How to Research a Private Company: A Practical Checklist

Researching a public company is easy: annual reports, quarterly filings and analyst coverage hand you most of what you need. Researching a private company is detective work. Information is scattered across registries, websites, job posts, news, court records and people's memories. But with a systematic approach, you can build a surprisingly detailed picture in a few hours.

This guide gives you a checklist you can reuse for any private company, whether you're evaluating an acquisition target, a potential partner, a sales prospect, a competitor or an employer.

Step 1: Define what you need to know

Different goals need different depth:

Step 2: Confirm the legal entity

Start with the basics: the company's legal name, where it's incorporated, when, and its registered address. Trading names often differ from legal names.

Sources:

• Company registries: state Secretary of State databases in the US, federal and provincial registries in Canada, Companies House in the UK and equivalents elsewhere.
• Website footer and terms of service: often show the legal entity name.
• Invoices, contracts and privacy policies.

Check that the entity is active and in good standing. Look for related entities, such as holding companies or subsidiaries in other countries.

Step 3: Ownership and funding

Who owns and controls the company affects almost everything else.

• Is it founder-owned, family-owned, venture-backed, private equity-owned or a subsidiary of a larger company?
• Who are the investors, and when did they invest?
• Has it been acquired, merged or restructured?

Our guide on finding who invested in a company covers the sources in detail. In the US, Form D filings help date funding rounds.

Step 4: Size and growth

Headcount

LinkedIn gives a rough employee count and, through the company page's insights where visible, a trend over time. Job postings indicate whether the company is growing and where.

Revenue

Look for reported figures first, then estimate. Our detailed guide on finding a private company's revenue covers twelve methods.

Physical footprint

Number of locations, size of facilities, fleet size or production capacity.

Growth signals

• rising headcount and job postings,
• new offices or locations,
• new product launches,
• recent funding,
• awards and growth rankings,
• increasing web traffic or app usage.

Warning signals

• falling headcount or layoffs,
• senior leadership departures,
• no funding for a long period at a venture-backed company,
• removed job postings,
• negative employee reviews mentioning cash or layoffs,
• lawsuits from suppliers or landlords for unpaid bills.

Step 5: Leadership

Research the founders, CEO and senior team:

• career history and previous companies,
• how long they've been in their roles,
• recent hires and departures,
• board members and advisers,
• public interviews, talks and posts.

Leadership changes are among the most informative signals. A new CFO often precedes fundraising or a sale. A new head of sales often brings new tools and processes, which is useful for salespeople. See our guide on finding decision-makers.

Step 6: Products, customers and market position

• Products and pricing: website, pricing pages, product documentation, review sites.
• Customers: case studies, testimonials, customer logos, press releases, public procurement records.
• Partners: integration directories, partner pages, distributor lists.
• Competitors: who they compare themselves to, review site comparisons, analyst reports. Our guide on building a comparable companies list helps here.
• Market position: trade press coverage, awards, industry rankings.

Step 7: Reputation

• Customer reviews on industry review platforms, app stores and general review sites.
• Employee reviews on employer review sites. Look at trends rather than individual reviews.
• News coverage, including local news for regional businesses.
• Social media and community forums.
• Better Business Bureau or similar complaint records where relevant.

Step 8: Legal and regulatory checks

For any serious relationship, check:

• Court records for lawsuits involving the company or its principals.
• Liens and secured charges (UCC filings in the US, charges at Companies House in the UK, personal property security registries in Canada) to see who has lent money against company assets.
• Regulatory actions from sector regulators, environmental agencies, health and safety bodies and consumer protection agencies.
• Sanctions and watch lists for cross-border dealings.
• Licences and certifications required for the industry.
• Trademarks and patents through national IP office databases.

Step 9: Talk to people

Desk research has limits. For important decisions, conversations add a lot:

• former employees,
• customers and suppliers,
• industry experts and consultants,
• other investors or acquirers who looked at the company.

Respect confidentiality. Ask questions people can answer freely, and don't encourage anyone to share information they're bound to keep private.

Step 10: Write it up

Summarise your findings in a one-page profile, with sources for each fact and a confidence level for estimates. A consistent template makes it easy to compare companies.

COMPANY PROFILE
Legal name / trading name:
Incorporated: [jurisdiction, date]
HQ / locations:
Ownership: [founder / VC / PE / subsidiary] — key investors:
Funding history:
Estimated revenue: [range, method, confidence]
Headcount: [number, trend]
Leadership: [names, tenure, recent changes]
Products / pricing:
Key customers / segments:
Competitors:
Reputation notes:
Legal / regulatory flags:
Recent triggers: [funding, hires, launches]
Sources:

Paid tools that save time

Private market databases, sales intelligence platforms, credit reporting agencies and court record services can compress hours of work into minutes. They're worth it if you research companies frequently. For occasional research, free sources plus a structured approach go a long way. See our guide to PitchBook alternatives.

Research tips by goal

If you're evaluating an acquisition target

Focus on ownership, succession, customer concentration and owner dependence. Desk research won't give you financials, but it can tell you how many locations and staff the business has, how long the owner has run it, whether there's a clear second-in-command, and whether the business depends on a few large customers or contracts. Those answers determine whether it's worth a first conversation. See our guide on proprietary deal flow.

If you're vetting a supplier or partner

Prioritise legitimacy and stability: registration and good standing, how long they've operated, lawsuits from customers or suppliers, liens that suggest financial strain, and reviews from other customers. Ask for references and actually call them.

If you're researching a competitor

Focus on product, pricing, positioning, customers and hiring. Job postings are particularly revealing: a competitor hiring enterprise account executives in a new region is telling you its strategy. Track changes monthly rather than doing a one-off profile.

If you're considering a job offer

Look at funding history, the date of the last round, headcount trend, leadership turnover and employee reviews. For a venture-backed company, it's reasonable to ask the hiring manager directly about runway and plans for the next round. Thoughtful candidates ask, and good companies answer.

Organising your sources

When you research many companies, a consistent folder or database structure saves time. Keep one profile per company, link every fact to its source, and date each entry. When you revisit a company months later, you'll know immediately what might be out of date. For teams, a shared research template ensures everyone collects the same information in the same way, which makes comparisons between companies much easier.

When to stop researching

Desk research has diminishing returns. Once you can answer the key questions for your goal with reasonable confidence, stop and act: book the call, send the outreach or move to formal diligence. The most useful information about a private company usually comes from talking to its people, and you'll get that faster by reaching out than by researching for another day.