Hire an AI competitive business strategy planner

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• The gaps nobody covers well, and where the leader's model holds it back
• A model that is better for named buyers, with the leader's copy sum
• A ten-year check on how long the window stays open and who else could copy you
• A second power to build with the time you gain, with a first test

How it does the job well

• Start from the user problem and the evidence for it, then the solution.
• Write decisions down with the reason and the options you rejected.
• Keep scope small enough to ship and learn. Name what is out of scope.
• Define how success will be measured before building.

Mistakes it avoids

• Treating opinions or one loud request as proven demand.
• Specs that skip edge cases, error states or dependencies.
• Roadmaps with dates but no owners or confidence levels.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: A larger rival dominates your market and being a little better has not worked.

• Step 1: where the leader is weak. The gaps nobody covers well and where the leader's own model holds it back.
• Step 2: the model. How the leader earns, your model, who it suits better, and the copy sum with a call.
• Step 3: ten years out. How long the window stays open, who else could copy you and what could end the edge.
• Step 4: build while the window is open. Your market stage, a second power to build, a first test, a pass line and a check-in date.
• HAND-BACK SUMMARY. Each step's file, any step not run and every MISSING line in one list.

How the work is checked

• Each step passed its own checks, or the run stopped at the step that failed and says why.
• The steps ran in order, and each one used the result of the one before.
• Nothing was invented to fill a gap. Every gap is a MISSING: line.
• Nothing was sent, published or paid for without a clear yes.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way Hamilton Helmer and Peter Thiel would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Finds where the leader is weak. Lists what buyers value, marks the gaps nobody covers well and notes where the leader's own model forces a trade-off.
• Finds a model the leader would lose by copying. Writes how the leader earns, designs your model, and works out what the leader would lose and gain by copying it.
• Checks it lasts ten years. Asks how long the window stays open, who else could copy the model and what would end the edge.
• Plans what to build while the window is open. Finds your market stage and picks a second power, such as scale or switching costs, with a first test.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id beat-bigger-rival only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/beat-bigger-rival/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• Your rivals, with what each offers and charges
• Customer reviews or quotes about the rivals (optional)
• Your idea for doing the job differently, if you have one (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• The leader's price list and annual report
• Customer reviews of the rivals
• Your cost per sale

Tools and access

• Claude: Holds four steps, the leader's figures and your model in one run.
• Any good chat AI: Gridding and rating from pasted evidence is text work any strong chat AI can do.
• A spreadsheet: Holds the grid so you can add rivals and rerun.
• Any good chat AI: Building a loss-and-gain sum for a rival from a few facts is reasoning work any strong chat AI does well.
• The leader's public price lists and annual reports: They give the revenue split the sum needs.
• Any good chat AI: Discounting a few numbers and reasoning about rivals is text work that any strong chat AI does with this skill.
• Any good chat AI: Judging stage from thin signs and choosing among options is reasoning work any strong chat AI does well.
• Industry reports or your own sales history: A growth figure makes the stage call a number, not a feeling.

Functions and deliverables

• Competitive business strategy planner: Find gaps in a larger rival's business model, test why it might resist copying you and plan a lasting advantage.
  • The gaps nobody covers well, and where the leader's model holds it back
  • A model that is better for named buyers, with the leader's copy sum
  • A ten-year check on how long the window stays open and who else could copy you
  • A second power to build with the time you gain, with a first test
• Market opportunity finder: Find gaps in your market that no rival serves well. Paste your rivals and what buyers value to get a white space map and a small test.
  • A grid of rivals against the features that decide the choice
  • The gaps nobody serves well, each with evidence
  • Where to stop fighting
  • A small, cheap, reversible test of the best gap
• Competitive business model planner: Find a business model your market leader would lose money by copying. Give it the leader and your idea. You get the sum and a call.
  • How the leader earns, in a short table
  • Your model, and which buyers it is better for
  • A sum of what the leader would lose and gain by copying
  • The leader's other moves, each with a likely result
  • A call of strong, weak or not counter-positioning, with the first-year path
• Ten-year durability checker: Check if your business edge will last ten years. See how much value sits past year five, who could copy you, and what could end it.
  • Where the value sits, with sums
  • Copiers and how long they would need
  • Which traits make you harder to copy
  • What could end your edge, and a call
• Competitive advantage development planner: Share your business facts and advantage scorecard. Get a proposed market stage, an advantage to build first and a small test.
  • Your market stage and the signs behind the call
  • A table of the seven powers, each open, narrowing or closed at your stage
  • The one power to build first, with a first test, a pass line and a six-month check
  • Three early choices and the powers each one helps or closes
• Product context file writer: Share product facts, audience and positioning. Get a reviewed context file that other marketing skills can reference.
  • A product marketing context file
  • A summary of what the file already holds
  • A change log of updates
  • Gaps you still need to fill
  Source: Corey Haines.
• Hamilton Helmer: Test a business advantage using Hamilton Helmer’s 7 Powers approach. Find the benefit, what stops rivals copying it and the next move to test.
  • Your problem worked on the way Hamilton Helmer would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Hamilton Helmer's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step
• Peter Thiel: Test a startup idea with Peter Thiel's public approach. Find your market, your real edge and the weakest of seven questions. Not for investment calls.
  • Your problem worked on the way Peter Thiel would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Peter Thiel's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• A larger rival dominates your market and being a little better has not worked.
• You are choosing a price model, a sales route or a product design and want one the leader would find costly to match.
• You have a new model and want to know if the leader will copy it the moment it works.

Limits to check before starting

• You face a pure price fight, or no rival dominates your market: use a standard competitor comparison, or the Competitive advantage tester.
• You want to know which strengths your business already holds: use the Competitive advantage tester.
• You want to check a single guess about how your business makes money: use the Business model assumption tester.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the handoff pack. It's a zip with HANDOFF.md and every skill file this workflow uses.
• Give the folder to Claude (in Claude Code, or as files in a Claude Project) and say "Follow HANDOFF.md".
• Paste your rivals and anything you know about how the leader earns. It works step by step and saves each result.
• Check the leader's figures in the copy sum against its price lists and annual reports before you act.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/beat-bigger-rival for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.