Research

Research is Foundaro's market intelligence workspace. It gives you a structured place to log and organise sources you want to track, competitor watch entries, market theme notes, and a win/loss log — all searchable and filterable so context does not disappear between product cycles.

The module is built around the idea that founders collect market intelligence constantly but rarely have a system that keeps it connected. When competitive notes, customer conversations, and market signals live in separate places, patterns are hard to see and decisions get made without the full picture.

Overview

The Research overview shows four sections: the source library, competitor watchlist, market notes, and win/loss log.

Stat bar — Four key metrics:

• Sources — Total research sources in your library.
• Competitors tracked — Total competitor watch entries.
• Market notes — Total market theme notes.
• Win/loss entries — Total win and loss records.

Search and filter — A global search bar queries across titles, summaries, notes, and tags. Each section also has its own filter: sources can be filtered by kind, competitors by threat level, and win/loss by outcome.

Tips:

• Log sources as you find them — the library builds up over time rather than only when you are in a research sprint.
• The search bar is most useful when entries have consistent, descriptive titles. Vague titles make the library hard to navigate at scale.
• Run a review of the overview monthly to see which areas of intelligence are thin and which sections have not been updated recently.

Sources

Sources are research materials you want to track — articles, reports, podcasts, videos, customer conversations, or any other external reference. They form the evidence base that other research records can reference.

Source fields:

• Title — Required. A descriptive name for the source so it is searchable later.
• Kind — The source type: article, report, podcast, video, customer conversation, or other.
• URL — A link to the source if it is online.
• Author — Who created the source.
• Published date — When the source was published or recorded.
• Summary — A short description of what the source covers.
• Notes — Your commentary on the source — what was interesting, what it changes, or how it applies to your context.
• Tags — Labels for categorisation (e.g. pricing, competitor-intel, customer-feedback).

Linking sources — Sources can be linked to competitor watch entries and win/loss records, connecting the evidence to the conclusions you draw from it.

Tips:

• Write notes in your own words, not just a copy of the source's language. The note should capture why this source matters to your specific context.
• Tag sources consistently from the start — a tagging convention decided early makes filtering useful when the library grows large.
• Use the customer conversation kind for anything learned during a sales call, support interaction, or user interview — these are often the most valuable and most overlooked source type.

Competitor Watch

Competitor watch entries track organisations competing in your space. Each entry is a living record of what you know about a competitor — their positioning, recent moves, threat level, and the sources backing your assessment.

Competitor fields:

• Name — Required. The competitor's company or product name.
• Domain — Their website domain for quick reference.
• Segment — The market segment or customer type they focus on.
• Owner — Who on your team is responsible for monitoring this competitor.
• Threat level — High, medium, or low. This is your current assessment of how much this competitor affects your market position.
• Positioning — How they position themselves to the market.
• Recent moves — Product launches, pricing changes, funding announcements, or other notable developments.
• Watch notes — Ongoing notes about the competitor, updated as new information arrives.
• Tags — Labels for categorisation.
• Linked sources — Sources that informed your assessment of this competitor.

Tips:

• Threat level should be re-evaluated regularly — a low-threat competitor that raises a large round can become high-threat quickly.
• Recent moves is the most time-sensitive field. Update it when something notable happens, not during quarterly reviews.
• Link sources to competitor entries so that your threat assessment is backed by evidence rather than memory.
• Keep the watchlist focused on competitors who are genuinely relevant to your current market position. A long list of marginal competitors creates noise without insight.

Market Notes

Market notes are structured observations about market trends, signals, and themes. They connect a topic to an implication — turning a raw observation into something actionable.

Market note fields:

• Title — Required. A short descriptive label for the note.
• Theme — The broader topic or category this note belongs to (e.g. "AI pricing compression", "Enterprise procurement cycle shifts").
• Summary — A one-paragraph description of what was observed.
• Body — The full detail of the observation, including supporting evidence and context.
• Implication — What this signal means for your product, go-to-market, or strategy. This is the most important field — a note without an implication is just information, not intelligence.
• Tags — Labels for filtering and grouping.
• Linked sources — The research sources that support this observation.

Tips:

• Write the implication before you think you are ready to. Forcing an answer to "so what does this mean?" is how observations become decisions.
• Market notes with a clear implication are more useful six months later than notes that only describe. Future-you will thank present-you for the extra sentence.
• Group related notes by theme so you can spot when multiple signals are pointing in the same direction.

Win/Loss Analysis

The win/loss log records the outcomes of competitive sales situations, partnerships, or other competitive decisions where you either won or lost against an alternative. It gives you a structured record of why you win and why you lose.

Win/loss fields:

• Title — Required. A short label for the entry (e.g. "Lost deal to Acme — Q1").
• Outcome — Win, loss, or mixed.
• Account — The company or deal this entry relates to.
• Counterparty — Who you competed against — a named competitor or alternative (e.g. a specific tool, an internal build, or doing nothing).
• Summary — A short description of the situation.
• Reasons — The specific reasons behind the outcome. For a loss: why they chose the alternative. For a win: why they chose you.
• Next action — What you are going to do as a result of this outcome.
• Linked competitors — The competitor watch entries that correspond to the counterparty.
• Linked sources — Any research sources that provide background on the deal or competitive situation.

Tips:

• Log win/loss entries immediately after the outcome — the reasoning degrades quickly if you wait, and pattern recognition across entries requires consistent detail.
• Be specific about reasons. "Price" is not a useful loss reason. "Our annual contract requirement versus their monthly option" is useful.
• Review win/loss entries quarterly to spot patterns across your competitive landscape. The patterns across ten entries are more actionable than any single entry.
• Losses are more valuable than wins if you learn from them — treat a well-documented loss as a product and positioning signal.

Activity

The Activity tab is an audit log of changes to your research records. It shows when sources, competitor entries, market notes, and win/loss records were created, updated, or deleted.

Use the activity log to:

• Verify that the research database is being kept current after major market events.
• See when specific entries were last updated.
• Spot gaps where certain areas of the research library have not been touched recently.

Tips:

• If the activity log shows no updates to competitor entries after a notable market development, the watchlist is out of date.
• Use the log to establish research habits — consistent activity in the log means the intelligence library is being maintained, not just consulted.