ground-truth

Every buyer already solves this problem somehow. This skill finds out how, what they pay, and what they hate about it, so the new business starts with a gap instead of a guess.

Read ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../receipts/rules.md first.

The rules

• Public sources only, every fact linked. Websites, price pages, menus, app store and Google Maps listings, review sites, Reddit, news. If a source cannot be reached, say so. Never invent a competitor, a price, a rating or a review.
• Read, do not scrape. Read pages as a person would. Respect each site's terms.
• Quotes are verbatim, short, with the link. They are research, never testimonials.

Step 1: who is there

From founder/idea.md (write it first if missing; see /shark-board step 0):

Aim for 5 to 10 direct and indirect, plus the main substitutes. For a local business, search the map for the exact area; for online, search how a buyer would ("best <thing> for <who>", "<thing> alternative").

Step 2: the facts

One row per competitor in founder/competitors.csv:

name,type,url,location_or_channel,price_of_comparable_item,what_it_sells,positioning_line,rating,review_count,source_date

positioning_line is their own headline or tagline, copied. Price is for the item closest to what the new business sells, with what it includes.

Step 2b: how they sell

A competitor's selling strategy is the fastest lesson a new business can get (Ready, Fire, Aim, rule 11 in rules.md): copy what works, then be different in one thing. For the top 3 to 5, from public sources, record in founder/competitors.md:

• Where they find customers: the ads, lists, searches, shelves, partners and channels they show up in. An ad a competitor keeps running for months is probably making money; note how long each has run when you can see it (ad libraries, dated posts, archived pages).
• What they sell first: their entry product or offer (a sample, a trial, a starter kit, a first-visit deal), and what they try to sell next.
• At what price they win a first customer, and what it rises to.
• With what words: their main promise and the proof they show.

If the founder can, suggest a 15-minute call with someone who markets for a company in the same field (not a direct rival): how they find customers, what the first sale is, what a customer is worth. Log what they say as THEY SAID IT with the call note as evidence.

Step 3: what their customers say

For the top 3 to 5, read their reviews (1 to 3 stars first, then the "love it, but..." 4 stars). Note recurring complaints as themes with counts and one or two linked quotes each. Mark a theme thin if it has under three reviews.

Step 4: the map and the gap

Write founder/competitors.md:

0. The hard truth: how crowded it is, and whether a buyer has any reason to switch.
1. The table (from the CSV), sorted by how directly each competes.
2. Price range: lowest, median, highest for the comparable item.
3. A positioning map in text: two axes that matter to this buyer (price and convenience, quality and speed...), where each competitor sits.
4. The complaints, ranked, with links.
5. The gap: what nobody does well that this business could, tied to the evidence. If there is no gap, say so plainly; that is the most useful result this skill can give. A gap is a hypothesis: nobody doing it may mean nobody will pay for it. Name the real-buyer question that would tell.
6. The threat: who could copy the new business fastest, and how.
7. The selling strategy to copy: the medium, first product, entry price and main promise most competitors share (the industry norm), and the one element this business could do differently. Mark it PLANNED until tested.

Output

founder/competitors.csv, founder/competitors.md. Log the evidence: add one row to founder/evidence/evidence-log.md for competitors.csv (public pages, the date), then log the price range and the top complaint themes as MEASURED, kind market, citing it, and the gap as PLANNED, kind market. Next: /truth-serum uses the complaints to write real objections; /litmus uses the price range.