| name | research-dossier |
| description | Decision-grade entity research: build a comprehensive dossier on a company, person, market, or technology — structured for strategic decisions, not just background reading |
Research Dossier Skill
When to activate
- Building a research dossier on a company before a partnership, acquisition, or investment
- Researching a person before a board meeting, hiring decision, or negotiation
- Mapping a competitive landscape before entering a market
- Deep-diving a technology or framework before a build-vs-buy decision
- Preparing for a high-stakes meeting where you need full context fast
When NOT to use
- Quick background check (Google suffices for surface-level)
- Academic literature review — use the lit-review skill
- Patent landscape — use the patent-analysis skill
- Real-time news monitoring — use a dedicated news aggregator
Instructions
Company dossier
Build a company dossier on [company name].
Purpose: [acquisition target / partnership evaluation / competitive intelligence / investor prep]
Depth: [executive summary (1 page) / full dossier (10-15 pages)]
Audience: [CEO / board / investment committee / deal team]
Dossier structure:
1. COMPANY SNAPSHOT (always include):
Founded: [year] | HQ: [location] | Stage: [private/public, funding stage]
Employees: [range] | ARR/Revenue: [if known] | Last funding: [$X, date, lead investor]
2. BUSINESS MODEL:
What they sell: [product / service description in 2 sentences]
Who buys it: [customer profile — size, industry, role]
How they make money: [subscription / usage / transaction / services]
Key metrics: [ARR growth rate / NRR / CAC / LTV — if available from public sources]
3. PRODUCT:
Core product capabilities: [what it does]
Tech stack signals: [from job postings, open source, engineering blog]
Differentiators claimed: [from their marketing, case studies]
Known limitations: [from customer reviews, community, analyst reports]
4. MARKET POSITION:
Category: [how they define the market]
Main competitors: [list with brief differentiation]
Market share estimates: [analyst reports, community signal]
Positioning: [where they sit on simple/powerful, SMB/enterprise axes]
5. LEADERSHIP AND TEAM:
CEO: [background, previous companies, years in role]
CTO: [background, technical credibility signals]
Key investors and board members: [with their track record]
Team signals: [hiring patterns, LinkedIn activity, notable hires/departures]
6. CUSTOMER AND MARKET SIGNALS:
Customer reviews: [G2, Capterra, Reddit, Hacker News sentiment]
Notable customers (public): [logos if available]
Community health: [Slack/Discord size, GitHub stars if applicable]
Press sentiment: [recent coverage, controversies]
7. FINANCIAL HEALTH SIGNALS (for private companies):
Funding runway: [estimated from last round + known burn rate]
Revenue signals: [headcount growth, office expansion, pricing changes]
Fundraising signals: [LinkedIn job postings for finance roles, pitch signals]
Distress signals: [layoffs, leadership departures, pricing retreat]
8. STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT:
Why this company matters: [strategic significance for the stated purpose]
Key risks: [competitive, regulatory, financial, product]
Key opportunities: [what they could become, where they're going]
Our decision: [proceed / investigate further / pass — and the 2-3 deciding factors]
Research sources to use:
Primary: company website, investor page, product docs, engineering blog
Secondary: Crunchbase, LinkedIn, G2/Capterra, GitHub, job postings, press releases
Community: Hacker News, Reddit (r/[relevant subreddits]), Twitter/X mentions
Analyst: Gartner, Forrester, IDC (if available), CB Insights
Person dossier
Build a person dossier on [person name] for [purpose].
Purpose: [board candidate / executive hire / negotiation counterpart / speaker / advisor]
Scope: [professional background / reputation / public work / red flags]
Note: This dossier covers publicly available professional information only. Do not attempt to access private information, personal accounts, or conduct surveillance.
Dossier structure:
1. PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND:
Current role: [title, company, since when]
Previous roles: [chronological, focus on relevant ones]
Education: [degrees, institutions — if publicly listed]
Time in current role: [X years — is this a builder or short-tenured?]
2. TRACK RECORD:
Notable achievements: [companies built, products shipped, funds raised, outcomes]
Public metrics: [if a founder — company exits, ARR achieved, team size built]
Failures: [public company failures, departures — context matters]
Pattern: [serial entrepreneur? operator? investor? advisor?]
3. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP:
Published writing: [blog, Substack, Medium — what topics, what perspective]
Speaking: [conferences, podcasts — what they talk about]
Online presence: [LinkedIn follower signal, Twitter/X engagement, GitHub activity]
Reputation in community: [how they're referenced by peers]
4. NETWORK AND REFERENCES:
Board memberships: [what companies, what role]
Investment portfolio: [if investor — what they backed, any exits]
Known co-founders or close collaborators: [pattern of working relationships]
Mutual connections: [LinkedIn mutual connections who can provide context]
5. RED FLAGS (if any):
Legal: [public litigation, regulatory actions — from PACER, SEC EDGAR]
Reputation: [public controversies, community complaints, Glassdoor if founder/exec]
Pattern: [multiple short tenures, frequent pivots without clear narrative]
6. ASSESSMENT FOR [PURPOSE]:
Strengths for this role: [specific to why you're researching them]
Concerns: [what to probe in conversation]
Reference check priority: [who to talk to, what to ask]
Recommendation: [proceed / proceed with caution / pass]
Market landscape dossier
Map the competitive landscape for [market].
