How to research a company online

01Why research a company first

Most bad deals, bad hires and wasted sales calls come from assumptions nobody checked. A company can look polished on its homepage and still be two people, pre-revenue, or in the middle of a lawsuit.

Good company research answers four questions: what does this business actually do, who runs it, is it healthy, and how is it seen by customers and the market. Keep those four in mind and every source below has a purpose.

• Sales: tailor your pitch to their real products, stack and priorities.
• Partnerships and suppliers: confirm they exist, are stable and keep promises.
• Job seekers: understand the product, culture and recent changes before an interview.
• Investors: spot gaps between the story and the evidence early.

02Start with the website & About page

The website is the company's own version of the story, so read it first and treat it as claims to verify. Look at the homepage headline, the product or services pages, pricing, the About page and the footer.

Small details are revealing: a registered address and company number in the footer, a real phone number, named team members, recent blog posts and case studies with client names all point to a real, active business. A site that hasn't changed in years, stock photos for the team and no contact details beyond a form are worth noting.

1. 1
   Read the homepage and product pagesWrite one sentence on what they sell and who it is for. If you can't, that itself is a finding.
2. 2
   Check About, Team and CareersNote founders, founding year, location and size claims.
3. 3
   Look at the footer and legal pagesRegistered name, address and company number help you verify them in official registries.
4. 4
   Check the technologyThe tech stack (CMS, e-commerce, analytics, payments) hints at size, budget and maturity.

Hazana's Website Scan reads the site for you and returns a business profile: what they do, who they serve, contacts, tech stack and trust signals.

03Check team, leadership & hiring

People are the strongest signal of where a company is going. Search the founders and leadership by name together with the company name, and look at their professional profiles: how long they have been there, what they did before and whether the titles match what the website says.

Open job listings are a free look at strategy. A company hiring ten sales reps is in growth mode; one hiring its first security engineer may be preparing for larger customers. A sudden stop in hiring or many recent departures can mean the opposite.

• Do leadership names and titles match across the website and profiles?
• How big is the team really, compared with what they claim?
• Which roles are they hiring for right now, and in which locations?

04Review news, reviews & reputation

Search the company name in quotes plus words like "news", "funding", "lawsuit", "layoffs" and "review". Recent press tells you about launches, funding rounds and leadership changes; trade publications are often more useful than big outlets for smaller firms.

For customer experience, read reviews on Google, Trustpilot, G2 or industry directories. Read the 2- and 3-star reviews first: they are usually the most specific. Look at how the company replies to complaints as much as the complaints themselves.

• Patterns matter more than single reviews.
• Check dates: one bad month two years ago is different from a current trend.
• Verify registration details in your country's official company registry.

05Map competitors & market

A company only makes sense next to its alternatives. List three to five direct competitors (same product, same customers) and a couple of indirect ones (different product solving the same problem). Compare pricing, positioning and how established each one is.

This step often changes your view: a "leader" may be a small player in a crowded market, or a quiet company may be the obvious choice once you see the field.

06Do it in one click with Hazana

Hazana runs the public-web part of this checklist for you. Paste a website or company name into Website Scan to get a business profile with sources, tech stack, contacts and trust signals. Then use Find Competitors to build the comparison list and Compare Sites to see two businesses side by side.

You still make the judgement call, but you start with the facts gathered and cited instead of a blank page.

1. 1
   Scan the websiteGet what they do, who they serve, stack and trust signals.
2. 2
   Find competitorsSee similar companies filtered by country and industry.
3. 3
   Compare and saveCompare two sites side by side, then share or download the report.

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Frequently asked questions