Tegus
Best for: Monitoring customers, competitors, and suppliers across an industry
Tegus is a top expert network and financial research platform with an expansive and searchable database of over 100,000 expert call transcripts. These resources give insights into public and private companies, industries, and markets, straight from top consultants, current and former C-level executives, and employees in companies around the world.
The Tegus platform enables users to search, analyze, annotate, and explore multiple research materials. Where Tegus lacks information, users can make specific requests to the platform and access personalized expert calls from industry experts.
To stay compliant, Tegus retains 40+ experts who verify all calls and ensure all transcripts meet SEC, FINRA, and EU regulations, eliminating conflicts of interest or other potential data and confidentiality violations.
The Tegus platform offers:
- Tegus Call Services – This call service feature is unique to Tegus and allows users to request niche and tailored expert interviews and transcripts. That means customers can make requests for expert advice at an average rate of $325 per hour.
All consultants and experts on Tegus are prequalified, reducing the risk of fraud and bad information. Tegus also offers secure and compliant call transcripts that meet industry information standards and regulations.
- Tegus for Experts – Industry experts and professionals can earn extra income by offering their expertise and insights. Tegus users can contact Tegus experts for insights that can increase innovation, improve decision-making, and generate new ideas in businesses and companies.
Once pre-qualified, experts on Tegus can serve clients at a chosen hourly rate. Experts can also use Tegus to build or join multiple expert networks, engage with other experts, and explore new opportunities.
- BamSEC – With Tegus BamSEC, users can access a database of SEC filings of multiple corporations for due diligence, benchmarking, and competitive intelligence.
- Financial Models (Canalyst) – Tegus analysts go through filings, press releases, investor presentations, and more to create models powered by a fundamental dataset, helping clients spend less time on tedious manual tasks and more time on analysis. These models are customizable and are ready to use off the shelf with internal linking, company-specific drivers, editable forecasts, and every recurring publicly available KPI that a company reports.
- AskTegus – Tegus’s most recent AI innovation, AskTegus, allows investors to quickly cut through the noise and get the insights they need. However, this generative AI solution is only able to interact with company transcripts found within the Tegus platform, which limits the scope of the answers. This is in contrast to AlphaSense’s genAI solutions, which interact with the entire content universe housed in the platform, from broker research to expert calls to company transcripts.
Tegus Pros:
- Massive database of over 100,000 expert call transcripts
- Users can request custom calls with experts
- Experts and industry professionals are prequalified before joining the platform
- Tegus follows multiple compliance regulations across the US and Europe
- Access to SEC filings of multiple private and public companies through BamSEC
- Access to ready-to-use financial models for better decision-making and due diligence
- Provides access to broker research
- Generative AI feature designed to help users quickly glean insights from company transcripts
Tegus Cons:
- No advanced AI search and smart synonym feature
- No sentiment analysis
- Generative AI is limited in scope, as it only interacts with company transcripts
- Little access to resources outside of expert calls and SEC filings
- No support for internal content
AlphaSense
Best for: Conducting comprehensive qualitative research and analysis with advanced AI features for added speed, accuracy, and scope
AlphaSense is a market-leading, all-in-one smart search engine and market research platform. It’s the ideal tool for research and business professionals—from analysts and financial researchers to corporate professionals—looking to implement a qualitative research strategy powered by proprietary AI technology and automation.
AlphaSense is an industry leader on TrustRadius and G2, and has been recognized by Forbes in 2023 as one of the top 50 AI companies.
Compared to many of its peers, AlphaSense offers a much more holistic approach to market research through its extensive content universe. The content database contains documents from over 10,000 public, private, and proprietary sources—indexed, searchable, and all in one place—and is organized by the four key perspectives of market research:
- Company – Documents published by public and private companies, including SEC and company filings, earnings reports, presentations, transcripts, and ESG reports
- Journalist – Content published in major news networks, trade journals, and government and NGO publications
- Analyst – Equity research published by financial analysts from leading Wall Street firms, focusing on national and global issues. AlphaSense offers a library of equity research specifically for corporate clients, which is called Wall Street Insights®, as well as a library of aftermarket and real-time research for financial services clients
- Expert – 45,000+ interviews conducted by experienced buy-side analysts with pre-vetted industry experts with direct operator experience.
