Competitive Teardown

Study competitors like you're planning to beat them.

When to Use

• User names a specific competitor
• "Who else is doing this?"
• Before building, to find gaps
• Preparing for investor "competition slide"

See example-analysis.md for a filled-in competitor teardown showing the format and depth expected.

Single Competitor Teardown

Product

• What do they actually do? (use the product, not just the landing page)
• Key features
• What's good about it
• What sucks (check 1-star reviews on App Store, G2, Reddit)
• Pricing tiers

Business

• Funding (Crunchbase, PitchBook)
• Revenue if known (press, SimilarWeb traffic guesses)
• Team size (LinkedIn)
• Founded when
• Growth signals (hiring? launching new features? going quiet?)

Users

• Who uses it? (check case studies, reviews, social mentions)
• How do they get users? (SEO, ads, viral, sales team)
• Community size (Discord, Reddit, Twitter followers)
• NPS or satisfaction signals

Weaknesses

• Negative reviews (patterns, not one-offs)
• Missing features users ask for
• Pricing complaints
• Technical limitations
• Support complaints

Multi-Competitor Comparison

Create a table:

	Competitor A	Competitor B	Competitor C	Us (planned)
One-liner
Target user
Key feature
Pricing
Funding
Weakness
Our advantage

Find the Gap

After analysis, answer:

• Where are ALL competitors weak?
• What do users want that nobody does well?
• Is there an underserved segment?
• What positioning would make us different?

Rules

• Use the product. Don't just read the landing page.
• Check reviews on multiple platforms
• Look for patterns in complaints, not single reviews
• Be fair. Give credit where it's due.
• If a competitor is way ahead, say so. Don't hide it.

Gotchas

• Don't just read the landing page. Sign up for free trials. Watch demo videos. Read user forums. The landing page is marketing, not the product.
• One-star reviews are gold, but look for patterns. A single angry review means nothing. Ten people saying the same thing is a signal.
• Funding ≠ success. A competitor with $50M raised and no revenue is weaker than one with $2M raised and growing 20% monthly.
• Don't confuse features with moat. A feature can be copied in a sprint. Distribution, data, and network effects can't.
• Check if they're growing or coasting. Recent job postings, new features, blog activity — these signal momentum. Silence signals trouble.

Output

Save to the project's 02-research/ folder. Use the template from templates/competitor-analysis.md if it fits.