Market Research

When to Activate

• researching a market, category, company, investor, or technology trend
• building TAM/SAM/SOM estimates
• comparing competitors or adjacent products
• preparing investor dossiers before outreach
• pressure-testing a thesis before building, funding, or entering a market

Research Standards

1. Every important claim needs a source.
2. Prefer recent data and call out stale data.
3. Include contrarian evidence and downside cases.
4. Translate findings into a decision, not just a summary.
5. Separate fact, inference, and recommendation clearly.

Common Research Modes

Investor / Fund Diligence

• fund size, stage, and typical check size
• relevant portfolio companies
• public thesis and recent activity
• reasons the fund is or is not a fit
• any obvious red flags or mismatches

Competitive Analysis

• product reality, not marketing copy
• funding and investor history if public
• traction metrics if public
• distribution and pricing clues
• strengths, weaknesses, and positioning gaps

Market Sizing

• top-down estimates from reports or public datasets
• bottom-up sanity checks from realistic customer acquisition assumptions
• explicit assumptions for every leap in logic

Technology / Vendor Research

• how it works
• trade-offs and adoption signals
• integration complexity
• lock-in, security, compliance, and operational risk

Output Format

1. executive summary
2. key findings
3. implications
4. risks and caveats
5. recommendation
6. sources

Quality Gate

• all numbers are sourced or labeled as estimates
• old data is flagged
• the recommendation follows from the evidence
• risks and counterarguments are included
• the output makes a decision easier