Inception: companies before they raise

Who it's for

Anyone whose business starts when a company gets funded: recruiters, startup attorneys, bankers, payroll and insurance brokers, fractional executives and consultants, investors and scouts. By the time a round is in the news, everyone else has the same list. Inception gives you the companies months earlier, while they are still choosing who to work with.

Inception is part of the Strategic plan. On other plans the page shows a short preview with the real counts for your market; see plans and pricing to open it.

Two lanes: Arriving and Just formed

1. 1
   Arriving. An established company registering in a new state. It first filed somewhere else years earlier, is registered in several states, or our research found it was founded years ago. These are often expanding, and expanding companies hire, bank and raise.
2. 2
   Just formed. A brand-new company. Earlier and riskier, but this is where you meet a founder before anyone else does.

Each row says why it is in its lane, for example First filed in Colorado on 2019-03-04 or Founded in 2012, per our research.

Choosing what you see

1. 1
   Market. Pick the states you sell into. Fundz remembers your choice. The picker lists every state we carry today.
2. 2
   Window. Companies registered in the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days.
3. 3
   Tier. Top tier only, or the top two tiers for a longer list.
4. 4
   Sort. Best odds first, or newest first.
5. 5
   Kind and Delaware. Corporations or LLCs, and Delaware companies only (most venture-backed companies are Delaware corporations).
6. 6
   Search. Find a company by name.

Switch between the list and the table view at the top right. The table is easier for scanning many rows.

Your role

Tell Inception what you do: Recruiter; Startup attorney; Banking, payroll or insurance; Fractional executive or consultant; or Investor or scout. The notes on what each company needs from you, and the first-note draft, are written for that role. You can change it any time.

The company dossier

Click any company to open its dossier.

1. 1
   What they do. From our web research: what the company does, its website and LinkedIn, founding year, headquarters and recent news, with sources.
2. 2
   Identity badge. How sure we are that the website we found is this company: Confirmed, Likely, Unconfirmed (we found a site but could not confirm it), Not on the web yet (common for brand-new companies) or Not researched yet. Click Research now to research a company on the spot.
3. 3
   People. The officers and agents named on the filing, with a LinkedIn link for each. Law firms and filing services are left out.
4. 4
   First note. A short opening message written for your role, built only from verified facts. It appears only when the identity is Confirmed or Likely.
5. 5
   Odds. How often companies like this one raised within a year, and how that compares with all new registrations.
6. 6
   Timeline and signals we check daily. The registration, other states, funding and anything new we detect: an SEC Form D, a registration in another state, a first job post, or a website going live.

Working the list

1. 1
   Tabs. New, In progress, Watching, Won and Passed. Set a stage (Contacted, Replied, Meeting, Won or Passed) and the company moves to the right tab. Passed can be undone.
2. 2
   Watch. Adds the company to My targets with the people and the reason it made the list. If HubSpot is connected, it is created in HubSpot too, usually within a minute. An Undo appears for a few seconds.
3. 3
   Copy and Export CSV. Select rows, or take the whole list, with names, websites, people, LinkedIn links, lane and sources.

Saved views and the daily email

Save the filters you use most as a view and open them with one click. Turn on Email me daily for one view and your morning briefing email gets an Inception section: up to five top companies newly registered in that view's states. On a quiet day the section is left out rather than padded.

How good are the odds?

Most top-tier companies will not raise within a year. Inception is a short list worth a first look, not a promise about any one company. What we can show you is how much better than chance it is:

1. 1
   Live result: about 1 in 38 top-tier companies raised within a year (3,201 companies; 95% range 2.15% to 3.27%), about 26.6 times the rate for all new registrations.
2. 2
   The model was tested on 937,313 registrations it never saw during building.

The full study design, the pre-registered tests with confidence intervals, the models we rejected and an earlier claim we withdrew are on the methodology and proof page.

Last updated October 2026