AlphaSights
Alphasights is one of the larger expert networks. It was founded in 2008 and became one of the first firms to successfully reduce GLG’s market dominance, growing in tandem with Third Bridge. Subsequently, a large crop of expert networks have followed suit in the growing expert network industry. The Alphasights founders had a background in strategy consulting.
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The history of Alphasights
When Alphasights started out, GLG was dependent on its traditional static network. Experts were recruited proactively, on fairs and from telephone directories. Onboarding an expert was time-consuming and complex. Alphasights, lacking a database of experts, began recruiting experts directly for live projects. To enable this, they sped up the onboarding of experts, with modern tech tools and user-friendly interfaces. This business model’s success was supported by the even faster growth of LinkedIn. Today, the company combines a large database with custom recruiting and is one of the larger expert networks around. We cover the exciting history of expert networks here.
In 2024, Alphasights was mentioned in a lawsuit between an activist hedge fund and a medtech company. Alphasights had done nothing wrong, but the hedge fund's usage of expert networks like Alphasights and Mosaic Research was published and discussed openly, including in a podcast with Inex One CEO Max Friberg.
Alphasights pricing
Alphasights is seen as high-quality, but also as having among the highest prices in the industry alongside GLG.
As the bull market gave way to a softer economy and fewer deals, many PE funds have grown wary of expert network costs. Making large prepayments to expert networks is less attractive when you're simultaneously reining in overheads and indirect spend.
Alphasights focuses on core services
Whereas many other larger expert networks have long offered a range of alternative expertise services (such as transcript libraries, live conferences with experts etc.), Alphasights long stuck to their core service, only offering expert calls or meetings.
However increasingly, the company now offers surveys, insights projects (similar to GLG's Strategic projects), and a content library named AlphaView.
Growth and awards
In June 2024, Alphasights stated that it had more than 1,500 employees, up from 1,200 employees early 2022. Its associates manage both research (expert recruitment), client account management and sales for their accounts. This differs from GLG and Third Bridge, who have separated the research role and customer-facing sales roles. As a result, Alphasights has kept a higher productivity/ yield per employee than most peers and managed to retain key employees. The company has established its name as an attractive employer, receiving multiple Best Workplace Awards in recent years.
Alphasights was featured in our expert network benchmarking from June-July 2018, receiving one of the highest rankings. We've also identified them as a global leader in the recurring expert network market sizing. The company is sometimes confused with its India-based competitor Insight Alpha, which was founded in the same year.
Alphasights historic milestones
2008 – Founded in London, backed by a €3m investment from Acton Capital.
2011 – New York office opened
2012 – Hong Kong office opened
2013 – Dubai office opened
2015 – San Francisco office opened
2016 – Hamburg, Shanghai and Seoul offices opened
2017 – Tokyo office opened
2019 – Inex One identified Alphasights as a global leader in our expert network market sizing.
2022 - Alphasights hired a new CFO with experience from publicly listed companies. Rumors spread it was preparing for a liquidity event, which seems to have been halted in the shifting macro climate.
Alphasights cubs
Former employees at Alphasights have gone on to found expert networks, including:
2014 - Magellan Research Group launched in New York.
2015 - Dialectica launched, headquartered in Athens, Greece.
2016 - Tegus launched in San Francisco, offering a content library alongside regular expert calls.
2019 - Arbolus launched in London.
2021 - Sanibel Group launched in New York, by an ex-Alphasights and Arbolus employee.
2024 - AggKnowledge was founded in New York, by former Alphasights and GLG employees. While not an expert network, AggKnowledge builds tech for expert networks and survey firms.
For the curious, check out this Alphasights company presentation (link) at the 2012 NOAH London conference, where the founders' explained their business model.
