The Problem with 99% of Competitive Analyses
You know the drill. You do a "competitive analysis", create a nice Excel table:
| Competitor | Pricing | Features |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | $50-$3,000/month | CRM, Marketing, Sales |
| Salesforce | $25-$300/user/month | CRM, AppExchange |
And there you go. You think you've done your job. Wrong.
This analysis is useless for 3 reasons:
- Superficial: Public pricing says nothing about real revenue, custom deals, discounts...
- Static: Doesn't capture dynamics (growth, pivots, recent M&A...)
- Not actionable: "They have lots of features" → OK, so what? What do I do with that?
The 16 Intelligence Fields Senior PMs Use
After working with consulting firms (BCG, Bain), I discovered their framework. Here are the 16 fields they analyze — and that CharliA automates.
Block 1: Economic Intelligence (5 fields)
1. Real Revenues
Not the displayed pricing, but estimated revenues with sources.
Ex: "HubSpot: $1.7B ARR (Q4 2023, source: earnings report)"
2. Growth Trajectory
YoY growth over last 3 years. Acceleration or plateau?
Ex: "HubSpot: +25% YoY 2021→2022, +31% 2022→2023 → acceleration"
3. Recent Funding
Funding rounds, valuations, investors.
Ex: "Series C $50M at $500M valuation, led by a16z (June 2023)"
4. Estimated Burn Rate
How fast are they burning cash? How much runway left?
Ex: "200 employees × $150K avg = $30M/year burn, ~18 months runway"
5. Unit Economics Indicators
Signals on their CAC, LTV, margins from public sources.
Ex: "Heavy Google Ads spend suggests high CAC; annual contracts suggest strong LTV"
Block 2: Product Intelligence (4 fields)
6. Core Features
What features define their product? Not a list — the VALUE proposition.
7. Recent Launches
What did they ship in the last 6 months? Where are they heading?
8. Tech Stack
What technologies? (BuiltWith, StackShare, job postings...)
9. UX/Design Positioning
Premium? Budget? Developer-focused? Enterprise-ready?
Block 3: Market Intelligence (4 fields)
10. Target Segments
Who are they selling to? SMB? Enterprise? Specific verticals?
11. Geographic Focus
US-only? Global? Emerging markets?
12. Channel Strategy
Product-Led Growth? Sales-led? Partner ecosystem?
13. Pricing Model
Per seat? Usage-based? Freemium? How do they monetize?
Block 4: Strategic Intelligence (3 fields)
14. Vulnerabilities
Where are they weak? What are customers complaining about? (G2, Trustpilot, Reddit)
15. Moats & Defensibility
Network effects? Data moat? Brand? Switching costs?
16. Strategic Direction
What's their 3-5 year vision? M&A strategy? IPO plans?
How CharliA Automates This
Manually filling these 16 fields takes 8-15 hours per competitor.
CharliA does it in 3 minutes using AI + real-time web research (Perplexity):
- ✅ 5+ competitors identified automatically from your product description
- ✅ 16 fields filled with sources and confidence scores
- ✅ 2x2 positioning matrix generated
- ✅ Attack angles identified based on vulnerabilities
- ✅ Export ready for pitch decks and strategy docs
⚔️ Analyze Your Competitors in 3 Minutes
16-field competitive intelligence. Automatic. With sources.
Try CharliA Free →50 free credits • No credit card required