Additionally, AlphaSense comes with smart search and AI capabilities that reduce time to insight, while increasing accuracy and confidence in the research.
Product Features
Smart Synonyms™
Smart Synonyms™ is a proprietary AlphaSense feature that uses AI technology to recognize both the keyword and search intent behind any query.
AlphaSense uses advanced algorithms to eliminate noise from your search (i.e., content with matching keywords but ultimately irrelevant to your search objective) and leverages variations in language (for example, “impact investing” vs. “ESG investing”) to pinpoint the exact information you need.
AI search functionality allows you to easily find the exact documents and snippets that are most relevant to your search, giving you back time and energy to spend on more high-level tasks, like analysis.
Instant Company Insights
With Search Analytics and Company Tearsheets, you can get updates on any companies currently on your radar, giving you an in-depth reach across industries, regions, and more. These company insights keep you focused and grounded in your research on the competitors of your choosing, cutting out noise and enhancing your competitive advantage.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis, a natural language processing (NLP)-based feature, parses through content and identifies nuances in the tone and subjective meaning of text. It then uses color coding to help readers identify the document’s positive, negative, and neutral sentiments.
This technology assigns each search term a numerical sentiment change score to help users track any slight change in market sentiments across time. Users can take advantage of it to make better-informed investment decisions and improve their risk management strategies.
This feature can be instrumental in picking up on subtle sentiment shifts in expert interviews that go beyond expert-level commentary. But it can also be applied to company documents—such as earnings transcripts and company presentations—to gain much deeper insight into the perspective of an individual, company, or the market on a key topic.
Smart Summaries
Unlike other consumer-grade generative AI (genAI) tools trained on publicly available data, AlphaSense takes an entirely different approach. As a platform purpose-built to drive the world’s biggest business and financial decisions, our newest Smart Summaries feature leverages our 10+ years of AI tech development and draws from a curated collection of high-quality business content.
With Smart Summaries, you can glean instant earnings insights—reducing time spent on research during earnings season, quickly capture company outlook, and generate an expert-approved SWOT analysis straight from former competitors, partners, and employees.
Integrations and APIs
It’s now becoming industry standard for many market intelligence platforms to offer integration of internal content containing both structured and unstructured data, but it’s key that this content is indexed and immediately available. A market intelligence platform should also offer the ability to upload new external content sources (such as RSS or web content), so that you can leverage the platform’s analysis tools to pull relevant insights.
AlphaSense provides integration with commonly used programs like OneNote, Sharepoint, and Evernote, enabling streamlined collaboration with members across your organization and improving team productivity. It also allows you to search across all internal and external company content to find key insights, and the proprietary AI technology catches what other platforms miss in a secure and automated way.
Automated Monitoring
Instead of wasting hours manually monitoring, AlphaSense offers real-time alerts to keep users updated with trending topics, companies, and industries of interest. Users can also take snapshots of multiple companies frequently within the AlphaSense platform, staying in touch with the most critical insights, news, and market changes they need to know.
AlphaSense Pros:
- All-in-one research and intelligence platform
- Extensive content database that spans the four key perspectives of market research, including broker research and expert calls
- Incorporates AI search technology and sentiment analysis
- Smart Summaries generative AI feature for earnings and image search
- Automated and customizable alerts
- User-friendly interface
- Internal messaging and collaboration features
- Support for APIs and integrations
AlphaSense Cons:
- Visualization tools are limited to financial data at this time
- Collaboration tools are limited to users with AlphaSense licenses
Bloomberg Terminal
Best for: Qualitative research for hedge funds and institutional investors
Bloomberg Terminal is one of the oldest and most widely used market research and analysis tools in the financial services industry. Launched in 1981—well before individual computers or the internet were common at firms—Bloomberg led the way in democratizing access to financial market data.
Since then, Bloomberg has become one of the highest-rated market research tools giving users access to unique market data, news, and insights and enabling professionals to turn intelligence into a competitive advantage.
