Thread by @InvestiAnalyst

Top Alternative Data for Investors

@AznWeng and myself collaborated to identify the Top 12 Non-financial metrics and datasets retail investors can use to gain an edge.

In this thread, we break it all down:

1/ Tracking Glassdoor Trends:

Glassdoor provides more key metrics beyond CEO & Mgmt numbers - you can track the overall positive or negative trends of an organization - QoQ. There are also insights around trends in job postings etc.

Generally, ask how is the data trending?

2/ App Download Trends:

Sensor Tower does a great job providing monthly data on key trends. Find info on the following:

+ Industry and Company Marketshare Trends
+ Consumer Ratings
+ # of Company Downloads

e.g. You could have observed Zoom's rise early in 2020 and many more!

3/ Wayback Machine (archive.org) shows you what a website looked like in the past.
Here's 1 example on how to use it: $TWLO displayed $UBER on top of their customer page but suddenly stopped on Mar 2017. 1 -month later, they disclosed the loss of $UBER as a customer.

4/ Facebook's Ad Library shows you currently running ads for any FB page.

It’s a great way of seeing what a company is promoting. Ex: With $ROKU you can see they are promoting the new TCL TV in the UK but not doing any paid marketing in the US.

facebook.com/ads/library

5/ Industry Research Rankings Trends:

+ Deloitte & Big 3 Consulting firms have great industry-level data for identifying themes.
+ Forrester
+ Gartner

Below, example: If $PATH were public in 2017, big signal revenue will accelerate or see $CRWD's rise to Visionary Pre-IPO.

6/ Social Media Twitter Advanced Search:

$TWTR can help analyze sentiment. A search like “recommend Asana” -filter:links since:2019-06-01 until:2021-06-01 can show you every tweet that recommended Asana, count up all the tweets and compare it with competitors.

6ii) Twitter Hacks:

Twemex is a great Twitter Extension (For individual & tracking company accounts)

These two threads by @dickiebush will help big time

a) 10 Advanced features below (

https://twitter.com/dickiebush/status/1376914220411985926

)

b) Twitter Advanced Search Function Thread

https://twitter.com/dickiebush/status/1400615906678542341

7/User ID tracking:

While it doesn’t work for all SaaS products but there are some, where they show you your User ID after signup. SPT is an example of this: they show you your user id in the URL and it’s always sequential. (caveat: you need to test this time-to-time)

8/ Google Trends:

Many are familiar but this is invaluable. Its useful for B2C businesses. Eg @BackpackerFI shared one on social media companies.

I utilized this for $SoFi early this year where they grew 120% Rev due to S-trends
Or, see the battle between $ZM vs $MSFT in 2020.

9/ Similarweb is invaluable for competitive intelligence:

+ S-Web is great for tracking web traffic and engagement for companies and analyzing trends by periods

+There are Credit Card Transactions provided by big banks or Analyst reports that show where consumers are spending

9ii/ Alexa Amazon Analytics:

Almost similar to S-web, but lots of free info
+ Competitive Intelligence btw companies
+ Source of traffic (By countries)
+ SEO
+ Trends
+ Downloads

[Put your favourite company against competitor]. The example below is $UPWK.

10/ NPS Scores:

These were the sources I could find:
+ Customer.guru
+ Medallia
+ Qualtrics provides good info.
+ Comparably shows you Top Brand Ranking - QoQ

This is valuable, but hard to get ( b'cos companies that have low scores don't publicly show theirs)

11/ Job Postings:

Using LinkedIn Premium can unlock lots of rich data trends for a company's hiring Or visiting company sites.

Ex: @EugeneNg_VCap discovered $SE was hiring roles for a cloud platform.

11ii/ LinkedIn hacks here by @AznWeng

An incredible thread on LinkedIn tricks and tips:

https://twitter.com/AznWeng/status/1386676592064307200

11iii/ Aggregated Posting Trends by co's or industry using @RevealeraData

It shows you hiring trends for specific companies and mentions of technologies in job openings.

Revealera.com compiles together and offers data on job openings on over 3500 companies+ (V-Cool!)

12i/ Company Review on third-party sites:

+ Reviews like Amazon
+ Gartner Peer Insights for SaaS & B2B (very valuable)
+ Industry Insiders conducting expert calls &Transcripts provide lots of insights from key decision-makers

END/

That's all Folks

It's important for investors to note- Hedge Funds and Buy-Side firms have data analytics teams who track these data points.

These metrics are what "move" stocks during non-earnings season or drive big buys/sell of stocks prior to earnings on "no news."

Key Caveat:

1/ These alternative data metrics are not magic or always predictive
2/ Some work better depending on B2C & B2B Models (Identify it)
3/ You want to atleast combine 4-5 metrics to have predictive power
4/ Pay attention to trends and always compare them to competitors

Summary:
1) Glassdoor
2) App Downloads
3) Archive.com
4) FB Ad Library
5) Industry Research -Gartner
6) S-Media Advanced search (Twitter)
7) UserID Tracking
8) Google Trends
9) SimilarWeb |Alexa Web
10) NPS
11) Job Posting trend by Revelera
12) Expert Company Review

That was alot!

Now, what about you - what's your favorite alternative data?

Always wanted to create this thread for Investors. Hope it helped.
Thanks, @AznWeng, and check out @RevealeraData. We'll provide another one in the future!

Thanks for reading folks! @InvestiAnalyst

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