| name | researching-a-company |
| description | Use when researching a company before a meeting, interview, sale, partnership, or investment |
| kind | workflow |
| audience | knowledge-worker |
| ai-tools | any |
| complexity | guided |
| time | 15-30 min |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| source | bundled |
Researching a Company
What this does
Produces a one-page company brief covering what they do, who runs it, how they're funded, what they shipped recently, and what's about to be at risk for them.
When to use
- Before a sales call, interview, partnership conversation, or investment discussion
- When you need to walk into a meeting able to talk substance
- When you're vetting a potential employer
What you bring (Inputs)
- Company name (and website if you have it)
- Why you're researching (sales / interview / partnership / investment / general curiosity)
- Time budget (default 20 minutes)
What you get (Output)
A one-page brief: Company-at-a-glance / Recent moves / People / Money / Likely concerns / 3 questions you could ask them.
How it works (Steps)
This is a workflow.
Stages
Stage 1: Snapshot
From the company website + about page: what they do in one sentence, who their customers are, headcount range, HQ.
Stage 2: Recent moves
Last 6 months: product launches, leadership changes, fundraises, layoffs. Sources: blog, press releases, LinkedIn, news search.
Stage 3: People
Founders + 1-2 senior people likely to come up in your context. Background, prior companies, public talks. Source the facts (link per claim).
Stage 4: Money
For a private company: stage, latest round, lead investors, last valuation. For a public company: market cap, last earnings highlights, key metrics.
Stage 5: Likely concerns
What's a known headwind, customer complaint, or competitor pressure? Sources: G2 reviews, Glassdoor, Reddit, customer subreddits, recent press.
Stage 6: Three questions
Generate 3 questions you could ask them in your meeting. Open-ended, specific, non-obvious.
Checkpoints
- After Stage 1: snapshot fits in 3 sentences
- After Stage 2: every "recent move" has a source link
- After Stage 3: every person fact has a source link
- After Stage 4: numbers have a source and date (stale = useless)
- After Stage 5: at least 1 specific concern with a source
- After Stage 6: 3 questions, none answerable by reading the website
Loop-back conditions
Return to Stage 2 if Stage 5 surfaces a concern from a date you didn't cover.
Quality bar
- Every fact has a source you could quote
- "Recent moves" are within the last 6 months
- Money figures are dated
- No fabricated headlines or quotes — verify before including
Variations
- Sales prep: emphasize Stage 5 (likely concerns = your value props)
- Interview prep: add "stated values + how I match" section
- Investor due diligence: deepen Stage 4; add competitive landscape
Example
Input: Acme Corp, prepping for a sales meeting next week.
Output:
Acme Corp — B2B observability platform, ~200 employees, SF HQ.
Recent moves:
- Apr 2026: launched AI anomaly detection (blog link)
- Mar 2026: hired new CRO from Datadog (LinkedIn link)
People: CEO Jane Doe (ex-Datadog VP), CRO John Roe (ex-New Relic VP).
Money: Series C, $80M raised Sep 2025 (Sequoia lead, $400M valuation, Crunchbase link).
Likely concerns: 4 G2 reviews from Q1 mention pricing complexity (link).
Questions to ask:
- How is the new CRO planning to address the pricing-complexity feedback?
- ...