TagniFi is one of ValuSource data partners and provides our data for our Guideline Company and ValuSource M&A Comps database products. We have partnered with Chad for many years and wanted our clients to hear his story. . .
Meet Chad Sandstedt
Chad Sandstedt, the CEO of TagniFi, along with two other partners, founded TagniFi in 2013 when they realized financial professionals across a variety of disciplines, including business valuators had a need for high quality, and affordable financial data. Their mission became “to serve our clients with the best financial data at a reasonable price. So, they set out to build a software platform to collect and deliver the data and provide users the flexibility to slice-and-dice financial data to suit their individual needs. TagniFi currently provides ten different financial databases including Fundamentals and Deals, two databases widely used by valuators and the source of ValuSource’s TagniFi based products.
Tagged Financial Statements were the Key
Chad begin by licensing other providers data for his products, but in 2009 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandated that all submitted financial statements be tagged in XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) format. This format made it possible to use software and intelligent business rules to significantly speed up the process of both collecting data as well as assuring the data was accurate. Â Before tagged financial statements were available from the SEC, it was a daunting task to collect this kind of data.
Sparked by this opportunity, Chad decided it was time to build his own databases rather than license them from other providers. However, TagniFi needed to develop and entire platform to make all this data magic happen, a huge task! Chad and his team pulled together a dedicated team of software and data professionals to harness the power of this new XBRL tagged financial data, which was now available from the SEC. TagniFi launched its first database in 2015.
Data Quality
TagniFi’s maintains a laser focus on data accuracy, consistency, transparency, and flexibility. While the data for each of TagniFi’s databases is gathered from different sources using different business rules, the process begins when the SEC releases submissions with tagged financial statements. These statements are then automatically downloaded and reviewed by TagniFi’s intelligent data platform. If there are any anomalies, the submission is flagged to be reviewed by an analyst. If everything checks out, the submission is immediately added to the database. If there are issues which require deeper analysis or verification, then an analyst will review it and take the necessary steps before it is added to the database. The advantage o this technology- based data gathering processing system is that submitted statements can be added to the database within hours of submission to the SEC, rather than the days, weeks or months it typically takes doing it the old-fashioned way.
The TagniFi team
The TagniFi team had enjoyed the flexibility of working remotely from day one, even before COVID. The majority of the team is dotted around the United States with key team members in Florida, Nebraska, and Washington state. TagniFi’s two teams of software developers and analysts are in Manilla, where the data is analyzed and processed. Each of the data teams is headed up by a local team leader. Â Anyone who has built offshore development/analysts teams knows this is not an easy task to say the least! But with Chad’s leadership, TagniFi has built two five-star offshore teams, with local management, that have been performing exceptionally well for years.
TagniFi is not backed by venture capital, it is completely self-funded. A significant amount of profits are reinvested back into the business, allowing them to continually enhanced their intelligent data platform as well as add new databases on a regular basis.
Pilots and Paws, Chad’s Passion
Chad has been a private pilot for 15 years and now has his own plane. With Chad’s passion for aviation, giving back and generally making a difference in the world, he joined the Pilots ˜n Paws team, a dog rescue organization. At least once a month Chad flies his plane to cities in Alabama and Georgia to pick up rescue pups and then flies them back to Florida where they can be adopted. Over the years, Chad has help rescue hundreds of dogs. Great job Chad!
More about TagniFi
TagniFi is a financial data provider for investment and finance professionals available online, in Excel or through an API. TagniFi’s advanced financial data technology delivers more accurate, timely and cost-effective data solutions to clients in the investment management, advisory and professional services markets.
ValuSource couldn’t be happier with our partnership with Chad and TagniFi. Chad had been absolutely great to work with and he helps us deliver on our promise to provide valuators the best financial data at affordable prices.”