Company Research

Company Research

Build a company + interviewer dossier that makes every downstream artifact sharper. A cover letter is generic until it names the company's real problem. Interview prep is guesswork until you know what the interviewer actually cares about. This skill supplies both.

When to use

• Before cover-letter or interview-prep on any A/B-priority role
• "Research [company]", "what do they do", "are they any good", "should I even apply here"
• "Who's [interviewer name], what do they care about" once interview panels are known
• Deciding whether to pursue, because the dossier surfaces red flags (layoffs, churn, glassdoor rot) early

Inputs

• Reads: the application record workspace/pipeline/applications/<id>-*.md (role, req URL), workspace/profile/profile.md and target-companies.md (so research is framed against the user's fit and ICP), workspace/pipeline/tracker.csv
• Needs from user: the company name + role, the req URL, and interviewer name(s)/titles if the interview is scheduled. If interviewers aren't known yet, do the company half now and add the interviewer half when the panel is set.
• Tools: web search (primary). Optional defuddle (documented in docs/integrations.md) for clean, low-token extraction of the company's careers/about/product pages and blog. Optional agent-reach for deeper people research on interviewers. Both are optional. Without them, degrade to plain web search.

Workflow

1. Company, what they actually do. In plain language: the product, who buys it, the problem it solves, and how they make money (business model, pricing motion, PLG or sales-led or enterprise). Skip the marketing gloss and describe it like you'd explain it to a smart friend.
2. Stage, size, momentum. Funding stage + last round (amount, date, investors), headcount and growth trend, hiring surge or freeze, recent layoffs. These set the context for why this role exists now.
3. Recent news & signals (last ~12 months). Funding, product launches, exec hires/departures, big customers, pivots, controversies. Recency matters. A launch three weeks ago is a better cover-letter and interview hook than a two-year-old milestone. Date every item.
4. Market & competition. The category, the 2–4 main competitors and alternatives (including "do nothing" or status quo, a real alternative for many buyers), and where this company is differentiated or vulnerable. This is what makes interview answers sound like an insider.
5. Culture & reputation signals. Glassdoor/Blind themes (recurring praise AND recurring complaints, so pay attention to patterns rather than one angry review), leadership visibility, employee tenure, values-in-practice vs values-on-the-wall. Note the source and how strong the signal is.
6. Leadership & the team the role sits on. Who runs the function this role reports into, plus their background and public statements about priorities. If findable, who's on the team and what they've shipped.
7. Interviewer research (when names are known). For each interviewer: current role and tenure, career background, what they likely care about given their function (an eng leader screens for different things than a CMO), and recent public signal: posts, talks, podcasts, writing, GitHub. Turn each into a concrete hook: a smart question to ask them, or a proof point to lead with.
8. Synthesize. The dossier answers five questions. Don't just dump facts. Answer these:
   • What problem is this company solving, and for whom?
   • Why does this role exist right now? (the trigger: new funding, new market, a gap, growth)
   • What will the team most likely prioritize in the first 6–12 months?
   • What are 4–6 smart, specific questions to ask them (that prove you did the work)?
   • What are the red flags (walk-away signals) and green flags (reasons to want it)?
9. Save and cross-link. Write workspace/output/<id>-company-research.md. Add a one-line pointer in the application record's ## Why this role / prep section so cover-letter and interview-prep pick it up.

Output

• Writes to: workspace/output/<id>-company-research.md
• Format:
  • ## Snapshot – one-paragraph what-they-do + stage/size/funding/model in a scannable block
  • ## Why this role exists now – the trigger and what it implies about priorities
  • ## Recent signals – dated bullets (news, launches, hires, funding)
  • ## Market & competitors – category, rivals + "do nothing", differentiation/vulnerability
  • ## Culture & reputation – themes with source + signal strength
  • ## Leadership & team
  • ## Interviewers – one sub-block per person: role/tenure · background · what they care about · your hook (question or proof point)
  • ## Smart questions to ask them – 4–6, specific to this company
  • ## Red flags / Green flags – two short lists, decision-ready
  • ## Sources – links, so claims are checkable

Rules & quality bar

• Cite sources and mark uncertainty. Every non-obvious claim gets a link. If something's a guess or a stale data point, label it. Do not launder speculation into fact. Funding and headcount numbers drift, so note the date.
• Recency is the value. A signal from this month beats a fact from two years ago. Lead with what's current.
• Distinguish signal from noise on Glassdoor/Blind. Report recurring themes, not a single review. One furious ex-employee is not a red flag. The same complaint from ten is.
• Red flags are honest, not buried. If the research surfaces layoffs, leadership churn, or a collapsing market, say so plainly. The point is to help the user decide, not to sell them the job.
• No fabrication. Don't invent funding rounds, customer logos, or an interviewer's background. Unknown is a valid finding. Say "couldn't confirm".
• Framed against the user's fit. Tie findings back to the user's proof points and ICP so the dossier is usable, not encyclopedic. This dossier arms the application. It is not a neutral company summary.

Related skills

• Reads from: job-search-setup (profile, target ICP), the application record built by job-sourcing / application-tracker
• Feeds: cover-letter (the company's real problem + a current hook), interview-prep (interviewer priorities, smart questions, likely focus areas), networking-and-referrals (sharper hooks for the HM note), offer-negotiation (leverage read on stage/funding health)
• Optional power-ups: defuddle (clean page extraction), agent-reach (interviewer/people research). See docs/integrations.md