This guide is more of an expert level way to research deep into an organization and understand how it works even enough to build one, that is if you have the capital to start one.
But if you also want a simple way to know more about any company and how they operate without too much of its details then follow this simpler guide too.
You obviously would want to start with their official website. But don't stay at the front page with just the marketing crap. Go to the About Us page or the Our Team page or whatever phrase they use for more about them. You may find the real information there like who runs the company and how long they’ve been in business for. I think LinkedIn can provide you with way more information than you would think. Not only on the company’s page but the employee profiles as well. You can find out if they are hiring, if people are resigning and what kind of people they normally hire. It’s like being a detective but this is legal so you won't get into trouble.
Google News is also a really useful tool for this task. You put the company name in the search bar and scroll down the results. You want to look for patterns, not just one article. Have they received funding within the last few weeks? Is there any company news yet? Sometimes the absence of news tells you a lot about the company's legitimacy.
You can also look into their social networks, but don’t take it too seriously, a lot of companies lie on social networks. When you're evaluating a company, look for how often they post and whether real people comment on their posts. If they have 50,000 followers and no comments then that's entering suspicious territory.
You can also find the company’s financial records if they are registered. In my country, I can go to the Registrar General’s Department in Ghana if you're in Nigeria, probably the CAC. Although it costs a small amount of money you will know when they were registered, who the directors are and in some instances even more.
The final thing I will recommend is asking people in your network. This might sound like an obvious thing to do but we usually forget. Someone in your network will likely know someone who has worked there or dealt with the company. These conversations can provide more information than a company’s website ever will. You need to piece together a complete picture from all of the different sources. You cannot depend on just a single source to give you everything you need to know.
I hope this and the technical guide helps you.
