Research Guides: Entrepreneurship: Getting Started

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Find company directories and profiles, financial information and ratios, supply chain and procurement, along with analyst and equity reports.
Industry Information Sources
Find industry overviews and reports that include forecasts, market trends, key players, financial ratios and benchmarks, SWOT analysis, and information on industry conditions.
Market research databases
Find market research reports that provide research on on market size, share, and other emerging market trends along with consumer product intelligence, brand strategies, consumer demographics and surveys.

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This guide covers search tools for research in topics related to Entrepreneurship.

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Companies - Finance - Investors - VC - M&A

PitchBook
Use PitchBook to search thousands of private equity and venture capital deals by hundreds of criteria. Establish benchmarks, find real time data on deals, identify and analyze comparables, and search investor details.
Each user must create a personal account while on campus using their valid @umn.edu e-mail address. Individual accounts must be reset every year on June 30th. Detailed instructions on how to create a personal account are available at: libguides.umn.edu/pitchbook

Walk in users please contact busref@umn.edu ahead of your visit to arrange for login access. Walk-in Guest Users login in at: https://www.pitchbook.com

Downloads set at 10/day and 25/month per user; resets monthly. All data and content available in PitchBook except Morningstar equity research

Faculty requiring larger data downloads may contact the library for assistance. Forward Pitchbook faculty download requests busref@umn.edu.
CB Insights
National Science Foundation-backed company that uses data to provide Venture Capitalists, corporate strategy and Mergers & Acquisitions groups, and investment bankers with intelligence on emerging companies and disruptive technology trends.
You must create a personal account to access this resource. Click on the SIGN UP link. Accounts expire after one year and must be renewed annually. Contact CB Insights at info@cbinsights.com to renew/reinstate account logins. Note: Users must connect to resource through Libraries site or be on VPN to use their personal login off campus.
S&P Capital IQ PRO (with access to ESG and Supply Chain)
S&P Capital IQ PRO (formerly known as S&P Market Intelligence and SNL) is a platform that integrates real time and historical financial and industry data, research and news. Analyze thousands of global public and private companies, their ownership structure, and related transaction data. PRO provides access to a wide range of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) data and analytics and trade and supply chain data. See "More Info" for detailed account creation instructions first time users.
Guest users not affiliated with the University, please contact busref@umn.edu ahead of your visit to arrange for login access.
Detailed instructions on how to create a personal account are available at: https://libguides.umn.edu/capiqpro

Note: Full Tunnel VPN is required to use this resource.

Industries - Markets - Market Sizing Tools

IBIS World (Business)
Search industry reports for the United States, Canada, China, and global topics. Each report provides an overall current picture of an industry, including overviews, leading companies, sales information, and authoritative sources for researching hundreds of industries. Includes Business Environmental Profiles that summarize key drivers for industries in the U.S.
EMIS Professional
Find company and industry information, reports, statistics, proprietary mergers and acquisitions, credit analytics, benchmark indicators and trend comparisons to help understand emerging markets.
Bizminer
Find industry financial analysis benchmarks of business and industry market trends, including market analysis reports at the national and local levels down to the zip code.
Frost & Sullivan Market Research Reports
Use for business research and to find Frost & Sullivan's market and industry reports for over 300 markets and 250,000 companies for industrial markets organized into categories for Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Chemicals, Materials, Food; Electronics and Security, Energy and Power Systems, Environment and Building Technologies, Healthcare and Medical Devices, Measurement and Instrumentation, Information and Communication Technologies, and Industrial Automation and Process Control.
MarketsandMarkets
Provides detailed niche market research reports on current trends and industries; including but not limited to: AI, Big Data & Analytics, Blockchain, IoT, Nanotechnology, and Wearables. Covered industries include Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Banking, Agriculture, Medical, and more. NOTE: Reports are read-only. Researchers may download report charts and tables. Additional download options available for faculty. Please contact busref@umn.edu for details.
SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new window
Create custom maps and reports on SimplyAnalytics using extensive data on demographics, consumers, real estate, housing, employment, crime, health, and more. Data includes Nielsen Scarborough local insights and crosstabs, AGS Census, Claritas PRIZM consumer segment, MRI Simmons consumer survey data, consumer expenditures and buying power, as well as public data sources such as the US Census, American Community Survey, FBI uniform crime reports, NOAA climate data, and CDC health data.

Limited to 5 simultaneous users. "Sign in as a guest" if you do not wish to register for a free personal account. A personal account allows you to save your work.

