What's the Deal With That Company? InfoArmy iPad App Can Help

By harnessing the power of crowd sourcing, startup business information provider InfoArmy wants to bring competitive intelligence about companies to iPad users.

Jim Fowler, previously of Jigsaw startup fame, aims to solve the problem of securing competitive business information with InfoArmy, which launched Tuesday.

Fowler is using a crowdsourcing model similar to the one he developed and used with Jigsaw, which let users exchange data about business contacts. The startup was purchased for $175 million by Salesforce.com in 2010.

InfoArmy will dig a little deeper than just providing contact data. Each $99 report that the San Mateo-based company produces will offer an analysis of companies in their market context, including products, structure, profitability, and competitors over a period of time. The company will offer a year-long subscription, which includes an initial report, as well as quarterly updates.

The paid reports, as well as a few free ones, will be accessible via the free iPad app, available now in the iTunes App Store; some will also be listed on the InfoArmy website.

"This data set simply doesn't exist anywhere else," Russell Perkins, founder and managing director of InfoCommerce Group, said in a statement. InfoArmy's reports, he said, "will allow customers to learn in two minutes what it would take them two days to learn on their own."

InfoArmy will split sales revenue 50/50 with the researchers who help create the reports. The company has already signed up more than 100 researchers, including MBA students, business analysts, professors, and management consultants, according to VentureBeat. When InfoArmy hits 100,000 reports, or critical mass, the company will enter a revenue phase, the site said.

Founded last year, InfoArmy has 24 employees, and has raised $2 million in venture funding, including $1 million from Fowler, the press release said.