AlphaSights Ltd / strange request.

[P-Jay]

Had a bit of a strange request today.

A guy from the above organisation contacted me via LinkedIn, seemed to know a bit about me and my background, but mostly about my former employer and their industry - they are pretty unique in the way they do things.

Long story short, they've offered me a 'couple of quid' (I know how much) for an as yet unknown 3rd party to talk to me on the phone for an hour about my knowledge of the industry, of which I do have extensive knowledge, abet limited to my roles within it.

But I can't help but thinking it's all a bit odd - leaving aside the story, someone I don't know contacted me offering me money for a simple task. I don't have a non-disclaimer agreement with my former employer and we didn't part on good terms - I have no moral issue with selling my knowledge about the industry as I was owed in a moral sense a pretty decent amount of money when I left, if sadly for me contractually they didn't have to pay it, so they didn't. My current role is completely different so I'm not stepping on my Boss's toes either and I can do it after-hours.

But am I being scammed? Or perhaps my, it has to be said, vindictive former boss trying to trap me into some legal nightmare or is this something that's quite normal and I just haven't heard about it before.

In regards to this 3rd party - I'd have to sign an agreement to not disclose our conversation, or who I spoke to, in return my name wouldn't be mentioned anywhere on any paperwork their end.

[P-Jay]

P.S. if anyone has done something similar, may I ask how much you asked for? I agreed to the first offer, which I know must have been a mistake ha ha.

[P-Jay]

Yeah its the 3rd party I can't mention.

[P-Jay]

22s said:

You're not being scammed - one of my friends used to work for AlphaSights.

Basically a hedge fund/private equity shop/whatever calls AlphaSights up and says "I want to invest in the Hungarian aluminium industry, can you find me someone to talk to who knows about it? I'll pay you £1,000".

AlphaSights trawls LinkedIn and the Internet to find an expert on the Hungarian aluminium industry. They offer the expert £500 to speak to the hedge funder/PE analyst/whatever, and keep the other £500 for themselves.

Probably one of the most easily replicable (and profitable) business models around.

Thanks, they seemed legit when I had more of a chance to look into it tonight.

My only regret is, like so many before me, I've sold myself too cheaply ha ha, still, call me bitter, but I actually look forward to helping a new player enter that industry. I hope Karma really is the bh she claims to be, I really hope I cost my former employer a lot more than the few grand of bonus they conned me out of.

[P-Jay]

Thanks all, I took a 40 min call last week and a quick follow up yesterday which took less than 10. I'm not sure how much the first person knew about me, they asked a lot of generic questions I didn't know the answer too, in fact I didn't really understand the question - but I was determined not to make some half-arsed guess and let them base some policy on it so I just said "sorry, no idea".

The second guy knew a lot more about me and wanted to know a lot more stuff about my former employer directly but I was happy to give me opinion and didn't have any hard facts to give them.

All in all I was paid of an hour and a half of my time, and whilst, judging on what I've found online I could have asked for a lot more, I was paid enough for a lovely night out with my wife and some new bits for my Mountain Bike for giving up my lunch break.

[P-Jay]

thoughtoftrain said:

I was just approached with the same offer. I haven't accepted yet. You mentioned you looked online and could have gotten more. Can you provide links? I'm curious about participating, but would like to negotiate for a higher amount and would like to have some data to back it up.

Thanks in advance!

I don't recall the sites now, mostly industry forums but the "going rate" seemed to be £500 an hour, but of course forums are full of people who'll exaggerate for Internet points. The chap I spoke to offered less than that and I took it - £300 I think, but I assume he'd left himself wiggle room.

I'm not sure using forum posts as a way of getting more will help much, I guess it's a case of how many people they can find via LinkedIn etc that fit the profile.

Pleasant enough experience I had, I'll be lying if I said I hadn't bumped up my LinkedIn profile since - its the easiest money I've ever made.