Patent Sources

Derwent Innovations Index (Web of Science)
Merges patent information from Derwent World Patents Index with the patent citation information from Derwent Patent Citation Index. Users can conduct patent and citation searches of inventions in chemical, electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering.
Patent Inspiration This link opens in a new window
Subscription has been cancelled effective April 24, 2024. Patent Inspiration is a fast and powerful interactive database that helps with the navigation and exploration of 69 million patents. The database contains full text (claims & descriptions) of the main searched authorities (WO, EP, US, CA,etc) and contains bibliographic data from over 90 countries. Interactive visualizations and text mining are just a few of the analysis tools available.
Current students, faculty, and staff must register and create personal accounts using University of Minnesota e-mail addresses to save reports, export all patents, make use of the briefcase and use the more advanced analyses tools. Please email ermumtc@umn.edu with a subject line "Request for Patent Inspiration personal account" to start the process of account creation.

United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks.
The Lens
An open global cyber infrastructure to make the innovation system more efficient and fair, more transparent and inclusive. It serves many of the patent documents in the world as open, annotatable digital public goods that are integrated with scholarly and technical literature along with regulatory and business data.
Canadian Patents Database (CIPO)
CIPO's Canadian Patent Database allows you access 150 years of patent descriptions and images.
Espacenet: European Patent Office Search
Searches through patent documents filed with the European Patent Office, along with 81 other jurisdictions.
WIPo Patentscope
Searches through international patent applications along with patent documents from a large number of national patent offices.
Google Patent Search
Allows for full-text searching of patent grants and applications from the United States and several other major jurisdictions.

Also check out:

Specialized Industry Research & Insight

Cortellis This link opens in a new window
Access three platform modules: Competitive Intelligence, Deals Intelligence and News. Cortellis Competitive Intelligence gives you accurate up-to-date information on global drug pipelines, companies, deals and patents, plus breaking industry news, clinical trials and conferences. Cortellis Deals Intelligence provides comprehensive biopharma deals information, helping you search for potential partners, conduct due diligence, assess deal value, and explore deal structures and terms. News includes press releases,conferences and more. The library maintains 25 seats available for 2 weeks at a time to affiliated faculty, students, and staff. For access, please contact busref@umn.edu.
GlobalData Medical This link opens in a new window
Market research platform for the medical device industry. Includes news, deals, and companies. Each user must register for a personal account using their U of MN email address from the link above.
EV Data Center
This database provides access to the global market information on electronically chargeable vehicles, including sales volumes, vehicle information, charging infrastructure, incentive schemes, and installed battery capacity by chemistry, supplier and vehicles in use.
EV Data Center requires that University of Minnesota users enter a Username/Password combination when accessing content on their site.

Business News

Financial Times (FT.com)
News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, a leading global business publication. Current students, faculty, and staff must register and create personal accounts using University of Minnesota e-mail addresses at the link above.
Once registered, you can use your account to log in to FT.com from anywhere on any device by clicking on the "Sign in" link in the upper right-hand corner.

Guest access for non-affiliated users is available at the CD-ROM workstation (computer ID: ULWILB-CRT8W52) located in the Smart Commons area of Wilson Library basement.
Wall Street Journal (WSJ.COM) This link opens in a new window
Get WSJ.com subscription through the library. Sign up for a personal account at the link above. Access to the articles, photographs, charts, podcasts, videos and other premium content available on the WSJ.COM website back to the 2010. Mobile app access is included in the subscription.
Access available only for University of Minnesota Twin Cities students, faculty, and staff. No guest access available. Each user must set up a personal account to save articles, create alerts, download apps, and use other features. Once a personal account is created, you can access WSJ.COM from anywhere.
American City Business Journals (BizJournals)
Find articles from the Minneapolis St. Paul Business on local companies and other organizations. Students, faculty and staff have full access to Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, including Digital content across 18 different Industries, access to the Weekly Edition, Book of Lists, the Search Archives. Register for an account with a valid @umn.edu e-mail address using the link above. NOTE: Full text access only includes Minneapolis/St Paul market.
Once a personal account is created, you can access from anywhere at https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/
Factiva
Search millions of newspapers, business magazines, and newswires with international and foreign language coverage with all editions of the Wall Street Journal. Financial information for publicly traded companies, stocks, funds, currencies, and common market indexes. Limited to 7 simultaneous users.
Environment & Energy Publishing
Provides news and analysis of developments in environmental, energy, and natural resources policy.

Last Updated: Apr 17, 2024 10:06 AM

Resources for: Entrepreneurship