Skip to Main Content

The BRIDGE New Venture Program Research Guide

Explore industry and market research resources required to assist in the creation of a business plan and prepare for the launch of a new venture.

Business Plan Research in Practice

(Image CC0 public domain, no attribution required)

  • Library databases may have limited value for you depending on the nature of your venture.
  • The market research you do find may not be specific enough to your venture, e.g. geography, industry, customer segment.
  • Doing market research is time-consuming - be careful to allocate your time appropriately between primary and secondary market research.
  • Market research may produce conflicting data about your market.  Look at the sources involved, evaluate for potential bias or methodology issues, and do your best to triangulate.
  • Market research can be messy. Sometimes, you have to use a best-guess or an estimate when sizing or analyzing a market. 
  • Market research is no substitute for a powerful story about the problem your team is trying to solve - but all startups need to do it!

Example: AirBnB Pitch

Market research by startups often gets boiled down to just one or two slides in a pitch deck.

So don't lose perspective!

 
Page originally developed by Carey Toane and Helen Kula in the INF2325 guide.