Become a better
researcher
with Perplexity

--- PROMPT 1: Market Research (run in Perplexity with Pro Search) ---

Research the market for this startup idea: [YOUR IDEA IN ONE SENTENCE — e.g. "An AI tool that helps independent restaurant owners create weekly social media content from their menu and specials"]

Find and cite:
1. Market size (TAM and SAM) with sources and methodology
2. Growth rate and key trends driving this market in 2025
3. Top 5 existing solutions — name, pricing, target customer, and their primary differentiator
4. The underserved customer segments (who is NOT well-served by current solutions?)
5. Primary reasons customers cite for not adopting existing tools (real review quotes preferred)
6. Any recent funding in this space (last 18 months) — amounts and valuations
7. Regulatory or compliance factors relevant to this market
8. 3 specific statistics about the target customer's pain (with sources)

Flag anything that contradicts the premise of the idea.

--- PROMPT 2: Validation Analysis (run in ChatGPT or Claude) ---

You are a skeptical VC who has evaluated 500 startups. Here is market research on an idea I'm considering:

IDEA: [YOUR IDEA — same as above]
TARGET CUSTOMER: [WHO YOU'RE BUILDING FOR — specific, not generic]

MARKET RESEARCH:
[PASTE FULL PERPLEXITY OUTPUT]

Conduct a rigorous validation analysis:

## 1. MARKET ASSESSMENT
- Is the market large enough? (Real calculation, not vibes)
- Is it growing or contracting? What's driving it?
- Is there a real gap, or is the market saturated?

## 2. CUSTOMER VALIDATION SIGNAL
- Based on the research, do customers genuinely have this pain?
- Are they currently paying for a solution? How much?
- What's the evidence they would switch?

## 3. COMPETITION REALITY CHECK
- Who is the real threat? (Often not the obvious answer)
- What would it take to differentiate meaningfully?
- Could an incumbent copy this in 6 months?

## 4. PRE-MORTEM: TOP 5 FAILURE REASONS
For each: probability (%), severity (1–10), and earliest testable sign

## 5. KILL CRITERIA
3 specific, observable red flags that should make you stop immediately

## 6. GO / PIVOT / PARK RECOMMENDATION
- Clear recommendation with reasoning
- If PIVOT: one specific angle worth exploring
- If GO: the first 3 things to validate before building anything

Be direct. Do not soften bad news.

Research this company and contact for an upcoming sales or client meeting.

COMPANY: [COMPANY NAME]
CONTACT: [PERSON'S NAME + TITLE — e.g. "Sarah Chen, VP of Marketing"]
MY COMPANY: [YOUR COMPANY — e.g. "We help B2B SaaS companies build SEO content at scale"]
MEETING PURPOSE: [WHY YOU'RE MEETING — e.g. "Discovery call — they expressed interest in our content platform"]

Research and report:

## 1. COMPANY OVERVIEW
- What they do (in one clear sentence, not their marketing copy)
- Revenue/funding stage (if available)
- Employee count and growth trajectory
- Key products or services they sell

## 2. RECENT NEWS (last 90 days)
- Press releases, product launches, or major announcements
- Leadership changes (new hires, departures, promotions)
- Funding rounds, acquisitions, or partnerships
- Any public challenges (bad press, layoffs, competitive pressure)

## 3. STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
- Based on recent content, job postings, and announcements — what are they focused on?
- What problems are they publicly trying to solve?
- What does their current hiring tell you about their direction?

## 4. CONTACT INTELLIGENCE
- [PERSON'S NAME]'s career history and background
- Recent posts or articles they've written or shared (LinkedIn, industry publications)
- Their apparent professional priorities and interests
- Any shared connections or context

## 5. PAIN SIGNALS
- Evidence that they have the specific problem I solve
- Direct quotes from reviews, job postings, or interviews if available
- Signs they're currently investing in or struggling with this area

## 6. CONVERSATION ANGLES (3–5)
- Specific, non-generic ways to open the conversation based on this research
- One question that shows you understand their business deeply
- One relevant industry trend to mention that's specific to their situation

Cite everything. Flag any data older than 6 months.

