The Prospecting Agent tab, powered by FirstIgnite Autopilot, finds companies that could use a technology and the people to contact at each one. You run it without leaving Minuet. It reads the technology record you're on, shows the results in the tab, and can file them back to the record.
Before you start:
Minuet 20.1 or newer. Check yours from the logo chevron at the top left, About Minuet, then scroll to the bottom of the Help window.
You need a FirstIgnite account in your institution's team.
Your institution's FirstIgnite connection must be active. See Connecting FirstIgnite to your Minuet instance.
Finding the tab
Open a technology record. In the left-hand tree, expand Intellectual Property and choose Prospecting Agent. It sits next to Tech Assessment.
The first time you open the tab, FirstIgnite checks who you are the same way it does for Tech Assessment. It matches the email on your Minuet user to an account in your institution's FirstIgnite team. If there's no match, you'll see a Request access card. If you already have a FirstIgnite account under a different email address, choose Log in with a different email on that card to sign in with the address you actually use. See Running a Tech Assessment from inside Minuet for how matching works and what each screen means.
1. Choose what Autopilot reads
Autopilot always reads the whole technology record, including its categories, interests, custom fields, patents, and grants. You don't need to add anything.
If the record has documents that would help, choose Choose documents next to Extra documents and pick up to 20 of them. Each can be up to 50 MB. With none picked, the field says None. Autopilot reads the whole record.
The list shows documents attached directly to the technology. Documents that belong to a linked IP or patent record don't appear yet, even when Minuet shows them under the technology's Intellectual Property section. To include one, attach it to the technology itself.
2. Narrow the search (optional)
Next to the documents, under Narrow the search (optional), you can focus the results:
Location. Where to look for companies first.
Company size. Small, Medium, or Large. Pick more than one to broaden the search.
Industries. Up to 3.
Companies to leave out. Up to 50, such as current licensees. Add them one at a time, or choose Paste a list and put one company per line. Adding the website too gives a more exact match.
3. Find prospects
Choose Create first project, set any filters from step 2, then choose Find prospects.
FirstIgnite first gets ready in four steps: reading the technology record, preparing your documents, setting up your prospects, and starting the search. If it can't start, it tells you, and you can try again.
While it runs
Each run gets its own name, with its start time and mode underneath. The tab shows progress for companies, market reports, and the summary. Companies appear one by one as each is scored against the technology, so the first few take a little while.
You don't have to wait. Close the panel and keep working in Minuet. The results will be on the record when prospecting is done.
Reading the results
The results open on an overview. It links to the market reports and the summary, and previews the top five Top companies and People to contact, each with a Fit score. Choose See all under either list for the full results.
Results arrive in stages. If the companies are ready but people are still being found, the overview shows the number found so far and Still arriving.
A run starts with up to 30 companies, a few contacts at each, and around six markets in the Market Report. Those aren't limits. You can find more companies, people and markets in FirstIgnite.
The full Top companies and Top people lists show a Fit score for each row and can be sorted. Open a company to see Why it fits and its Score breakdown. Open a person to see their Score breakdown, with an explanation under each criterion.
Email addresses aren't shown automatically. Get email on a person reveals theirs and uses one email credit.
Market reports compares markets by size and growth (CAGR). Open one to read it, with its segments, challenges and opportunities, and sources. Sizes and growth rates are Autopilot's estimates. Where it found a source, the figure links to it.
Summary is a plain-language summary of the technology, written from your default template.
Open in FirstIgnite opens the full run in FirstIgnite. Use it for anything that lives there, such as lists, finding more people, and outreach.
Saving results to the technology record
Nothing is written to the record unless you choose to save it.
The results spreadsheet and market reports
The results spreadsheet, once the run is complete: Choose Save to Documents. You can include Match reasons for every company, and Unlock emails for contacts whose email hasn't been revealed. Unlocking uses email credits.
The market reports, as one PDF, once they've all finished. Choose Save to Documents on the Market reports screen.
Saved files can't be removed from the panel. Saving again adds another copy, so tidy any duplicates in Minuet.
The summary
Once the summary is finished, choose Save to technology on the Summary screen, then pick where it goes:
The technology's summary field, as text. This is the Non-Confidential Summary, unless a team admin has mapped it to a different field under Field Mappings in FirstIgnite's Minuet Settings.
Documents, as a PDF. FirstIgnite fills in a file name, which you can edit, then choose Save PDF.
If you pick the text field, FirstIgnite shows you what's already in it first. What you can do depends on what's there:
Empty: choose Save summary.
Existing text: choose Add below to keep it and add the summary underneath, or Replace whole field… to overwrite it. You'll be asked to confirm, because this can't be undone.
A summary FirstIgnite saved before: Replace earlier summary swaps it out and leaves the rest of the field alone.
The field can't be read: only Add below is offered. FirstIgnite tries to read the field again when you save, and if it still can't, nothing is written.
Documents is a separate choice, not a fallback if the text save fails. Only the person who ran the search can save its summary, and your account needs permission to edit technology records. If the button isn't available, ask your team admin.
Adding to your Minuet CRM
If your team has it turned on, you can add companies and contacts from the results to your Minuet CRM. Open the full Top companies or Top people list, select rows, and choose Add to your CRM. Rows already in your Minuet CRM are marked In your CRM, so you can skip them. FirstIgnite checks for matching records first, and shows you what it will link or create before anything is written. FirstIgnite can't delete records it creates in Minuet, so check before you confirm. A record created by mistake has to be removed in Minuet.
If adding is off, a FirstIgnite admin can turn on Send organizations & contacts in FirstIgnite's CRM settings.
Earlier runs
A technology can have more than one run. When it does, the overview says how many earlier searches there are. Open them to see Previous prospects, newest first. You'll see the runs you have access to in FirstIgnite, up to 100. To start another, choose Find new prospects.
The tab always starts Research & Partnerships runs. Career Services runs can't be started from Minuet, but one created in FirstIgnite and linked to this technology can still appear in the list.
Quick answers
What you see | What it means |
No Prospecting Agent entry under Intellectual Property | Your Minuet build may be older than 20.1. Check the version above, or ask Inteum. |
A document you can see in Minuet isn't in Extra documents | It's probably attached to a linked IP or patent record, not to the technology. Attach it to the technology itself, then open the picker again. |
Prospecting didn't start | Try again, and contact support if it keeps happening. |
Checking whether it started | FirstIgnite didn't get a confirmation back. Check your earlier prospects before searching again to avoid duplicates. |
Prospecting hit a problem | The run stopped before it finished. Choose Find new prospects to start again. |
People to contact says Still arriving | The companies are ready and contacts are still being found. Check back in a few minutes. |
Save to Documents isn't available | The run or its market reports are still being written. Try again shortly. |
Only the person who ran these prospects can save this summary. | Ask the person who ran the search to save it, or start your own run. |
This field can't hold this summary | The field your team chose doesn't fit the summary. A team admin can pick another field under Field Mappings in FirstIgnite's Minuet Settings. |
Not enough email credits | Save without unlocking emails, or check your plan in FirstIgnite. |
You closed the panel mid-run | Nothing was lost. The results will be on the record when it finishes. |
Learn more about Autopilot
The tab runs the same Autopilot as FirstIgnite itself: