# Aurora WDC — The Human Intelligence Company

> Aurora WDC delivers human-source competitive intelligence, market research, and strategic insights for enterprises worldwide. Founded in 1995, we serve 36 of the Fortune 100 across 80+ countries with over 5,000 intelligence projects completed.

## What We Do

Aurora WDC specializes in ethical, human-source intelligence gathering. Our trained professionals conduct structured interviews with industry participants — buyers, suppliers, distributors, competitors' former employees, and subject-matter experts — to surface insights that data alone cannot reveal.

We are not a survey company. We are not a data analytics firm. We are human intelligence professionals who go directly to the source.

## Services

### Research
Primary (human-source) and secondary intelligence research. We conduct in-depth elicitation interviews with 30–200+ stakeholders per project to uncover competitive dynamics, market opportunities, and customer decision-making patterns. Services include: Global Primary Research / HUMINT, Company Research & Due Diligence, Competitor & Executive Profiling, Strategy & Business Model Validation, Voice of Customer Insights, Market Sizing & Competitive Landscaping, Competitive Pricing Intelligence, Government/Federal Services, War Games & Competitive Simulations, Conference Intelligence, Counterintelligence, Win-Loss Analysis, Sourcing & Supply Chain Intelligence, M&A Intelligence, Product Development Intelligence, and Risk Intelligence.

### Software — FirstLight Intelligence Platform
FirstLight is Aurora WDC's enterprise intelligence operating system — designed by and for intelligence professionals. Features include: centralized intelligence repository, AI-powered semantic search (private Microsoft Azure deployment), automated secondary source collection with tens of thousands of pre-loaded feeds, easy tagging and taxonomy tools, primary research project management, rapid intelligence distribution with engagement metrics, and deep AI document exploration. Available in Team Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Virtual Analyst editions.

### Training
Intelligence methodology training programs covering: Primary Research & Elicitation Techniques, Establishing Productive Taxonomy, War Games & Competitive Simulations, Trade Show & Conference Intelligence, AI Training for CI, Building Effective Queries, Creating Intelligence Dashboards, OSINT Training, Counterintelligence Techniques, and Custom Coaching & Program Development.

## Book — The Missionary and The Mercenary

"The Missionary and The Mercenary: Right Questions. Better Future." by Arik Johnson & Derek Johnson. A guidebook on leadership, ethics, and asking the right questions — exploring the tension between idealism and pragmatism. Available on Amazon (Kindle $9.95, Paperback $24.95, Hardcover $32.77). Follow on Substack: https://missionarymercenary.substack.com/

## Business Challenges We Address

1. **Product Development & Nascent Demand** — Identifying unmet needs and emerging demand signals before they appear in market data, through systematic human intelligence gathering.
2. **Demand Challenges & Forecasting** — Augmenting quantitative forecasts with qualitative human intelligence from buyers, channel partners, and procurement teams.
3. **Customer Acquisition & Market Growth** — Mapping actual customer decision-making processes through win/loss interviews and competitive positioning intelligence.
4. **Purpose-Driven Operations** — Measuring alignment between stated values and actual stakeholder experience through confidential interviews.
5. **Industry Competition & Intelligence** — Ethical human-source competitive intelligence (HUMINT) following SCIP guidelines.
6. **Business Financing Options** — Intelligence research to support financing decisions, including investor priority mapping and deal term benchmarking.

## Expert Guides

- How to Create a Competitive Intelligence Taxonomy — https://aurorawdc.com/guides/ci-taxonomy
- How to Properly Evaluate Intelligence Sources — https://aurorawdc.com/guides/evaluate-sources
- How to Choose a Competitive Intelligence Platform — https://aurorawdc.com/guides/choose-ci-platform
- How to Plan an Effective War Game with AI — https://aurorawdc.com/guides/war-game-ai
- Why Human-Source Intelligence Is More Valuable in the AI Era — https://aurorawdc.com/guides/humint-ai-era
- How to Use AI to Accelerate CI Research — https://aurorawdc.com/guides/ai-ci-research

## Key Differentiators

- **Human-source intelligence**: We interview real people — not scrape websites or run surveys
- **Ethical standards**: All intelligence gathering follows SCIP code of ethics
- **Global reach**: Research capabilities in 80+ countries with cultural and linguistic expertise
- **25+ years of experience**: Founded in 1995 with over 5,000 completed intelligence projects
- **Fortune 100 trust**: 36 of the Fortune 100 have engaged Aurora WDC
- **AI + Human**: FirstLight combines private AI search with human-source intelligence

## Contact

- Phone: 800-924-4249
- Email: info@aurorawdc.com
- Website: https://aurorawdc.com
- Book: https://aurorawdc.com/book

## Leadership

- Arik Johnson — Founder & Chairman
- Derek Johnson, CFA — Chief Executive Officer
- Greg Ervin — Chief Technology Officer
- John Thomson — Chief Research Officer