About startup-competitive-analysis
A competitive-intelligence skill for startup teams making positioning, sales, and strategy decisions. It turns sourced competitor research into explicit match, ignore, and bet choices and practical briefs, landscapes, and battlecards.
Key features
- 01Define competitors, substitutes, and market segments
- 02Gather dated evidence and triangulate key claims
- 03Make match, ignore, and bet decisions
- 04Create briefs, landscapes, and battlecards
- 05Set monitoring sources and review cadence
Use cases
- 01Map competitors for a target market
- 02Develop positioning and differentiation recommendations
- 03Investigate wins, losses, or customer churn
- 04Refresh sales battlecards as market signals change
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
$
npx skills add https:/After installing, type/startup-competitive-analysisin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Details
From the project READMEStartup Competitive Analysis
Use this skill to produce decision-oriented competitive intelligence: define the competitive set, collect evidence, synthesize match / ignore / bet decisions, and ship practical artifacts teams can use (briefs, landscapes, battlecards, win/loss).
Operating Principles (2026)
- Prefer decisions over inventories: make explicit
match / ignore / betcalls 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
| If the user asks… | Produce… | Use… |
|---|---|---|
| “Who are the competitors?” / “Map the landscape” | Market map + competitor set | references/market-mapping-guide.md, assets/competitive-landscape.md |
| “How do we differentiate?” / “What category are we in?” | Category structure + differentiation thesis | references/industry-structure-and-differentiation.md, assets/competitive-analysis-brief.md |
| “How should we position?” | Positioning canvas + statement + tests | references/positioning-playbook.md, assets/competitive-analysis-brief.md |
| “Deep dive Competitor X” | Deep dive + (optional) battlecard | references/competitor-deep-dive.md, assets/battlecard.md |
| “Why are we losing to X?” / “What’s driving churn?” | Win/loss + churn patterns + remediation | assets/win-loss-analysis.md |
Workflow
- Define the competitive set: direct/indirect/substitutes/status quo, segmented by ICP and job-to-be-done.
- Collect evidence: product/docs/pricing, changelogs, job postings, reviews/VoC, partnerships, distribution signals.
- Analyze on buyer criteria: switching costs, time-to-value, risk/procurement, integration ecosystem, ROI proof.
- Synthesize into decisions:
match/ignore/bet, wedge, proof points, landmines, and “walk-away” criteria. - Produce artifacts: narrative brief, landscape, battlecards, win/loss summary (use bundled templates).
- 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
| Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|
| competitor-deep-dive.md | Full competitor analysis framework |
| market-mapping-guide.md | Market map creation |
| positioning-playbook.md | Positioning methodology |
| industry-structure-and-differentiation.md | Porter 5 Forces + JTBD alternatives + strategy canvas |
| win-loss-analysis-guide.md | Win/loss interview methodology, loss reason taxonomy, reporting |
| competitive-monitoring-setup.md | CI monitoring sources, cadence, tools, zero-budget setup |
| category-creation-strategy.md | Category creation vs competition, Play Bigger framework, case studies |
Templates
| Template | Purpose |
|---|---|
| competitive-analysis-brief.md | Decision-oriented narrative brief |
| competitive-landscape.md | Full competitive overview |
| battlecard.md | Sales enablement |
| win-loss-analysis.md | Deal analysis |
Data
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| sources.json | Competitive intelligence sources |
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