Research the brand positioning landscape for [YOUR CATEGORY — e.g. "B2B HR software for companies with 50–500 employees"].

MY BRAND: [YOUR BRAND NAME + one-sentence description]
MAIN COMPETITORS: [LIST 5–7 — include both direct and category competitors]

Research and analyze:

## 1. HOW EACH COMPETITOR POSITIONS ITSELF
For each competitor:
- Homepage headline (verbatim)
- Core positioning in one sentence
- Who they claim to be for
- Their dominant emotional appeal (efficiency, status, simplicity, trust, etc.)
- The specific problem they lead with

## 2. MESSAGING THEMES THAT REPEAT
- What words, phrases, and concepts appear across multiple competitors?
- What does the category promise over and over? (This is often a sign of where everyone sounds the same)
- What visual and language patterns are overused?

## 3. THE POSITIONING WHITE SPACE
- What positioning angles are completely unclaimed in this category?
- Which customer needs are not addressed by anyone's primary messaging?
- What truth about this category is nobody saying out loud?

## 4. CUSTOMER LANGUAGE
- Based on review sites and forums: what words do actual customers use to describe their problems?
- What phrases appear in 5-star reviews? (What do they praise?)
- What phrases appear in 1-star reviews? (What frustrates them most?)
- Quote real customers directly — these are gold for positioning and copy

## 5. CATEGORY TRENDS
- What's changing in this market in 2025?
- New entrants or disruptors entering the space?
- Any major category shifts (from annual licenses to monthly, from complex to simple, etc.)?

## 6. POSITIONING RECOMMENDATION
Based on the white space and customer language:
- The one unclaimed position worth owning
- Why it's sustainable (harder to copy than it looks)
- A test headline for this position (one sentence)

Cite all sources. Include review site quotes with source.

Analyze the content landscape for [YOUR INDUSTRY / NICHE — e.g. "email marketing for e-commerce brands"] to find gaps my content strategy can exploit.

MY BRAND: [YOUR BRAND — what you do and who you serve]
CONTENT COMPETITORS: [LIST 3–5 — e.g. "Klaviyo blog, Mailchimp blog, Really Good Emails, Email Marketing Heroes YouTube"]

Research and report:

## 1. WHAT EVERYONE IS COVERING
- The 10 most common topics across these competitors' content
- The formats they all use (long-form guides, how-tos, case studies, etc.)
- The audience they're all writing for (is it always the same persona?)
- The narrative frame they all use (beginner-friendly? Expert-to-expert? Inspirational?)

## 2. WHAT NOBODY IS COVERING
- Topics that are highly searched but underrepresented in competitor content
- Specific sub-niches or use cases that are ignored
- Audience segments that nobody is writing for directly
- Advanced or contrarian perspectives that are absent from mainstream content

## 3. UNANSWERED AUDIENCE QUESTIONS
- Real questions people are asking in forums (Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, Facebook groups) that nobody is answering well
- Quote the actual question text where possible — these are content titles waiting to happen
- What are the "stupid questions" that experts never answer because they assume everyone knows?

## 4. TRENDING BUT UNDERCOVERED
- Topics that are rising in search volume or industry conversation but haven't been deeply covered yet
- New platform features, tools, or methods that lack good educational content

## 5. THE CONTRARIAN ANGLE
- What does the mainstream content in this category get wrong?
- What "common knowledge" in this industry is actually false or outdated?
- What uncomfortable truth is nobody saying?

## 6. YOUR CONTENT OPPORTUNITY (top 5)
- Five specific content angles ranked by combination of: differentiation, search potential, and fit with my brand
- For each: the title I should write, why it's underserved, and what format works best

Cite sources. Include real forum questions with source links.