Find competitors of any company and measure their similarity with Google Sheets

DDVC #45: Where venture capital and data intersect. Every week.

👋 Hi, I’m Andre and welcome to my weekly newsletter, Data-driven VC. Every Thursday I cover hands-on insights into data-driven innovation in venture capital and connect the dots between the latest research, reviews of novel tools and datasets, deep dives into various VC tech stacks, interviews with experts, and the implications for all stakeholders. Follow along to understand how data-driven approaches change the game, why it matters, and what it means for you.

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Finding and comparing similar companies is a tedious task that gets regularly performed by a range of professionals such as investors and founders mapping competitive landscapes or salesmen growing their lead funnel. Thankfully, we can automate this process with modern tools.

Today, I share a comprehensive guide that combines two different approaches to identify similar companies at scale. Subsequently, I auto-generate summaries of their respective business descriptions and create a similarity matrix that allows you to spot the closest competitors with ease. All in Google Sheets and without a need to code. It’s 100% free and easy to replicate.

How to get started

1. Login to your Google Account and create a new Google Sheet

2. Add a name to your sheet, click on “Extensions” > “Apps Script”

Find similar companies via Google Programmable Search Engine and G2

3. Open the new tab “Apps Script” and replace the whole project with the code below (→ remove “myFunction{}”). Note that this approach uses G2 (peer review platform for software solutions) to search for similar companies and is thus most reliable for more mature companies.

/**
 * Find similar companies via G2
 *
 * @param {string} companyName - Name of the company
 * @returns {string} Result
 * @customfunction
 */


function SimilarCompanyG2(companyName) {

if (companyName == ""){return "Error - Input is empty"}

  // Replace these with your actual API key
  const API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
  const SEARCH_ENGINE_ID = 'e298e2926913441fc';

  // Formulate the query to find top 10 alternatives of a company on G2's website
  searchQuery = "Top 10 " + companyName + "Alternatives & Competitors site:g2.com/products"
  
  // Construct the URL for the Google Custom Search JSON API
  searchUrl = `https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=${API_KEY}&cx=${SEARCH_ENGINE_ID}&q=${encodeURIComponent(searchQuery)}`;

  // Send a GET request to the API
  response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(searchUrl, {method: 'get'});
  
  // Parse the JSON response
  data = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());

  // If there are any items in the response data
  if (data?.items?.length > 0) {
    competitorsList = data.items[0]?.pagemap?.listitem;
    
    // Log the competitors list
    console.log(competitorsList);
    
    // Filter competitors with a URL and a position, then map to their names
    competitors = competitorsList?.length > 0 ? competitorsList.filter(item => !!item.url && !!item.position).map(item => item.name) : "Not found";
    
    // Log the filtered competitors
    console.log(competitors);
    
    // If there are any competitors, return them as a comma-separated string, else return "Not found"
    return competitors?.length > 0 ? competitors.join(', ') : "Not found";
  } else {
    return "Not found";
  }
}

4. Rename your project to “Similar Companies G2”

5. Get a Custom Search API Key. Click on “Get a key” and follow the steps below.