---
title: "Investor guide"
description: "Find companies, read the evidence behind them, track the ones you care about, and ask for access."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sureshake.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Investor guide

Use Sureshake to find companies, see where their facts come from, and read what they choose to share with you. Browsing the directory and public company pages doesn't need an account. Tracking companies and requesting access does.

- **Evaluate a company** — What to read on a company page and how much weight each thing can carry.
- **Watchlists** — Group companies so you can get back to them.
- **Follow companies and request access** — Keep up with public activity, and ask for permissioned material.
- **Capital Graph** — See who backs a company and whether you have a path to them.

## The basic path

1. **Find companies**

   Search the [Directory](https://www.sureshake.com/directory) by company,
   person, or capital provider. See [Public directory](/directory/).
2. **Read the record**

   Open a company page and check who controls it and where its facts come from
   before you read the figures.
3. **Track it**

   Add the company to a watchlist, follow it, or both. Neither gives you access
   to private material.
4. **Ask for more**

   Request access to a locked tab, or read what a company has already sent you
   in [Shared with Me](https://www.sureshake.com/shared-with-me).

## If you invest for a living

Sureshake has further tools for verified capital providers: VC professionals, angels, scouts, family offices, accelerators, and corporate venture teams.

### Verify your capital-provider profile

1. Open the listing manager for your public person profile.
2. Under **Capital-provider profile**, choose a **Profile type**, then choose **Save draft**.
3. Complete what the card asks for. Publishing is enabled only while your identity and a current role at a verified capital organization are both verified.
4. Choose **Publish new version**.

Until this is done, the startup tools below show **Verified investor only**.

### State what you're looking for

Manage your mandates at [Mandates](https://www.sureshake.com/transact/mandates). A firm's mandates are managed from its own workspace, and only investor and fund entities have them.

A mandate covers stage, sector, geography, check range, lead behavior, exclusions, and your deployment status. It shows whether it has been verified, and its version. An expired mandate carries a **Stale mandate** warning, so reconfirm yours when it comes due.

People searching the **Capital providers** tab of the directory can filter on these fields, including mandate freshness.

### Search startups

In the directory, choose the **Startups** tab to open **Public startup discovery**. You can filter by **Stage**, **Sector**, **Geography**, **Capital status**, and public evidence.

Results use only fields the founder has published and evidence they have explicitly made public. Private profile data never takes part in the results.

### Keep private notes

On the page of a company with a published startup profile, the **Company actions** menu has three private tools:

| Action            | What it does                                                                                |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Save startup**  | Saves the company privately. The startup isn't notified.                                    |
| **Watchlists**    | Puts the company in a private investor watchlist. See [Watchlists](/investors/watchlists/). |
| **Private notes** | Adds notes shared only inside your verified firm workspace.                                 |

### Review suggestions

Once your profile is published, the listing manager can show **Startup match suggestions**, which are curated by people. Dismiss one with a reason: **Too early**, **Outside thesis**, **Conflicted**, or **Not relevant**. Saving your feedback dismisses the suggestion and doesn't contact the founder.

### Set up alerts

Go to [Notification settings](https://www.sureshake.com/settings/notifications) to set how often changes to companies in your private investor watchlists create alerts in your Action Center: **Immediate**, **Daily digest**, **Weekly digest**, or **Off**.

Only triggers with a live source can produce alerts. Today those are **Material profile changes** and **Approved evidence**.

## What companies see

| They can see                                                   | They don't see                     |
| -------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Your identity, role, and note on an access request             | That you saved or watchlisted them |
| That you follow them, if they administer the company's profile | Your private firm notes            |

To work through the API instead, start at [Developers](/developers/).

Source: https://docs.sureshake.com/investors/index.mdx