Check a startup before your first sales call

Before a first call with a startup, check five things from public records: that the legal company exists and matches the brand, what its last filed accounts say, whether its funding appears in more than one independent record, how big it really is, and who it sells to according to its own job adverts. Note the date of each source, because every one of them is a snapshot. You will walk into the call with better questions and fewer wrong assumptions.

The worked example uses Slovak sources, but every EU country has the same building blocks: a company register, a place where annual accounts are filed, and public news.

1. Find the legal company behind the brand

A brand is not a company. Start in the national company register, the official list of every registered business, and find the entry that matches the brand. Note the legal name, the company number, the registration date and the address.

The company number matters most. In Slovakia and Czechia it is called the IČO, an eight-digit identifier that never changes when the company renames or moves. Names get misspelt in other records; the number does not. When two documents disagree on the name, compare the numbers before you decide they are about different companies.

The registration date is your real founding date. A website that says "since 2019" may count from a side project or an older company that was folded in.

2. Read the last filed accounts, and their date

Most European companies, including small private ones, must file annual accounts with a public register. In Slovakia that is RÚZ, the register of financial statements. The figures worth noting are revenue, profit or loss, and personnel costs (what the company spent on staff). Compare two years, not one.

Then look at the dates. Accounts cover a year that has already ended, and companies usually file a few months after it. In November, the newest accounts you can read describe the year before, so they are ten or more months old. Treat them as the starting point of a story, not the current state. A young company can look tiny in its accounts and much larger in its hiring.

Very small companies may file a simplified "micro" statement with fewer details. That is normal and not a warning sign.

3. Confirm funding in two independent records

Funding news is usually written from the company's own press release. Before you rely on it, look for the same round in a record the company did not write. Three kinds of record help:

1. 01

   The company register

   When investors buy shares, they usually appear as new shareholders, and the share capital often changes on the same day. That date is a fact, even if the amount invested is not shown.

2. 02

   A public contract register

   When a state fund invests, the investment agreement may be published. Slovakia publishes contracts with public bodies in its central contract register, CRZ.

3. 03

   A second, independent article

   Two articles from one press release count as one source.

Keep three kinds of money apart. Equity means investors bought part of the company. Debt has to be repaid. A grant is public money for a defined project and is usually not free to spend on anything. Adding them into one "raised" figure misleads.

4. Size: compare three numbers that never agree

An employee band such as "20–49" is an estimate from a register or a data provider, often updated once a year. Personnel costs in the accounts tell you whether the payroll grew. Open roles tell you what the company plans now. Read all three and expect them to differ. Count open roles on the company's own careers page on the day you prepare, because job aggregators and trackers can lag or keep closed adverts for a while.

5. Read the adverts for who they sell to

Job adverts are the most honest description of a startup's customers. A sales advert says who the seller will visit. A support advert says which customers need help, in which language. Compare them with the website, and note anything it says the product does not yet have, such as approval in another market.

6. Turn it into a one-page brief

Write one line per check: the fact, the source link and the source date. Add a short list of open questions where the records disagree or stay silent. That page is for you. On the call, the useful move is to ask about what the evidence points to, such as a new market or a new team, rather than to recite their accounts back to them.

Two cautions. A company you cannot find in a register may be registered abroad, under another name, or too new to appear; ask, do not assume. And none of these records tells you whether a startup will buy.

Using the Evolc Signals MCP, open the profile for [company or domain] with get_company. Then open each source it links.
1. Legal company: legal name, company number, registration date and address from the national register. Flag any record that spells the name differently but has the same number.
2. Accounts: the two latest years of revenue, profit or loss and personnel costs, the filing date, and how old the figures are today.
3. Funding: for each round, list every independent record (register shareholder change, contract register, article). Separate equity, debt and grants. Say which amounts are confirmed only by the company's own announcement.
4. Size: the employee band, personnel costs and the number of roles on the company's own careers page today.
5. Customers: who the sales and support adverts say the company serves, in which countries and languages.
Give each fact with its link and date. List open questions where sources disagree or are silent. Do not guess budgets or intentions.

Try it now: open recent funding rounds on Evolc Signals, each with its source article, and pick a startup you could sell to. Its company profile links the register entry, the filed accounts where they exist, public contracts and open roles, so the first four checks start from one page.