Hayden IR alternatives for microcaps: what Hayden offers and what else to consider

01What Hayden offers, in its own words

Hayden IR's home page, read on 27 October 2026, calls it "a top investor relations agency for small- and micro-cap public companies" and a capital markets communications firm for pre-IPO, emerging growth and established public companies. Its about page says the firm was founded as Hayden Communications in the late 1990s, and that "most of our clients are micro-, small- and mid-cap companies listed on North American and global exchanges."

It lists ten services: IR strategy, investor targeting and marketing, retail and individual investors, earnings calls, presentations and collateral, analyst and investor days, IR and corporate websites, private and pre-IPO companies, corporate governance, and crisis communications. It states more than 1,100 investor meetings and 110 conference invitations a year, an average client engagement of more than two years, and that "every client works directly with our senior team."

02Who that model suits

A senior-led agency with conference relationships suits a company that wants a long-standing firm opening doors: meetings, conference slots and a senior person on the account, with the website, earnings calls and crisis work under the same contract.

03When a microcap looks elsewhere

A company under $1 billion often needs something narrower. Its next holders are usually a short list of specific funds, often ones that already own its closest peers, and its management has time for a limited number of meetings. The measure that matters is whether those funds come onto the register, which is public in 13F filings within 45 days of each quarter end.

Companies tend to look at alternatives when the meeting count is high but the register has not changed, when reports describe activity rather than ownership, or when they want to pay for a narrower job than a full program.

04What to compare

Put the same questions to Hayden and to any alternative, and compare the answers in writing.

• Which funds, by name, and why each one: do they own your peers, did they own you before?
• What the quarterly report shows: meetings held, or holders gained and lost.
• Whether every figure in your materials is tied to a filing with a date.
• Who does the work week to week, and how many other companies that person serves.
• Whether the website and webcast accounts are in your name, and what happens to them if you leave.
• The notice period, and what you get back at the end.

05The kinds of alternative

There are four broad kinds. Full-service firms that bundle advisory, media and technology; MZ Group is one. Senior-led agencies like Hayden; CB Insights' list of Hayden competitors, read 27 October 2026, includes Gateway, Sharon Merrill, MKR Investor Relations and IRTH Communications. Targeting-led firms that start from ownership data. And doing it in-house, with an investor website vendor, a newswire and a chief financial officer who owns the calendar.

Krypton AI is a targeting-led firm for US public companies under $1 billion. It starts from 13F filings: the funds that own a company's closest peers but not the company, ranked by fit, and the analysts who cover those peers. Each quarter it reports who owns the stock, who added and who left, and ties every figure to a filing. Krypton AI publishes no ratings or price targets and holds no position in a client's stock. LALC Capital, a separate company under common control, publishes independent research at kryptonai.io/research.

You can see the starting point before talking to anyone. At kryptonai.io/investor-view, Krypton AI sends company officers a free report listing the funds whose latest 13F filings hold at least two of your closest peers and none of your stock. The checklist for moving firms is in the guide on how to switch investor relations firms.