Suggested competitors in Stage 1

Ask a services founder who they compete with and you'll get two names. Ask their last five buyers and you'll get six. The firms on a buyer's shortlist aren't always the ones you'd pick.

The Brain suggests the rest, and you decide which ones are real.

What it does

When Stage 1 builds your Brain, it reads your website and the documents you add. Any competitor named in those sources goes straight onto your Competitors list.

Then it suggests more. Up to five firms a buyer would likely put on the same shortlist as you, matched on what you sell, your size and who you sell to. Never your own firm, and never one already on your list. Each comes with a short note on why, like a data-platform consultancy of similar size.

With Claude connected, the suggestions come from its knowledge of your market, read against what your sources say you sell. Without it, Stage 1 draws them from a small library matched to the services your site describes.

Kept or dropped in one tap

Suggestions are shown as suggestions, never as fact. Each one has Keep and Remove.

Keep moves it onto your Competitors list. Remove drops it. You can add a competitor by hand too, with a note on when buyers compare you, and remove any of them later.

That's the whole job. Ten seconds per name, and only you can do it, since only you know who shows up in your deals.

What a kept competitor does

Kept rivals feed two things.

The first is plays. Once you've kept a competitor, the Brain suggests a competitor play, people engaging with those firms. A director who comments on a rival's post about a migration is telling you something. Add the play with one tap and Stage 1 watches for that kind of engagement.

The second is research. When the market panel of an account's 3x3 runs thin, Stage 1 fills it with the competitors you kept, written as the rivals buyers compare you with. The note you kept with each one rides along. Suggestions you haven't kept stay out of the research.

Buyers compare you with Corvia Partners. Bigger firm, longer timelines.

Where to find it

Open the Brain. The Competitors card lists the ones you kept. Under it, a section called Suggested from what you sell holds the suggestions, each with Keep and Remove.

Rebuild with AI rereads your sources. You can edit anything in the Brain in place.

Why it matters for services

Services firms lose more deals to the shortlist than to the pitch. A buyer who's already talking to a bigger firm and a cheaper offshore one has framed the decision before you arrive. Knowing who else is on that list changes what you lead with.

Competitor engagement is one of the clearest early signals in a services sale. Someone reading a rival's take on a problem has the problem. For how to approach that without making it awkward, read competitor engagement without creeping people out. For what a follow on a rival's page can tell you, see who follows your competitors' page and why it matters. And for the rest of what the Brain reads, see inside the Brain.

The Brain is on every plan. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. Plans and details are on the pricing page, or you can start your trial.