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Evaluating Biotech Startups?
spacey girl asks: "A start-up company i worked for was recently shut down. I've been looking for a new company for quite some time now. i've been offered something at two new startup companies (established in 2000) and I can't find too many references on the web for them. These companies are not exactly computer related but more science related in biotech (pharmaceuticals and such). What kinds of tools are available for evaluating stability and potential of these two companies? I tried looking for the investors but that was a no-go. Also, I'm referring to international companies, not just companies in the US."
Since the question wasn't "how do I get info on a company", but rather "how do I evaluate a company", I'm not sure you've answered the poster's question.
Companies will not always gave you truthful, unbiased answers when asked what their weaknesses are, what their long term financial viability is, or how they stack up against competition. If they did this, analysts' jobs would be much easier and maybe we wouldn't have suffered through the dot-bomb experience.
No matter what, stay away from the groups that have the 3->5 year VC crap to worry about, such companies primary strategy is do find a buyer. Unless they have an amazingly cool product that does stuff that no one else's does, and have IP protection on it, then, well, they are sunk. Dont waste your time on such crap.
Find out if they have partnerships with current pharmas. See if they are developing their own discovery pipelines. Both are good things. See if they are building collaborations/contracts with others (Incyte, Celera, Lion, etc), see if they are providing a specific useful service (chemistry, xtallography, chemi-informatics, library design, probe/marker design/detection). If not, they are a dot-bomb
Okay, they're not in the US. If you can find info about them in the US press, that probably means they have managed to get on the US media's radar screen, which indicates at least something is going on (could be good or bad).
No US info? Consider that normal for a foreign firm. Find out where the head office is; (you are mostly interested in what country).
Do a search on a nation-specific website. For example if it is UK based, you should start at a UK search site (or a UK home page of your favorite search site). If you know that it's Canadian (for example) you should try "insert-your-favorite-search-site-here.ca" to see if it has a page. Just about every nation on earth has it's own dot-something so don't assume no dot-com means no web presence.
Is it public? Find out the stock symbol but don't waste your time searching Nasdaq or NYSE, work on the country's national stock market(s). The stock might be over-the-counter, etc.
Where do they get their money? If it's venture capital, go to the VC firm's site and read what they say (have your bullshit filter on).
Search for the head office's city, get into a local page and poke around. Check out the local paper, business links, the Chamber of Commerce, etc.
Search journals in the related field; if there is big news there will be something there and even if it is international in scope it could be months or years before the US media figures it out. Ever notice how often mainstream media gets a science story wrong? That's because they don't pay attention to the journals until some editor tells them to. And somebody's got to tell the editor first.
Are they associated with a University (most biotech should be, somewhere along the line). Check out the University's reputation in the field, find out if there is a link with research, money, alumni, etc.
That should get you going.