Public Source Research

The amount of competitive intelligence available from public sources is staggering. Companies broadcast their strategies constantly — they just do not realize it. A job posting reveals what they are building. A press release reveals what they want the market to believe. The gap between the two is where the intelligence lives. You do not need insider access. You need structured attention to what is already in plain sight.

1. Websites & Pricing Pages A competitor's website is their public strategy document. Changes to pricing, feature lists, messaging, and customer logos happen in real time. Screenshot key pages monthly so you can track what changed and when.
2. Job Postings The single most underrated source. Hiring 5 sales reps in a new region means market expansion. Hiring a VP of AI means a new product initiative. The roles a company is filling today tell you what they will be doing in 6-12 months.
3. Press Releases & News Press releases are curated — they tell you what the company wants you to think. Read them for what is emphasized and what is conspicuously absent. Pair them with actual financial data or hiring patterns for a more honest picture.
4. Social Media & Review Sites LinkedIn posts from employees reveal culture and priorities. Glassdoor reviews reveal internal friction. G2 and Capterra reviews reveal customer pain points. Individual signals are weak, but patterns across multiple sources are strong.
5. SEC Filings & Patents For public companies, 10-K filings and earnings transcripts are gold. Executives are legally required to be accurate. Patent filings reveal R&D direction 12-18 months before product launch. Both are free and publicly searchable.

AI makes public source research dramatically faster. You can feed a competitor's website into an AI model and ask it to identify strategic priorities, compare messaging to six months ago, or flag claims that are not backed by evidence. What used to take an analyst a full day can now be done in 30 minutes. The bottleneck is no longer collection. It is knowing which questions to ask.