In our upcoming Independent Analyst Panel, the IIAR> brings together five leading independent analysts and six AR co-hosts to discuss the value they bring to organizations. Read more on our blog post and register to attend the Panel CLICK HERE.
Date> Thursday 13 March 2025
Time> 0800 PST / 1100 EST / 1600 GMT / 2130 IST
Today’s IIAR> Around in 10 questions interview is with Sam Gupta / Founder and CEO, ElevatlQ, (LinkedIn) who covers Most enterprise software categories and companies operating in the enterprise software ecosystem.
1. What are your coverage areas?
Most enterprise software categories and companies operating in the enterprise software ecosystem. The categories that are part of enterprise architecture such CRM, CX, CE, ERP, HCM, Supply Chain, eCommerce platforms, Custom Development, databases, AI, DevOps, data warehouse, business intelligence, cloud and infra (but not hardware). Looking at it from a different perspective, MarTech, SalesTech, OpsTech, HRTech, ProcureTech, SupplyChainTech, and FinTech.
2.What are your opinions of the IT Analysis Marketplace and where do you see it going?
There is a clear lack of understanding of the role analyst companies play in serving both buyers and vendors, especially among startups. Analyst companies could be one of the most powerful demand generation channels if utilized effectively. This is especially true since other channels have become much harder to penetrate, such as email, ads, etc. With AI, organic traffic would be largely controlled (hijacked) by AI platforms. Analyst content generally can’t be used by AI bots and gated, so the companies that will utilize analyst content for demand generation would win the most.
3. What’s your typical day like?
With two kids under 5 in my home, my day ends up being like this, meetings, content creation, diaper change, more client meetings, social media, feeding, playing with kids – and taking care of unexpected emergencies when they try something without understanding implications.
4. Now, c’mon, tell me an AR horror story?
The story would be of my friend, where they hired him to head AR just because he worked for a major analyst firm, assuming that they would get favorable rankings. He tried to do everything in his power to explain its role, but the company still would not understand, wasting millions of dollars without getting any value. It’s a reminder of how not to do AR. Just like marketing, AR is a very strategic function, requiring deep analysis of every firm – big or small, levering them for product and GTM alignment, as well as generating demand.
5. How do you position your firm? What is your business model?
We are a buy-side advisory firm first where users hire us to define a strategic roadmap, re-engineer business processes, change management, and decision support for IT procurement (including RFP management). Because of this, we have much deeper competitive and domain expertise than most analyst firms due to our involvement with the actual sales and, at times, post-sales cycles. Our research and content offerings are largely influenced by the data gathered through these interactions. Our research quadrants are designed from buyers’ perspective, accommodating the three most critical elements: size, industry, and adoption. For vendors, we have offerings such as reprints, product certs, capability confirmation research notes, competitive intel, market trend reports, and much more.
6. What is your research methodology?
Our research methodology is a mix of all with a heavy focus on secondary research. But we use data gathered from social media surveys, email surveys, focus group discussions, podcast interviews, F2F and phone interactions, and discovery notes from inquiries through most channels.
7. Any favourite AR professional you’d like to mention? Any why?
This is a political question. 🙂 I might easily require several pages just to list all of my favorites. Love this community!
8. Tell us about one good AR practice you’ve experienced or one good AR event you’ve attended.
I am more interested in talking about what I have seen as a big NO from the AR investment perspective. Obviously, whether the content needs to be open or gated is always debatable. But the best way to justify ROI from AR spend is to always gate AR content, generating quick ROI from AR spend. The conversion rate with AR content would always be higher because of third-party validation. What I have seen companies do is to invest in 6-figures and put it out there in open. Remember, what’s free doesn’t have much value in buyer’s eyes.
9. What are your offerings and key deliverables?
We have reprints, certifications, awards, competitive intel, price feedback, research papers and notes, market trend reports, product category alignment reports, ROI-based customer interviews and studies, GTM strategy and product launch studies.
10. Any hobbies or favourite restaurant / food that you’d like to share?
Cut me open, and I bleed research. For me, research is a hobby than anything else, helping me understand the world around me better. As a side hobby, dance is the most recent, primarily to stay fit. With two young kids and running a business, it’s very hard to find time for anything but dance has helped greatly in staying healthy and stress management. And hopefully, if I persisted long enough, one of these days, I might be able to figure out how to dance as well. 🙂
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