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09/06/11 | Uncategorized

Guidewire Group Pivots Toward Software

By Chris Shipley (Co-Founder, Guidewire Group)
You no doubt know Guidewire Group as an analyst firm committed to the success of early-stage technology companies. Indeed, when we started the company in 2004, our goal was to accelerate emerging businesses and emerging markets around the world. Across the years, we’ve consulted with startups and large companies, produced programs and events that bring the Innovation Ecosystem together to debate ideas, and perhaps now most famously developed a methodology to measure and benchmark startup businesses that is rapidly becoming a standard tool for organizations that seek and support young companies.

It is that methodology — The G/SCORE(tm) — that has set Guidewire Group on a new path to becoming a software company. In February, Guidewire Group received a grant from the National Science Foundation to commercialize a SaaS application that enables entrepreneurs to profile and benchmark their businesses and helps large organizations discover and follow startups with which they seek to do business. The core of that application, G/SCORE Analytics, is in the midst of early beta testing, and we intend to open the platform to more and more entrepreneurs as the summer turns to fall.

As we built and tested this platform, one thing became very clear to us: we have a passion for startups, absolutely, and the best way to have the greatest impact in the global market is to deliver the tools and services at scale that enable entrepreneurs around the world to more effectively manage and grow their business, while delivering the tools and data large organizations require to more effectively and efficiently engage with startups in the innovation ecosystem.

That scale comes from software. And so, today, Guidewire Group is making the pivot, away from a business built on hands-on advisory work and toward a scalable company based on a growing platform of software tools and services.

We are just at the beginning of this new journey, and we’re super excited by the vision and the potential to have real and sustainable impact. We haven’t lost sight of our mission: empower entrepreneurs to build substantial and sustainable businesses. But now, we have a stronger platform from which to achieve that vision.

And, of course, everyone at Guidewire Group would like you to be a part of this next chapter in our company’s history. If you’re interested in taking the new software for a (beta) test drive, please let me know by emailing me at chris@guidewiregroup.com.

This post was originally published on the Guidewire Group blog.

About the guest blogger: Chris Shipley is a leading technology and product analyst. Best known as the executive producer of the DEMO Conferences for IDG Executive Forums, Chris has helped technology companies bring more than 1,000 new products to market since 1996. As a founding partner and editorial director in Guidewire Group, she consults with emerging technology companies in the U.S. and Europe to identify market opportunities and accelerate products to market.

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