Bloomberg Terminal is a powerful research insights tool that has some top-notch features, including:
- Independent and sell-side research from over 1,500 sources
- Over 2,700 professionals who offer news coverage of companies, industries, and markets across 120 cities worldwide
- Charts, monitors, and alerts
- Unlimited access to Bloomberg terminal from smartphone and remote computers
- Collaboration tools for internal use
Many hedge funds and institutional investors still consider Bloomberg Terminal a top choice for qualitative research. However, with the advent of new technologies, Bloomberg has lagged behind many of its competitors that have web-based platforms with cloud-native features and intuitive user interfaces.
Bloomberg Terminal is also one of the higher-priced options in the market, with subscription fees at $2000 per month—or $24K annually—well outside the reach of many small or mid-sized firms. Bloomberg also bundles multiple services into its product, making it clunky and complex for the average user. Its highly technical user interface makes it more well-suited for financial services professionals than corporate clients, and there is a steep learning curve for new users.
Bloomberg Pros:
- Proprietary news, research and analytics from internal and external sources
- Tools for internal collaboration opportunities
- Market execution and order management tools
- Access to stock markets and other asset classes
- Custom charts, monitors, and alerts for market information
Bloomberg Cons:
- An expensive option, costing about $2000 a month
- A steep learning curve for new users
- No sentiment analysis or synonym recognition
- No proprietary expert calls and transcripts (but do offer access to GLG Expert Transcripts and Insights)
- Lack of broker research access for corporates
Related Reading: Bloomberg Terminal Alternatives
YCharts
Best for: Creating compelling visuals and demonstrating value to clients and prospects
YCharts is an investment research platform originally built to make investing accessible for firm and individual investors alike. Its core features are its data visualization capabilities that make insights more compelling for analysts, investors, and other stakeholders, as well as its fund screener that allows you to filter mutual funds and ETFs by specific metrics.
The YCharts solution is comprised of three main tools:
- Model Portfolios – Users can build and analyze portfolios using metrics visualizations, custom strategy comparison reports, and benchmark modeling. Pre-built customizable templates are also available and can fit with any model you create.
- Stock Screeners – Features 4000+ financial metrics users can filter to find stocks based on custom criteria and build custom analysis formulas
- Fundamental Charts – Charting tools that enable easy sharing of data visualizations, including the ability to embed them as images in other content (like blogs or emails)
This platform is an ideal solution for wealth managers and advisors looking to demonstrate value to their clients and prospects. YCharts can build custom portfolios and proposals, and also contains exceptional sales tools and time-saving workflows.
Unlike AlphaSense and Tegus, YCharts does not offer expert call transcripts. And while users can take advantage of YCharts model portfolios, screeners and charts, AlphaSense and Bloomberg Terminal provide better coverage of companies and industries across markets.
YCharts offers a free 7-day trial and three pricing levels: Enterprise (for firms and advising teams), Professional (for individual investors and portfolio managers), and Standard (for students and beginner investors). Client-specific pricing for each level is available upon request from YCharts.
YCharts Pros:
- Powerful data visualization capabilities
- Ability to build custom portfolios and proposals
- Collaboration and sharing tools
- Well-suited for wealth managers and advisors
YCharts Cons:
- No expert call transcripts
- Limited coverage of companies and industries across markets
- No AI search technology or sentiment analysis
GLG
Best for: Investors and financial managers looking for high-quality expert insights
Like Tegus, the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) is an expert network company that offers intelligence on corporations and connects professional users to experts from multiple industries for advice, insights, and mentorship.
GLG has access to a network of 900,000+ subject-matter experts on demand, who empower users with advice, research, and insights for better-informed business decisions.
GLG’s essential product, GLG Direct, focuses on expert consultations, which are one-on-one sessions between clients and subject-matter experts. Clients with relevant questions and issues receive direct answers and insights on business topics, regulations, legal advice, and intelligence on industries and businesses.
GLG also gathers qualitative and quantitative research insights. To that end, it uses primary research methods like focus group discussions, surveys, discussion panels, and workshops. The GLG Library is another rich user resource, with thousands of on-demand webcasts, teleconference transcripts, and other documents.
