Competitor Discovery
Usage
Use when you don't know who your competitors are, when entering a new market, or when refreshing the competitor list after a pivot or market shift.
Process
Step 1: Gather Inputs
Ask the user for:
- Product description — what it does, what category it's in, key features
- Target audience — who buys or uses the product (role, industry, company size)
- Known competitors (optional) — names or URLs to include without searching
- Number to find (optional) — default: 5-7
Step 2: Build Search Queries
Construct 4-6 search queries mixing these angles:
- Category: "[category] tools 2025 2026" or "[category] software"
- Alternative: "[product name] alternatives" or "tools like [product name]"
- Problem: "[primary use case] solution" or "[pain point] tool"
- Audience: "best [category] for [target company type]" or "[category] for [target role]"
- Comparison: "best [category] compared" or "top [category] platforms"
- Review sites: "[category] G2" or "[category] Capterra" (to mine company names from lists)
Tailor queries to the product type. A B2B SaaS product needs different queries than a marketplace or agency service.
Step 3: Search and Collect
Run web searches for each query. For each result:
- Extract company names and domains that appear across multiple results
- Pull companies listed on review/comparison sites (G2, Capterra, etc.) — these are strong signals
- Skip aggregator sites themselves, job boards, news articles about funding, and clearly unrelated results
Compile a candidate list of 8-12 companies. For each, note:
- Name
- URL (homepage)
- How found — which search queries surfaced them
Rank candidates by frequency — companies appearing in 3+ different searches are almost certainly direct competitors.
Step 4: Quick Profile Each Candidate
For each candidate, fetch their homepage (and pricing page if easily accessible) and extract:
- One-liner — what they say they do, in their own words
- Target audience signals — who the site speaks to
- Overlap — how directly they compete (direct / adjacent / tangential)
Classify each candidate:
- Direct competitor — same problem, same audience, similar solution
- Adjacent competitor — same audience but different approach, or same approach but different audience
- Tangential — some overlap but fundamentally different product
Drop tangential candidates unless the list would be too short (fewer than 3 direct competitors).
Step 5: Present for Confirmation
Present the ranked list to the user:
I found these competitors for [product name]:
Direct competitors:
1. [Name] — [one-liner] — [url]
2. [Name] — [one-liner] — [url]
3. [Name] — [one-liner] — [url]
Adjacent competitors:
4. [Name] — [one-liner] — [url]
5. [Name] — [one-liner] — [url]
Should I save these? Any to add or remove?Wait for user confirmation. They may know competitors that web search missed, or flag false positives.
Output Format
# Competitor Discovery: [Product Name]
**Date:** [current date]
**Competitors found:** [X]
## Competitors
| # | Name | URL | Type | One-Liner |
|---|------|-----|------|-----------|
| 1 | [name] | [url] | Direct | [what they do] |
| 2 | [name] | [url] | Direct | [what they do] |
| 3 | [name] | [url] | Adjacent | [what they do] |
## Search Queries Used
- [query 1] — [X results]
- [query 2] — [X results]
## Recommended Next Steps
- Run competitor-site-analysis on top competitors for full profiles (pricing, moats, GTM signals)
- Run competitor-landscape after 2+ analyses for cross-competitor comparison and positioning mapRules
- Never include a company without visiting their site — one-liners must come from their actual homepage.
- Never guess at pricing — only note what's publicly visible on the homepage or pricing page.
- Never include more than 7 competitors without user approval — keep the list focused.
- If web search returns fewer than 3 relevant competitors, the category may be too niche — try broader search terms.
- If the market appears very crowded (15+ candidates found), suggest focusing on direct competitors only.
- Re-run every 6 months or after significant product/market changes.