Market definition: [describe the problem space]
My company's position: [where we play or want to play]
Purpose: [entering the market / expanding / acquisition strategy / investor pitch]
Landscape structure:
1. MARKET DEFINITION:
The problem being solved: [in 2-3 sentences, from the buyer's perspective]
Who has this problem: [buyer profile — size, industry, role]
Current solutions: [how buyers solve this today without dedicated software/service]
2. MARKET SIZE:
TAM estimate: $[X] (source + methodology)
SAM (serviceable): $[X]
Growth rate: [X% CAGR — source]
Stage: [emerging / growing / mature / declining]
3. PLAYER MAPPING:
Category leaders (> $X ARR or notable):
| Company | Founded | ARR/Funding | Target | Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Challengers (growing, notable):
[Same format]
Niche specialists (strong in specific segments):
[Same format]
Adjacent players (may expand into this space):
[Name + why they're a threat]
4. COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS:
Who is taking market share and why?
Who is losing and why?
Is the category consolidating or fragmenting?
What's the VC/investor activity signal? (hot = crowded and validated; cold = opportunity or dying)
5. WHITE SPACE ANALYSIS:
Underserved segments: [who isn't being well-served?]
Feature gaps: [what do buyers universally complain about that nobody does well?]
Geographic gaps: [markets where no strong player exists]
Go-to-market gaps: [channels or motions nobody is doing well]
6. POSITIONING OPPORTUNITY:
Where could we own a position others can't credibly take?
What's the 2x2 with the most whitespace?
Which player, if we beat them, becomes our main narrative?
Technology dossier
Research [technology / framework / platform] for a build-vs-buy or adoption decision.
Technology: [name]
Decision context: [evaluate for adoption / compare vs. alternatives / assess maturity]
Technology dossier:
1. WHAT IT IS:
Core purpose: [what problem it solves, in 2 sentences]
Category: [database / framework / platform / protocol / tool]
License: [MIT / Apache / proprietary / AGPL — business implications]
Current version and release cadence: [how actively maintained?]
2. ADOPTION AND COMMUNITY:
GitHub stars: [X stars, X recent commits, X contributors]
Downloads: [npm/PyPI/Docker Hub weekly downloads]
Community size: [Discord/Slack members, Stack Overflow question volume]
Major adopters: [notable companies using it publicly]
Trajectory: [growing / stable / declining — check star history]
3. TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT:
Core strengths: [what it does better than alternatives]
Known limitations: [scaling limits, missing features, known issues]
Documentation quality: [excellent / good / sparse / outdated]
Production readiness: [battle-tested / maturing / experimental]
Security posture: [CVE history, dependency audit, security disclosure policy]
4. ECOSYSTEM:
Integrations: [what tools and platforms it connects with natively]
Managed/hosted options: [if self-hostable — are there managed offerings?]
Support options: [community-only / commercial support / enterprise tier]
Training and resources: [courses, tutorials, books]
5. ALTERNATIVES COMPARISON:
| Alternative | Strengths | Weaknesses | When to choose it instead |
|---|---|---|---|
6. RECOMMENDATION:
Adopt / Evaluate / Hold / Avoid
Rationale: [1-2 key reasons]
Conditions for adoption: [what would need to be true for us to use this?]
Migration risk: [low / medium / high — if we adopt and then want to switch]
Example
User: We're evaluating acquiring a $3M ARR B2B SaaS company in the legal tech space. I need a company dossier to present to our board next week.
Claude's dossier outline for a legal tech acquisition target:
Given the acquisition context, here's what the board will care about most — I'll structure the dossier to answer the three questions an acquisition committee always asks:
Question 1: Is this a business worth buying?
→ Section 3 (Business Model), Section 5 (Financial Health), Section 6 (Customer Signals)
- Revenue quality: Is the $3M ARR recurring, or is it a mix of one-time implementation fees? What's the NRR? (> 100% = expansion; < 85% = churn problem)
- Customer concentration: Top 5 customers = what % of ARR? (> 40% = concentration risk)
- Contract structure: Annual / multi-year? What's the weighted average remaining contract term?
Question 2: Can we integrate it without breaking it?
→ Section 4 (Product), Section 2 (Leadership — key person risk)
- Is there a technical founder who will leave at acquisition? If yes, knowledge transfer risk is high.
- How is the product built? (Tech stack from job postings and GitHub)
- Are there any IP encumbrances? (OSS licences in the code base)
Question 3: Is it priced correctly?
→ Comparable transaction multiples for legal SaaS at $3M ARR (typically 5-8x ARR for high NRR, 3-4x for average)
I'll find this information from:
- Crunchbase (funding, investors, founding team)
- G2 / Capterra (customer sentiment, competitor comparisons)
- LinkedIn (team size, hiring patterns, leadership backgrounds, departures)
- GitHub (if any open source components)
- Court records check (PACER) for any litigation involving the company or founders
- Job postings (technology stack, growth plans, financial signals)