While GLG has a massive database of call transcripts, it falls short in breadth of available content. Unlike AlphaSense, GLG has no access to SEC and company filings, broker research, and news. It also lacks AI search features and sentiment analysis that help deepen and accelerate research.
Related Reading: GLG Alternatives
GLG Pros:
- Access to over 900,000 experts
- A massive library of expert calls and transcripts
- Offers consultations with experts using various methods, including expert calls
- Serves multiple types of clients, including law firms and a diverse range of businesses
- Offers both qualitative and quantitative insights
- Provides expert network services
GLG Cons:
- No AI search features or smart synonyms
- Content is restricted to expert calls and conventional qualitative and quantitative research findings
- No broker research or other high-value content sets available
- No sentiment analysis feature
- No real-time monitoring of markets
PitchBook
Best for: Private market financial data for deal sourcing, fundraising, and due diligence
PitchBook is another award-winning research platform with a massive database of content on private equity, venture capital, and M&A. Since its inception, Pitchbook has over 70,000 individual users within its client base.
Its cutting-edge private market database, reporting, and data visualization are ideal tools for professionals in finance, investments, and sales. Pitchbook’s in-depth insights cover over 3.5 million private and public companies worldwide, including financial histories, valuations, executives, and investors.
Much like AlphaSense, PitchBook maintains an ever-expanding library of records and facts from millions of business deals worldwide, involving more than 110,000 funds and over 450,000 investors.
If you’re looking for business intelligence, venture capital, prospecting, deal sourcing, or private market intelligence, PitchBook is an excellent selection. It may also be useful for performing due diligence on startups, fundraising, networking, benchmarking competitors, and allocating different assets across your investment portfolio.
Related Reading: PitchBook vs Crunchbase
PitchBook Pros:
- Provides access to a wide array of information, including company patents, financial analysis, information on former and current company investors, and more
- Advanced search filters available, though many users leverage simple search
- Emerging spaces for investors looking to capitalize on new and alternative markets
- You can create custom alerts and monitor your dashboard for news
- Supports integrations from third-party software; has Excel plug-in
PitchBook Cons:
- Much better suited to financial services; lacks key features for corporate users
- Lacks access to an expert call library
- Limited access to earning transcripts and no SEC or global filings
- No advanced AI search functionality or synonym recognition
- Sentiment analysis feature limited to stocks
- Users cannot upload internal content to the platform
- No broker research or aftermarket research. Equity research is an additional charge of $5k + 500 Per User and is mostly for private companies
- Often receives criticism about data accuracy and recency
- ESG reports created in house
Choosing an Alternative to Tegus
If you are looking for a platform that exclusively offers access to expert call transcripts and insights, Tegus is a great option. With its large database of expert calls and the option to request bespoke expert insights, Tegus can provide valuable and unique insights into public and private companies, industries, and markets.
However, if you are looking for a more holistic and all-encompassing market research tool that provides access to content sets beyond just expert calls and SEC filings—as well as advanced AI features that deepen and accelerate your research—you may need to look for an alternative.
When choosing the right tool for you, consider the following criteria:
- Data coverage: Do you need a platform that provides access to multiple content sets for the most full-picture market view, or are you only interested in one specific content set? Tegus only covers expert calls and SEC filings, but multiple platforms in the above list have more robust data coverage. When choosing the right tool for you, ensure the provider offers coverage across all content of interest for your business, be it expert insights, broker research, news, or company documents.
- Data quality: Always choose platforms with accurate and reliable data. With expert calls, ensure you have access to recent insights from the most experienced professionals and that all compliance regulations are adhered to.
- Pricing: Choose a platform that meets your budget or offers maximum value for less. Be sure to check out our ROI calculator to see how the right market intelligence tool can maximize your returns on investment.
- Additional features: Opt for a platform that pushes the boundaries of market intelligence by offering AI, analytics, automation, broker research reports, and smart search functionality. Services like these enhance your experience, speed up your research process, and increase your research confidence—giving you the competitive edge.
