Vol. 1 Issue 12 - May 15, 2002 - Free Executive Leads


In this Issue...

  • Finding Execs on the USPTO
  • Finding Execs on the SEC
  • Faster, Better Browsing with Opera

 

HOW TO CONDUCT YOUR OWN EXECUTIVE SEARCH

Alternative Means and Free Websites: USPTO

Some times there is no option to spend money on expensive tools for executive lead generation. During budget-tight times like these, there is an enhanced need to be resourceful and glean as much as possible from freely available resources.

Two of the most useful public resources for executive information are the United States Patent and Trademark Office at http://www.uspto.gov and the Securities and Exchange Commission at http://www.sec.gov .

At these sites there is a little known treasure of information about leaders in different roles within organizations. On the bottom right of the USPTO site there are two search choices: "Patents" and "Trademarks." Please note that these are not the navy blue buttons on the left. Instead we are referring to the busy graphic with a circled "R" and what looks like an atomic model.

The "Patents" section is very useful when locating scientists, inventors and the principals within organizations who create or invent things. There are patents for all kinds of equipment, software, ideas and even processes. Those who file for patents range from founders of tiny startups all the way to "higher ups" in larger organizations. Even the largest multinationals with entire battalions of legal staff will name the person responsible for the idea. The patent applicant population usually consists of scientific or research executives and is characteristically a good source of leads.

The question is how do we get the leads from these sites?

An example may help illustrate this type of lead generation. Clicking on the "Patents" section at http://www.uspto.gov reveals two patent categories, each in its own box. In the green box there are search choices for patents already granted going back to 1976. In the yellow box there are search choices for patents currently in the application process. The average time it takes an application to be approved varies, but is approximately one year.

The best leads are current ones, so for this specific use its best to search through applications instead of grants. Selecting "Quick Search" brings up a screen with two entry boxes and a few drop-down menus. The many menu choices are confusing, but luckily for our purposes we don't need to worry about them. Entering search keywords in the "Term 1" and, if necessary, the "Term 2" box is enough. The patent search engine permits the basic Booleans AND, OR, and AND NOT.

To find leads in the wireless semiconductor industry we could enter ASIC in Term 1 and Wireless in Term 2, making certain that the AND is selected from the drop-down between the first and second lines. This search yields 437 results. The 7th result when we performed this search was application #20020051482. If this were a technology we are interested in then we would have a qualified lead. The inventor listed is Gary R. Lomp, and we can even see that he is from Centerport, NY. We can then conduct searches for that name on the many people-finders, look-ups, white pages and skip tracing sites.


ALTERNATIVE MEANS AND FREE WEBSITES: SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) makes corporate filings available to the public through the EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) system. Besides Annual Reports and Form 10-K, there are many documents considered mandatory for public companies to file. Such documents frequently reveal valuable information about an organization. Companies with assets greater than US$10 million are required to file with the SEC. From http://www.sec.gov we search by clicking on the "Search for Company Filings" link, then on the "Quick Forms Lookup" link.

To search through documents in EDGAR we need a company name. A search on Arrow Electronics reveals 140 documents filed. These documents are available for review in either HTML or Plain Text format. Though the text versions take some getting accustomed to, it is easier to review and save them to disk for future use. On 4/15/02 Arrow filed a DEF 14A, otherwise known as official notification to designated shareholders of matters to be brought to a vote at a shareholders meeting. Viewing this document we find a section named "Executive Compensation and Other Matters" where five senior executives are listed by name and title. This section also reveals their salary, bonus, and other compensation for the last three years.

In other documents, like the 10-K405 (annual report) filed on 3/29/02, we find an appropriately named "Executive Officers" section with a complete list of senior executives including their full names, titles and a brief history of their career at Arrow.

If the SEC site is too busy or confusing, EDGAR can also be searched from http://sec.freeedgar.com . SEC Info also offers free EDGAR searching from their site at http://www.secinfo.com . Their site is loaded with additional features like IPO search, M&A Deals, Insider Trading and more.

Join us next time for a discussion on using other free sources like domain registrant look-ups and other "whois" tools.


FASTER, BETTER BROWSING WITH OPERA

Internet Explorer has become the de-facto standard for Internet browsing. Undeniably IE has features that enhance the Internet experience, but it is not a researcher's best friend. This is primarily because it offers so many features it has become lethargic and bloated.

There is a faster, slimmer, more powerful browser that accelerates Web surfing, thus saving valuable time. One of the major objectives of this newsletter is to show readers how to obtain results from the Internet in ten minutes or less.

One way to significantly reduce search time is to make browsing faster. In order to provide the best Internet experience, Opera (http://www.opera.com ) has been producing an empowering browser that provides dozens of advantages to the savvy searcher. Opera is the world's third most popular browser and has been free to download and use since December 2000.

Why is Opera all that and more? Here are the advantages:
Pure speed - Because it is a much tighter browser, built from scratch, it simply runs faster. Opera loads pages quicker than other browsers. The difference is most apparent on 56k connections but you still notice an improvement even with the fastest access.


13 built-in search tools - A selection of search tools can be displayed directly on the browser interface, on the toolbar adjacent to the links. The best choices are Google, AllTheWeb, Amazon, Domain Names and Google Groups. Each one of the search tools is available in three different ways. One is a search box in the toolbar adjacent to the links. A second way is by highlighting text and right clicking, then picking the type of search from a menu. A third way the searches are available is by entering a single letter into the address field where you would normally enter a URL. For example, 'g' for Google or 'a' for AllTheWeb.


Super Search tool - One of the search tool choices is a "Super Search" box. Like other search tools, it can be used directly on the browser, by right- clicking or entering the letter 's' and the keywords into the address field. The Super Search returns results from AllTheWeb and Google simultaneously in separate windows side by side.

Find in page - A search option that finds keywords in the page being displayed. This is very useful for finding skills keywords in a long page full of text.

One-click image hiding - With a single click, image downloading is disabled. This means that pages will download much faster since they will be text only. A box with the image name or alternate text appears in place of each image. With a single click the images can be downloaded and applied to the page if desired.

One-click print preview - With a single click a page can be viewed as if it had been printed.

One-click HTML override - Also with a single click all the distracting HTML on a page can be overridden and the page displayed in plain HTML. This can frequently make a page easier to read and sometimes even speeds things up because complex commands are bypassed.

Keyboard shortcuts - Like other browsers, Opera offers the standard keyboard shortcuts. Unlike other browsers, there are enhanced keyboard shortcuts that allow you to jump between windows, manage multiple windows, toggle images, print preview, toggle HTML, zoom, navigate through the history and more.

Mouse gestures - Unlike other browsers, Opera makes its features more accessible by creative use of mouse gestures. Double-clicking will highlight a word and open the search tools menu, triple-clicking will select the whole paragraph, and four clicks will select the whole page of text. Beyond clicking tricks there are mouse movements that Opera recognizes as commands. For example, holding down the right button and moving the mouse up then down will reload the page. Other gestures will minimize a page, open a new window, copy a window, close a window, navigate the history, open a link in the background, zoom in and out of a page and much more.

Multiple windows - With IE and Netscape each new browser window is its own entity taking up memory and space on the task bar. In Opera multiple windows can be viewed in succession, cascaded or tiled within one single workspace. This reduces clutter and improves PC performance.
After you download and use http://www.opera.com we would appreciate any comments about how it saved you time!