[dsacco]

There are several reasons, in my opinion:

1. They are very "loud" - VC funding, visibility and large headcount are antagonistic features for a firm specializing in boutique data mining. It's not impossible, it just makes it harder to maintain a competitive edge in e.g. how long your data remains exclusive. On the other hand, these qualities are excellent for developing a moat around a product from which you can source data. Their website gives away quite a lot of information.

2. I have personally heard from analysts who mentioned that various forecasts of theirs were rushed, superfluous or simply incorrect.

3. I have personally "beaten" their team in finding, curating and analyzing data to produce a forecast which was in high demand by various clients.

It's not uncommon for funds to buy redundant forecasts from several vendors, so research firms tend to be at least peripherally aware of one another. Keep in mind that the more exclusive a source of data is, the more lucrative a forecast will be if it has a high signal. The two extremes are data which essentially only you are in possession of, and data which has no signal due to widespread diffusion in the market. Eventually your forecast slides from the first sort to the second sort, and letting other companies know what kind of data you have is inviting them to compete.

[WingH]

Care to share type some examples of data you've found that was used to produce financial forecasts?