Target Research

/target-research, build the company dossier

Usage: /target-research Space42 · /target-research "Technology Innovation Institute" --for "<Person Name>"

The dossier is what makes paragraph 1 of the email possible. Without it, there is only a template with a name pasted in.

Steps

1. Check for existing work. Read shared/companies/<slug>.md if it exists. If it was researched inside the last month, refresh the recent-news section rather than starting over. Also run /obsidian-find <company> — the vault may already know something.

2. Add the company to shared/targets.md if it is not there.

3. Read the candidate's evidence.md before searching. The point is to find overlap, and it is much easier to spot overlap when the search already knows what to look for.

4. Delegate the search to the company_researcher agent. It has the full method. It reads job postings before marketing pages, because job postings are where the real stack is written down.

5. Look specifically for:

   • Open engineering roles, including senior ones. They list the stack
   • The engineering blog, GitHub org, published papers
   • Whether they run an internship programme and through what route
   • One recent, dated, specific, linkable event
   • Which team the candidate would plausibly sit in

6. Write the dossier to shared/companies/<slug>.md in the format specified in agents/company_researcher.md.

7. Assign a tier and record why:

   • Tier 1 — strong technical overlap, plausible route in, worth a properly researched email
   • Tier 2 — real overlap but a harder route, or a less exact fit
   • Tier 3 — worth an application through their formal process, not worth a cold email

8. Say if the answer is no. A company with no overlap or no reachable route is a legitimate finding. Recording it stops the next session repeating the search.

Output format

## Researched: <company> — Tier <n>

**What they build:** <two sentences of engineering reality>
**Stack:** <from job postings>
**Team to target:** <name>
**Takes interns:** yes | no | formal programme only | unknown

**Paragraph-1 material**
- <specific recent fact> — <URL> (as of YYYY-MM)

**Overlap with <person>**
| They need | <person> has | Strength |
|---|---|---|

**Angle:** <one sentence>
**Gaps:** <what could not be verified>
**Recommendation:** cold email | formal application | skip

**Next:** /find-contact <company>

Rules

• Job postings before marketing pages. Always.
• Date every unstable fact. Team structures and funding move quarterly.
• Never invent a recent event. "No recent public activity found" is a real answer and it changes the angle rather than blocking it.
• Mark inferences as inferences.
• Do not research companies not on the target list. Add them there first so the list stays honest.
• One dossier per company, shared by both people. The overlap section gets a subsection per person.