Quid Takes the Lid Off Silicon Valley

Finding high-quality information about a public company such as IBM (IBM) or General Electric (GE) is simple. Sorting out which startups are working on synthetic biology is far trickier. "It's in private companies where so much of the world's technology is being developed," says Bob Goodson, a 30-year-old entrepreneur in San Francisco. "To date, no one has delved into what these companies are doing."

On Sept. 14, Goodson and co-founder Sean Gourley launched Quid to address that need. (The business was spun off from YouNoodle. has collaborated with YouNoodle on several research projects.) Investor Peter Thiel says Quid has the potential to become the go-to source for high-quality information on technology startups. Over the last two years, Quid stealthily researched thousands of private companies, building a database that includes legal filings, financing information, hiring decisions, and consumer sentiment about them as expressed on sites such as Twitter. While other research firms claim to have comprehensive data on private companies, Goodson says Quid is distinct because it analyzes the raw numbers, helping pinpoint where innovation is happening, what trends are emerging, and where the funding is. Quid's software, for instance, can infer how fast a startup is growing based on openings posted on job sites.