Using Harmonic’s Chrome extension to qualify leads: “It’s now my default”

Startup websites can be notoriously bare-bones and vague, often providing little information on what the team is actually building. When Ben uncovers a company’s website through his network of founders, investors, and operators, “a lot of times there’s nothing to evaluate—it’s just a landing page. Often, it’s not even obvious who the company’s point of contact is.”

‍

Like every investor, Ben needs a range of information—and fast—in order to accurately qualify a company. But these data points exist across the web, and generally have to be pieced together with time-consuming searches.

‍

That’s why Harmonic’s Chrome extension has become Ben’s “default: I’m on a landing page, I want more information, I launch the Chrome extension,” he explains. “In one click, I have a high-level view of founding year, headquarters, headcount growth over time, investors, and funding history—including the most recent funding date and type. Combined, those data points are a good proxy for what’s going to happen to that business in the future.”

‍

If a company looks compelling and he wants to pursue the lead, Ben simply clicks a button in Harmonic that takes him to the company’s LinkedIn page, where he can contact the CEO directly. Occasionally, Ben opens up Harmonic’s browser page to get a breakdown of funding events and round sizes. “That's the best new feature Harmonic has released,” he says, “because it links right to funding announcements so you can validate that information.”

‍

Automations allow Bedrock to stay up-to-date on deal flow

Naturally, Ben unearths companies from a variety of sources, many of which he comes across organically in his workflows—“newsletters, Twitter, friends, entrepreneurs. It’s less of a science than we all wish it were. Leads may not necessarily come inbound through Harmonic, but it’s rare that you get the essential context of a business when you come across it.”

‍

That’s why Harmonic is more than Ben’s default for uncovering organically-inbounded company details. He’s also set up a number of saved searches with filters for “any new leads that should be added to my database on a recurring basis as Harmonic ingests more information.” Those saved searches are routed to a Slack automation, so “I might get an alert, for example, that seven new companies were added to a stealth founder search this week. That’s remarkably helpful for me, because I can see very quickly—whether I’m at my computer or on the go—if a new company is worth pursuing.” Ben calls this Harmonic advantage “staying in the information flow.”

While the Chrome extension and automations serve up startup information and allow Bedrock to stay up-to-date on companies’ newest signals, Ben also leverages Harmonic for “what the product was intended for originally—to source new companies.” Harmonic’s database was built as a place for investors to live and work in. Ben can set filters to get as granular as he wants, uncovering new companies based on “keywords, timeframes, and other data points that aren’t necessarily in my saved searches.”

‍

This means discovering companies well beyond the ones Ben naturally unearths in his day-to-day workflow. “That’s why I also see Harmonic as the source-of-truth of sourcing.”

‍

If you’re interested in trying out the Harmonic Chrome Extension, we’d love to hear from you!