How to Research a Company Without Memorizing the About Page

Most candidates do company research that is wide and shallow — read the About page, glance at the team list, skim the press releases. Strong candidates do it narrow and deep. Five hours of focused research will give you better questions to ask, sharper context for your stories, and a real opinion to defend.

Five sources, in order of value

1. The product itself. Sign up, use it for an hour, and write down three things you'd change.
2. Engineering or product blog posts from the last twelve months. They reveal what the team is proud of.
3. Earnings calls or fundraising announcements. They tell you the strategy the leadership is committing to publicly.
4. Talks and conference appearances by your interviewers. They surface technical opinions you can engage with.
5. Customer reviews on G2, Reddit, or community forums. They show you the product from the outside.

What to write down

Keep a one-page document per company. Three sections: What they're betting on, where they're vulnerable, and what I'd want to work on. The first two come from research, the third comes from your own taste. The document is for you, not them — but the questions you ask will come from it.

Map the loop to the research

Different rounds reward different research. Save your product opinions for the hiring manager round. Save your technical engagement for the engineering rounds. Save your strategic questions for the leadership chat. Bringing every piece of research to every round looks performative.