Compare Companies

Overview

A Compare Companies report is a side-by-side comparison of 2-3 entity subjects across 12 standardized sections. Generated on demand from free public APIs (SEC EDGAR + Serper + counterparty_profiles cached enrichment + Wikipedia where applicable), takes about a minute to produce, and costs 5 credits per company in the comparison (10 credits for a 2-way, 15 credits for a 3-way).

It is intended for a corporate development team / PE-VC partner / strategic-finance lead deciding which company to acquire, partner with, compete against, or hold in a portfolio. The report is decision-relevant; it is not investment advice.

The Five Frameworks We Adopt

ICD 203 — Analytic Standards (Office of the Director of National Intelligence)

The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Directive 203 defines nine tradecraft standards. Binding for every Compare Companies report: properly described sources, proper expression of uncertainty, distinction between assumption and judgment, alternative analysis where relevant.

UK PHIA Probability Yardstick (UK Defence Intelligence)

Every probabilistic claim — competitive position, regulatory exposure, growth trajectory — is paired with a Low / Moderate / High confidence band where evidence is thin. The seven-band yardstick (remote chance / highly unlikely / unlikely / realistic possibility / likely / highly likely / almost certain) carries probability where inference is required.

Counterparty Due Diligence Methodology (MentionFox)

The same Counterparty DD framework that anchors the standalone Counterparty Vetter — applied per company in the comparison. Sections 4 (Leadership), 5 (Funding & Cap Table), 9 (Regulatory & Legal), and 10 (Financial Health) draw directly from this framework.

Side-by-Side Comparison Framework

Each section is rendered as a per-company cell (30-80 words) plus a one-paragraph synthesis comparing the cells. The format forces parity — every company gets a cell on every section, and "[insufficient public evidence]" is a valid cell entry rather than a fabricated narrative.

ALCOA Data Integrity (FDA)

Every cell is Attributable (sourced via inline links), Legible (structured prose), Contemporaneous (timestamp captured), Original (cited URLs retained), Accurate (banned: invented data). The corrections protocol below extends this with re-publication semantics.

The Twelve Sections

Five Use-Case Framings

The use case picked at submit time shapes which sections are weighted in the executive summary and the ranking. The twelve underlying sections are unchanged; only the emphasis and the headline recommendation framing shift.

• M&A target — emphasizes financial health, customer concentration, integration risk, valuation signals, regulatory exposure. Headline picks: top acquisition fit / acquisition fit with diligence / additional research / pass.
• Partnership candidate — emphasizes cultural fit, customer-base overlap, technical compatibility, reputation alignment.
• Competitive threat — emphasizes market share, growth trajectory, hiring velocity, product velocity, geographic expansion.
• Portfolio analysis — emphasizes financial stability, growth pipeline, regulatory risk, leadership continuity, diversification fit.
• General research — balanced coverage; no single lens dominates.

Custom additional context is layered on top of the use-case framing for sharper specifics ("post-acquisition integration into our healthcare division", "EU expansion candidate", etc.).

Data Sources — Free Public Only

• counterparty_profiles cache — entity-typed rows enriched by prior runs of the Counterparty Vetter or related Markets verticals. Reuses existing canonical data instead of re-fetching.
• SEC EDGAR — Form D + Form ADV + 8-K + 10-K + S-1 filings for U.S.-listed and Reg-D-private companies.
• Serper — three parallel queries per company: about/industry/HQ, leadership, funding/revenue/customers. Up to 6 organic results per query.
• Wikipedia / Wikidata — biographical anchors where the company has a Wikipedia entry.
• Public press archives — Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, WSJ, TechCrunch, The Information, Forbes, Axios, Pensions & Investments. Returned via Serper organic results.

What we do NOT use: paywalled databases (PitchBook full, Crunchbase Pro, Bloomberg Terminal), subscription analytics platforms, or proprietary research providers. Comparisons are reproducible from public sources only.

Honest Limits

• We do not access internal cap tables, audited financials, or non-public board materials.
• We do not contact companies, executives, or investors directly.
• We do not predict M&A outcomes, partnership success, or competitive wins as point estimates. PHIA bands carry probability where evidence supports inference.
• We do not give investment advice, M&A advice, or partnership advice. Comparisons are research synthesis; final decisions remain with the corporate development / strategic-finance / investment team.
• We do not invent data. "[insufficient public evidence]" is a valid cell entry — common for private-company sections like Customer Base or Financial Health.
• We do not score >3 companies in v0.1. The 4+ company comparison is a v0.2 follow-up that requires a different display affordance (heatmap rather than parallel cells).

Corrections Policy

Three commitments modeled on the BBC editorial corrections process:

1. Identification window. Errors flagged within thirty days of report generation are corrected on the canonical view URL within five business days.
2. Re-publication, not silent edit. Corrections preserve a redline diff between the original and corrected cell, time-stamped, with a one-line explanation.
3. Subject right of reply. Any company named in a Compare Companies report may submit a one-paragraph factual rebuttal to corrections@mentionfox.com. Verifiable rebuttals attach to the report alongside the original cell.

Data integrity floor — ALCOA. Every Compare Companies report carries an ALCOA Methodology footer (Attributable / Legible / Contemporaneously / Original / Accurately) — the FDA's data-integrity framework, applied to per-cell analytic products.