To My Fellow CI Agents ;)

[Matthew Jones]

Over the past few months I have spent much of my time putting together a peice of "work" that I hoped that could become very usefull in my line of work. I am currently working on developing a program through my business completely free to everyone of you on this network. This program or "service" is to not only spread my services, and to network with such great people, but to build awareness in the corporate, and private sector of business transactions. This service would act as a information resource for executives, researchers, and so on. This is not limited to the type of information people can obtain, but it is and I hope it is used for the simplicity of gathering intelligence on a specific entity or aquasistion. For example lets say Mr. Smith is working on obtaining a new business investor, partner or such. He could then aquire such information pertaining to this person, pass it off to ME, Matthew Jones & Associates, and then within 48 hours we would find as much information on the person as possible, or simply focus on a peice of information Mr. Smith wants. If this sounds confusing to anyone please feel free to comment, or message me. I have been up all night working, and will be sleeping all day. Thanks a lot !!!

 

Look forward to hearing from you

Matt Jones

Matthew Jones & Associates

Strategic Planning & Intelligence

www.matthewjones.biz

[Trip Krant]

Hi Matthew,

How do you intended to offer this service for free?   It costs money to run a query in an investigative database, or to pull public records.  As a private investigator I am sure you are intimately familiar with these costs.

I am intrigued, and would like to hear more.

[Vivek Raghuvanshi]

Yes Trip,

 

I guess Mathew wants to run Credit Reporting Agencies, Detectives, Private Investigators, Risk Management and Competitive Intelligence Firms and Management Consulting Firms out of Business

 

Ha..ha..ha..

[Matthew Jones]

Ha Ha, no no I don't plan on trying to run anyone out of business, although I can see where it might be possible. No, after a few years in investigations, I have come across some very unique ways of finding information without actually purchasing it. We all have became fimilar with our online "record searches" and various types of record data bases. These are for people that are conducting  background checks on their kids babysitter, or a neighbor down the street. Infact 80% of the records on most of these databases come from the same wholsale vender, and then is chopped and cut up, then sold to another. So by the time someone actually pays for a criminal history search, most of the time they are paying for something they could spend a little more time searching, and get clear, and usefull information for free. Now, for our credit reporting people, this where they lose their business, from people like me. I actually teach classes to smaller corporations about how their employess can find usefull information for free. In fact this all falls back on "intelligence". I personally believe that if we want to find information for free, we just need to know who to ask, and where to look. Getting back to my service for free- I plan to do this by using various types of investigative methods not known to many people inless they have work as an investigator. Not trying to discredit anyone, but I have learned many methods of research by working on deadlines for  cases. And the other answer to how I can do this for free- is to remember that it is only the people on here that are getting it free. This is not free to someone that I meet off the street. This is just a simple way for me to grow by business name, and to reach out to other professionals.

[Trip Krant]

Matthew,

Please do forum members a favor and use paragraphs.  It will organize your ideas, and keep the reader focused.  The break between paragraphs gives the reader a chance to absorb your ideas, and not lose their place.  It is also a lot easier to read!

Like I said I am interested in your ideas, and I appreciate that you are offering your services to this community in an effort to develop your business.

Credit reports and ratings are specific metrics derived from standardized formulas, and issued by credit bureaus and rating agencies.  Will you obtain this information and its documentation?  Or are you obtaining other financial indicators?

[Matthew Jones]

Trip,

            I apologize for the confusion. I had a hard time replying to this yesterday because of this format ( it was not letting me speperate and it would cause me to lose track of where I was typing. To your answer your question-

 

Yes, There would be documentation, but to pull a credit report, yes that would cost my firm money. There are no other ways around that inless a person has government resource, which in this case I do not have. I guess I should have tried to explain my idea to you a little better, and I am sorry for not doing that in the beginning. The service goes like this- Lets say you are the head of a multistate law firm.

You are involved in a case with lets say an executive caught for embezzelment. And lets say you and I know each other as professionals- You would then ask me to find anything and everything- about either your client, or opposing side. (without conducting surveillance.) And not relying on database information- this is something that I use when I am doing background investigations, or due diligence investigations for my investigator job.

 

CARA- this has got me through many investigations. Always remember CARA Characteristics, Associations, Reputations,Affiliations. This is truely what we provide when I talk about this service. Database information should only be used to obtain and idea, or to provide something hard for court, or to make that assumption right..  this CARA analysis is typed, and then reported to the client. Simple as that- it is used as a bargin tool is how I would like to look at it. Since I provide it free to you- it is however not a number one priority on my task list for the day considering I have clients paying me- but at the same time I look at it as it is because I expect to have your advice, or help when I need it- knowing that I would not be your first priority because you are doing it as a favor.

 

You might be wondering how I would obtain this information- and have it still be reliable- the only answer I can give you is there is no answer really. I look at as intelligence- I was asked by a client if he could send me some information about a new firm that had began advertising- He sends me this box of information that took me four days to go through it.

 

After so, I called him and asked him what he wanted to find- and he simply told me anything to use. I told him that he could use any of it- it just depends on how you want to act on it. He had no idea what I was talking about. Information is just information- when you act on a peice of information to make a decision- it is then used as intelligence. When the government says they need to find intelligence on Iraqs WMD's - that means they need to find something that can make a move on- a decision- something with meaning behind it. This is what I try to build off of when doing intelligence work for private firms.

 

 

 

[Trip Krant]

I get that you are offering this free to forum members, and that is very cool of you to do so; but for your sake let’s talk about the business end – the customers who are going to come to you and pay for it.  As I understand it from your law firm example, you intend to provide a corporate investigation service for a budget rate because it does not use databases.  Is my interpretation correct?

 

It is a big red flag when I hear someone say “anything and everything”.  Just as it is unreasonable to be asked to get “anything and everything” for CI or for an investigation; it is likewise unreasonable to offer to find “anything and everything” – let alone advertise it.  I recommend you drill down what it is you are offering.

 

I hope this helps in refining your business plan.  Also, I would avoid using Iraq/WMD as a positive example of intelligence in decision making.  It was at its best a massive failure of the intelligence process, and at its worst a deliberate manipulation of the intelligence process.