competitive intelligence featured on Owler comes from two primary places: it is both hand-curated by Owler employees from sources across the web, and crowdsourced from Owler users. Unlike other business information services, Owler polls its members to gauge market sentiment and current trends.

Funding

Owler is backed by Norwest Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, two venture capital firms based in Silicon Valley, California. On Oct. 23, 2012, the company raised $17.3 million in Series B venture capital, bringing its funding to $19.3 million.[8] Owler has raised a total of $30.8 millionin funding over four rounds.

As part of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company received between $350,000 and $1 million in federally backed small business loan from Silicon Valley Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The company stated it would allow them to retain zero jobs.[9]

Products and technology

Owler offers a number of different services, including two email products as well as a browser-based web platform.

Web platform

Members can view their personalized newsfeed on the browser-based platform, which can be accessed via computer or smartphone. They can also view company profiles, edit profile information, and take polls through the web platform.

The web version also gives members access to lists that contain data about major events, such as funding rounds or acquisitions.

Daily Snapshot

Owler's Daily Snapshot provides users with the latest news events in their industry. Owler curates the most relevant news and blog posts from within the last 24 hours, surfacing stories on that member's company, competitors, and prospects. Each Daily Snapshot is personalized to a user's Competitive Graph and based on the companies that user follows.

Instant Insights

Owler emails users an Instant Insight anytime one of fifteen trigger events occur, including funding, acquisition, or leadership change. Users follow competitors, customers, prospects, and vendors, and Owler instantly sends full report hot anytime breaking events occur. This email features: company description, competitive landscape, and what people are saying.

Competitive Graph

Owler's Competitive Graph maps the relationship between companies. It was created by Owler's 3.5+ million members who regularly update their competitors (as well as provide estimates on critical data fields like revenue/employee numbers, CEO ratings, etc.).[10] The Competitive Graph maps how closely companies compete with one another, allowing Owler to rank competitors. The Competitive Graph powers all of Owler's products, allowing the company to provide highly personalized email alerts and feeds.[11]

Leadership

Leadership team
  • Tim Harsch, CEO and co-founder
  • James F. Fowler, founder and executive chairman
  • Stephanie Vinella, CFO
  • Dhruv Gupta, Director of Product
  • Wayne Fenton, Director of Engineering
  • Gretchen Vagharshakian, Director of Marketing

Board of directors
  • James F. Fowler, founder and chairman of the board
  • Tim Harsch, founder and CEO
  • Jeff Crowe (Norwest Venture Partners)
  • Patrick Spain (Newser, First Stop Health)

References
  1. "Owler, Inc.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Businessweek.com.
  2. Don Clark. "Research Startup Raises Money To Fund Its 'Army'". WSJ.
  3. "Jigsaw founder Jim Fowler launches InfoArmy". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  4. Ha, Anthony. "InfoArmy: Jigsaw Founder's New Startup Tackles Competitive Intelligence". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  5. Lunden, Ingrid. "Data 2.0 Goes Large: InfoArmy Raises $17.3M To Build Out Its Crowdsourced Competitive Intelligence Platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  6. "Introducing Owler — a New Mobile Business App and Service That Promises to Be the Best Single Source for Up-to-the-Minute News, Information and Insight About Companies | Business Wire". www.businesswire.com. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  7. "Owler.com: A New Crowdsourced Company Profiles Venture". BIIA.com | Business Information Industry Association. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  8. Lunden, Ingrid. "InfoArmy Retreats After Crowdsourced Research Business Goes Through The Floor. All Reports Now Free". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  9. Syed, Moiz; Willis, Derek. "OWLER, INC. - Coronavirus Bailouts - ProPublica". ProPublica. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  10. "Owler Introduces the Competitive Graph - A Tool for Tracking Your Competitors". StreetInsider.com. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  11. "How the Competitive Graph Works • Owler Blog". Owler Blog. 2016-05-19. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
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