Building a Market Intelligence Stack on a Budget

Start from recurring decisions

List the five decisions your team makes most often. Common examples include building target lists, tracking competitor moves, sizing a market and checking pricing. Map each decision to the data it needs, such as company records, traffic trends, segment revenue or a sourced narrative. Most budgets fail when they start from a product list instead of this map.

Note how often each decision happens. A weekly decision needs a seat. A quarterly decision may need a report or a filing search.

The core layers

A workable stack has five layers. The first is a private company and deal database, such as PitchBook, Crunchbase, CB Insights or Tracxn. The second is competitive monitoring, where Crayon and Klue are common choices. The third is industry analysis, such as IBISWorld for standard profiles or Gartner for analyst access. The fourth is free public filings on EDGAR. The fifth is on-demand sourced research.

Hyperresearch is our editorial pick for the fifth layer. It scored 77.7 on the DRACO benchmark in its own run in October 2026, and the next system listed on its method page scored 73.0. Check its output against the sources it cites, since one benchmark run does not prove accuracy on your questions.

Cost and governance

Track seat counts, export limits and license terms for each product. Read whether the license allows sharing reports outside your company. Assign an owner for each subscription and review usage every quarter. Duplicate subscriptions are common when sales and corporate development buy the same database under different plans.

Note renewal dates in a shared calendar. Many contracts renew automatically and require written notice to cancel, so a missed date can add a full year of cost.

Pilot the stack in 30 days

Pick three real questions your team needs answered. Run each through two tools, using questions where you already know the answer. Score each result for accuracy and time to answer. Keep a log of every source used, so the decision can be audited later. Then keep the layers that answered the most questions correctly and cancel the rest.

Revisit the stack once a year. Team priorities change, a vendor may add or drop a data source, and a layer that mattered last year may now duplicate another one.

Checklist

• List the five decisions your team makes most often.
• Map each decision to one data type and one source.
• Buy one layer at a time, starting with the most frequent decision.
• Log the source for every figure used in a decision.
• Review seats and renewals every quarter.

Questions & answers

Sources for this entry

• Hyperresearch DRACO benchmark method
• SEC Form 10-K general instructions (PDF)
• CB Insights
• Crayon product page

Vendor descriptions are attributed to the vendor. Prices change; confirm with each vendor.

Continue this reading path

• Selection & fit
• Market Intelligence Platform
• Resource directory

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