Startup Competitive Analysis

match / ignore / bet

Operating Principles (2026)

• Prefer decisions over inventories: make explicit

  match / ignore / bet

  calls with rationale and owner.
• Treat competitor claims as hypotheses: validate with buyer reality and current evidence.
• Date-stamp key claims and keep an evidence trail (link + capture month).
• Triangulate important facts across sources (at least two).
• Stay ethical: respect ToS; don’t scrape behind auth/paywalls; don’t misrepresent identity.

Intake Checklist (Ask First)

• Objective: sales enablement, positioning, strategy, fundraising, churn reduction
• Market: category, geography, segment (ICP), and time horizon (now vs 6–12 months)
• Known competitors and “do nothing” alternative (status quo / DIY / services)
• Constraints: available sources, web access, internal docs, legal/compliance requirements

Choose the Right Output

references/market-mapping-guide.md

assets/competitive-landscape.md

references/industry-structure-and-differentiation.md

assets/competitive-analysis-brief.md

references/positioning-playbook.md

assets/competitive-analysis-brief.md

references/competitor-deep-dive.md

assets/battlecard.md

assets/win-loss-analysis.md

Workflow

1. Define the competitive set: direct/indirect/substitutes/status quo, segmented by ICP and job-to-be-done.
2. Collect evidence: product/docs/pricing, changelogs, job postings, reviews/VoC, partnerships, distribution signals.
3. Analyze on buyer criteria: switching costs, time-to-value, risk/procurement, integration ecosystem, ROI proof.
4. Synthesize into decisions:

   match/ignore/bet

   , wedge, proof points, landmines, and “walk-away” criteria.
5. Produce artifacts: narrative brief, landscape, battlecards, win/loss summary (use bundled templates).
6. Operationalize: set an update cadence and monitoring sources; refresh battlecards and decisions as signals change.

Evidence & Freshness Rules

• Prefer primary sources first (docs, pricing pages, release notes, filings), then triangulate.
• Use dated evidence labels like

  [YYYY-MM]

  and include the source URL.
• If web search is available, verify “current state” (pricing, positioning, major launches, funding, M&A). If not, state the limitation and proceed with provided context.

Lightweight CI Monitoring (No Tool Assumptions)

• Seed sources from

  data/sources.json

  ; add category-specific sources for the market.
• Track changes to: pricing pages, docs/changelogs, security/compliance pages, partner directories, job postings, ad libraries, review sites.
• Keep a simple change log and review it on a fixed cadence (weekly/monthly/quarterly based on sales cycle).

Resources

Templates

Data