The alternative data industry's default conversation is about large-cap, heavily covered companies. When you read about using search trends to predict iPhone demand or Reddit sentiment to track Nike momentum, the examples are almost always household names with 20+ sell-side analysts providing continuous coverage.
That framing obscures where alternative data has the most structural edge: in the part of the market where traditional research infrastructure is thinnest.
Small-cap and mid-cap equity research is structurally underserved by the sell-side. That underservice creates both inefficiency a