Founder Competitors skill

founder-competitors

Every buyer already solves this problem somehow. This skill finds out how, what they pay, and what they hate about it, so the new business starts with a gap instead of a guess.

The rules

• Public sources only, every fact linked. Websites, price pages, menus, app store and Google Maps listings, review sites, Reddit, news. If a source cannot be reached, say so. Never invent a competitor, a price, a rating or a review.
• Read, do not scrape. Read pages as a person would. Respect each site's terms.
• Quotes are verbatim, short, with the link. They are research, never testimonials.

Step 1: who is there

From founder/idea.md (write it first if missing; see /founder-board step 0):

type	what it means	example for a matcha café
Direct	sells the same thing to the same buyer	other matcha bars within walking distance
Indirect	a different product for the same job	the coffee shops on the same street
Substitute	how buyers solve it without a business	matcha powder at home, canned drinks

Aim for 5 to 10 direct and indirect, plus the main substitutes. For a local business, search the map for the exact area; for online, search how a buyer would ("best for ", " alternative").

Step 2: the facts

One row per competitor in founder/competitors.csv:

name,type,url,location_or_channel,price_of_comparable_item,what_it_sells,positioning_line,rating,review_count,source_date

positioning_line is their own headline or tagline, copied. Price is for the item closest to what the new business sells, with what it includes.

Step 3: what their customers say

For the top 3 to 5, read their reviews (1 to 3 stars first, then the "love it, but..." 4 stars). Note recurring complaints as themes with counts and one or two linked quotes each. Mark a theme thin if it has under three reviews.

Step 4: the map and the gap

Write founder/competitors.md:

1. The table (from the CSV), sorted by how directly each competes.
2. Price range: lowest, median, highest for the comparable item.
3. A positioning map in text: two axes that matter to this buyer (price and convenience, quality and speed...), where each competitor sits.
4. The complaints, ranked, with links.
5. The gap: what nobody does well that this business could, tied to the evidence. If there is no gap, say so plainly; that is the most useful result this skill can give.
6. The threat: who could copy the new business fastest, and how.

Output

founder/competitors.csv, founder/competitors.md. Next: /founder-consumer uses the complaints to write real objections; /founder-pricing uses the price range.