How Founders Are Screwing Up Competitive Intelligence Without Even Realising It: Weekly Winning Strategies
Startups don’t usually die because the product sucked. Most die because they misread the market. Not because they didn’t look—but because they looked in all the wrong places.
They peek at a few websites, glance at pricing pages, scroll through LinkedIn, maybe ask ChatGPT, and tell themselves, “We know what our competitors are doing.”
But they don’t. They’ve built a mirror, not a map.
Let’s take this apart. And let’s rebuild it into something that gives you an edge.
The big lie: “We’ve done our competitor research.”
That phrase is the strategic version of someone saying, “I read a blog post once.”
Real competitive analysis doesn’t happen by reading your competitor’s blog. It happens when you learn how your competitors think, how they make decisions, how they react under pressure, and what they choose not to build. The stuff that never makes it into a press release.
Most, especially in the zero-to-one phase, confuse visibility with insight. They confuse knowing what a competitor does with understanding why they do it. And the result is that they chase, copy, or underestimate moves that don’t deserve any of those reactions. Many see competitive intelligence or competitive analysis as three pages in a business. plan. Job done, ticked off. Move on.
EXAMPLE: THE FAILURE OF COPYCAT THINKING
Look at Supermanage—a startup barely two years old, pitching itself as the AI layer for one-on-ones. It raised capital. It got some attention. But here’s the problem:
It’s playing in a category where differentiation gets flattened fast. Companies like Reclaim, Clockwise, and Loom operate at adjacent angles. But Supermanage treated the market like a static chart instead of a chessboard.
They assumed “we’ll own the AI manager space” without considering that the incumbents could shift their value props. And when Reclaim started emphasising AI scheduling with direct calendar integrations, it ate into the meetings Supermanage was trying to “enhance.”
Superman didn’t miss the tech. They missed the counterplay. And that’s a competitive intelligence failure.
STOP LOOKING FOR “COMPETITOR LANDSCAPES”
The term sounds smart. It’s not.
“Landscapes” are for passive observers. They’re snapshots. But markets move. What you need is a competitive pulse.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Don’t ask, “Who are our competitors?”
Ask: “Who will make our product irrelevant first?”
Don’t list out features side-by-side.
Ask: “What decisions are our competitors betting their runway on?”
Don’t study press releases.
Study: Hiring trends, pricing changes, go-to-market timing, and the questions sales teams get in demos.
This isn’t about what they’re saying. It’s about what they’re signalling.
WHERE TO LOOK (AND WHAT TO WATCH FOR)
Forget static documents. Build a habit of scanning the right signals:
- Product release tempo
How often are they shipping? Not the blog posts—the GitHub commits, the changelogs, the feature flags buried in URLs.
If a competitor ships weekly, and you’re still pushing updates quarterly, you’re not even in the same league. You’re waiting to compete while they’re iterating past you.
- Hiring sequences
Everyone watches who a competitor hires. Few ask when and why.
Example
If a competitor just hired three customer success managers before hitting $1M ARR, that’s a bet on churn risk. It also signals that they’re selling faster than they can support. That means customer pain is coming—and that’s your opening.
- Pricing model shifts
If someone changes from flat-rate to usage-based, they’re doing one of two things: (a) trying to align better with perceived value or (b) preparing to upsell mid-market.
If you’re targeting the same customer profile and don’t know which of those two is true, you’re walking into the dark.
- Ad spend behaviour
Spy on it. Tools like Similarweb and SensorTower can give you traffic and download trends. Pair that with LinkedIn ad library data, and you’ll see when and where competitors are pushing hard.
Are they going heavy on search? That means category demand is there. Are they switching to influencer-led content? That means acquisition costs are climbing, and they’re hunting for alternatives.
These aren’t just vanity signals. They tell you what your competitor is solving for right now.
SCREWING UP COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE: STEAL THE DECISION, NOT THE FEATURE
The worst kind of founder is the one who launches a feature because “they did it first.” That’s not analysis. That’s intellectual FOMO.
If a competitor adds a dashboard, and you copy it, you’re just confirming their direction. You’re moving second—and signalling that you’re OK with it.
Instead, you should ask: “Why did they add that dashboard now? What happened upstream to trigger that build?”
Did customers complain about transparency?
Did churn spike?
Are they trying to upsell into a new plan?
Reverse-engineer the decision. That’s how you get out of the reaction trap.
WHY MOST STARTUPS IGNORE THIS (AND GET BURNED)
Speed is not an excuse to run blind. “We’re focused on building” isn’t a strategy. It’s a convenient shield against reality.
Startups ignore real competitor analysis for two reasons:
It feels like spying.
They don’t want to feel sleazy. But this isn’t spying—it’s situational awareness. If you were a boxer, would you get in the ring without watching a tape of your opponent’s last five fights? Yep, screwing up competitive intelligence.
They think they’re unique.
“We’re not like them” is the most dangerous sentence in early-stage building. It tricks you into thinking you’re immune to the pressures your competitors are already facing. You’re not.
And you’re not special. You’re just early.
A BETTER SYSTEM: COMPETITOR CHECK-INS THAT DON’T WASTE TIME
You don’t need a 50-slide report. You need a 15-minute ritual.
Build this into your Monday workflow:
A quick scan of product updates from 3-5 adjacent companies
LinkedIn hiring updates for customer-facing roles
Screenshots from landing pages (archived monthly)
Review support forums or Reddit for customer complaints
Note 1 big move or anomaly per company: pricing, messaging, etc.
That’s it. 15 minutes. Every week. In 3 months, you’ll know how your competitors think better than they do.
THE REAL WIN: PREDICTION > REACTION
Let’s finish with this.
Competitive edge isn’t about copying faster. It’s about seeing a move coming, preparing for it, and then turning it into a trap.
Great companies don’t just react to competition. They design around it. They are not screwing up competitive intelligence.
The next time a competitor launches something, don’t ask: “Should we build this too?”
Ask: “What game are they playing—and how do we beat them by playing a different one?”
Because if you’re playing the same game and are second to move, you’ve already lost.
TL;DR (For Founders Who Skim)
Most “competitor analysis” is lazy and surface-level
Watch decisions, not headlines
Signals matter more than strategy decks
Don’t copy features—steal the logic behind them
Weekly rituals beat quarterly slideshows
So, How Founders Are Screwing Up Competitive Intelligence
Want to build something that actually lasts? Then stop pretending competitor intelligence is a side quest. It’s the whole damn map.
Don’t just collect info. Weaponise it.
Build a business that sees around corners—and uses competitors like chess pieces, not celebrities.
Let them play checkers.
You’re here to play war.
Let’s talk…
https://www.octopusintelligence.com/how-founders-are-screwing-up-competitive-intelligence/