This recipe produces a categorized inventory of all competitive forces — direct competitors, indirect competitors, substitutes, and potential entrants — positioned on a strategic matrix with threat-level assessments. The output feeds into positioning, differentiation, and investor competitive slides.
| Path | Tools | Cost | Speed | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: Fast Scan | Google, Crunchbase Free | $0 | 1-2 hours | Medium |
| B: Standard | + SimilarWeb, G2 | $0-49 | 3-4 hours | High |
| C: Comprehensive | + SEMrush, PitchBook | $100-300 | 5-8 hours | Very high |
| D: Monitoring | + Klue/Crayon, Alerts | $200-500/mo | 2 hrs setup | High (ongoing) |
Duration: 60-90 minutes. Use 6 methods: direct search, review site mining, Crunchbase/LinkedIn browse, customer perspective search, investor portfolio scan, adjacent market scan.
Duration: 20 minutes. Classify into 5 categories: direct, indirect, substitutes, potential entrants, "do nothing."
Duration: 60-90 minutes. Collect pricing, target customer, features, funding, traffic, employee count for top 15-20 competitors.
Duration: 30 minutes. Plot on 2D matrix (e.g., Price vs Feature Breadth). Identify white space opportunities.
Duration: 30 minutes. Score on market overlap (0.35), resource advantage (0.25), momentum (0.25), switching cost (0.15).
| Metric | Minimum | Good | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitors discovered | ≥ 15 | ≥ 25 | ≥ 40 |
| Categories represented | ≥ 3 | All 5 | All 5 with examples |
| Data completeness (top 10) | Pricing + features | + funding + traffic | + customers + growth |
| Discovery methods used | ≥ 3 | ≥ 5 | All 6 |
| Error | Cause | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Zero direct competitors | Market may not exist | Check for substitutes; validate demand separately |
| 50+ direct competitors | Definition too broad | Narrow by segment, geography, or use case |
| Cannot find pricing | Enterprise sales model | Note "custom pricing"; estimate from signals |
| Component | Free | Paid | At Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web search | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Crunchbase | $0 | $49/mo | $49/mo |
| SimilarWeb | $0 | $149/mo | $149/mo |
Ignoring substitutes and potential entrants creates blind spots. [src1]
Include direct, indirect, substitutes, potential entrants, and "do nothing."
Use after market sizing and before go-to-market strategy. The landscape map determines differentiation, pricing, and which competitors to monitor.