How Discoverage is changing the way we analyze media coverage

Discoverage is an exciting startup that’s at the forefront of a new age of media analytics. Firstbase was proud to have the opportunity to support founder Andrea Orchesi by incorporating his business as an American C-Corp. We took the time to talk with him about the challenges of growing a startup and how Firstbase was able to play a role in the company’s growth.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Sure, my name is Andrea Orchesi, I’m Italian, and I’ve been working for a long time on digital services. In the last few years, I worked on a number of AI-driven projects and opened another startup that heavily relied on artificial intelligence.

Last year, I decided to build a company around an AI system I designed. Politics and media are very close to my heart, so this project is at the intersection of my professional and personal interests.

What is Discoverage?

Discoverage is the only platform that can gauge media coverage of brands, politicians, stories, et cetera. It’s an AI-powered service that reads homepages like a human would, weighs article coverage, identifies common stories, and tracks them for their entire lifetime. Click here to see how it works in action. 

What made you incorporate in the US?

For a number of reasons, we never had any doubt about incorporating in the US.

First of all, our focus is currently on the US media landscape. Additionally, funding seemed much more streamlined and accessible in the US market. I’ve already successfully crowdfunded a startup in Europe — from my research and the people I’ve spoken to, the landscape is much more favorable in the US. 

Why did you choose to incorporate with Firstbase?

First of all, it seemed designed by a startup for startups. That was very important for us because we want lean and smart partners.

The service was exactly what we needed. The website also seemed very clear, leaving no doubt about the professionalism of the people involved. We were also impressed by the low price of incorporation.

How did Firstbase help you achieve your goals?

Having opened many businesses in Italy, we know how bureaucracy works here. It takes thousands of euros to open a business, not to mention plenty of time. We had already co-founded a business in the US in the past, but we were working with an American partner who took care of documentation and other blockers.

That experience was incredibly fast and cheap, but we were facing more obstacles in opening a company in the US as a team of foreigners. For example, it seemed impossible to get in touch with a reliable registered agent or open an American bank account from abroad.

Initially, we were prepared to offer equity to an American contact in exchange for help with incorporation and other administrative concerns. That’s when we found Firstbase.

Incorporating with Firstbase was a very fast and smooth process. We only hit a snag that lost a few days because we wanted a change in one of the documents. It took some back and forth to have the team make the changes we needed, but everything else went perfectly.

Furthermore, incorporation ended up being very cheap compared to the other available options. In fact, we probably end up spending a net zero dollars considering the AWS credits and other rewards we received from Firstbase.

We now have a C-Corp and a long list of other benefits that came directly from Firstbase. I realize this may sound like a promo, but it genuinely is how things went — we saved weeks if not months along with a whole lot of money.

Any advice for other entrepreneurs?

Make sure your house is in order and with solid foundations. That’s the reason we went with a partner like Firstbase.

Remotely incorporating a company involves too many moving parts to address on your own. You don’t want to start off on the wrong foot and possibly jeopardize future success because of decisions in the early stages.

Anything else you’d like to share?

We are still in the pre-seed phase of funding, but we have already helped deploy solutions based on the Discoverage platform. We will soon be talking to possible investors, companies, and independent professionals who can benefit from our analysis. Our new walkthrough video demonstrates how Discoverage works and why it’s different from anything else on the market.

Final thoughts

Here at Firstbase, our mission is to make the US market more accessible to the growing community of entrepreneurs from around the world. We couldn’t be happier to support Discoverage in their dream of incorporating in the United States.

Ready to incorporate your own business? Hit the link below to see how Firstbase can help.