AI competitor monitoring that actually tells you what to do about it.
Most founders track competitors manually - scanning LinkedIn, checking Crunchbase, reading newsletters, asking their network. DESTA replaces that entire workflow with a daily brief that surfaces what your competitors actually did, why it matters to your decisions, and what you should do next.
Competitor tracking is broken for founders.
If you are a founder trying to stay on top of your competitive landscape, you probably have some version of this workflow: check LinkedIn twice a day for competitor executive changes. Scan Crunchbase weekly for funding rounds. Set Google Alerts for company names (which mostly delivers irrelevant press mentions). Read two or three industry newsletters. Ask your sales team what they are hearing. Check competitor job boards for hiring signals.
That workflow takes one to two hours per day, scattered across the day in five-minute fragments. And it has three fundamental problems.
First, it is topic-organized, not decision-organized. You check LinkedIn for one type of signal, Crunchbase for another, job boards for a third. But the most valuable competitive intelligence comes from connecting signals across sources. A competitor hiring three ML engineers, posting a “Head of Enterprise” role, and going quiet on social media is a pattern - they are building something. No single source tells you that.
Second, it does not prioritize. Every signal feels equally important when you encounter it one at a time. A competitor posting about a minor product update gets the same mental processing as a competitor quietly acquiring a company in your space. Without context and ranking, you waste cognitive energy on low-value signals.
Third, it does not tell you what to do. Knowing that a competitor raised a Series B is information. Knowing that their Series B, combined with their new VP of Sales hire and their recent enterprise pricing page, means they are about to compete with you for the same three accounts you are closing this quarter - that is intelligence. And intelligence with a recommended action is the only kind worth having.
The signals that matter, from sources you don't have time to check.
Hiring patterns
New roles, department growth, executive hires, layoff signals. A competitor posting five backend engineering roles and a Head of Platform is telling you something about their next 6 months.
Product launches & updates
New features, pricing page changes, changelog updates, app store releases. DESTA catches the changes competitors make quietly - not just the ones they announce.
Pricing & packaging changes
New tiers, enterprise pages, self-serve changes, free plan adjustments. Pricing moves reveal strategic intent faster than any other signal.
Funding & financial moves
Funding rounds, acquisitions, SEC filings, investment announcements. DESTA connects the financial event to what it means for your competitive position.
Executive & talent moves
C-suite changes, key departures, board appointments. When a competitor's VP of Product leaves for a startup in your space, that is a signal with consequences.
Partnerships & integrations
New partnerships, integration announcements, ecosystem moves. Who your competitors are building with reveals where they are heading.
Technology & infrastructure
Tech stack changes, patent filings, open source contributions, developer community activity. Technical moves often signal product direction months before launch.
Market positioning
Website copy changes, messaging shifts, new case studies, analyst mentions. How competitors talk about themselves reveals how they plan to compete.
What a competitor signal looks like in your DESTA brief.
Acme Corp Acquires DesignPulse - Confirms Enterprise Push
Acme Corp closed the acquisition of DesignPulse (Series A, $8.2M raised) on Feb 14. No press release - found via SEC filing and LinkedIn job changes. Three DesignPulse engineers updated titles to “Acme Corp” within 48 hours. Combined with their recent VP of Enterprise hire from Salesforce, this signals a direct move into your mid-market segment within 6-9 months.
DESTA Recommendation
This directly affects your Q3 roadmap decision. Acme is building the same feature you planned as a differentiator. Consider accelerating your timeline by 6 weeks or pivoting to a different wedge feature that Acme cannot replicate through acquisition. Schedule a roadmap review this week.
This is a real pattern. The signal came from connecting three sources that a manual workflow would check separately, days apart.
Why DESTA is not the same as Klue, Crayon, or Contify.
Enterprise competitive intelligence platforms like Klue, Crayon, and Contify are excellent products. They are built for competitive intelligence teams - people whose full-time job is tracking competitors and enabling sales. They have battle cards, win/loss analysis, content repositories, and team collaboration features.
DESTA is built for a different user: the founder. Founders do not need battle cards. They need to know what a competitor move means for the decision they are making this week. They do not need a content repository. They need a brief that tells them what changed, why it matters, and what to do about it.
Enterprise CI tools are designed for teams of 10+ that can invest $30,000-$100,000 per year and dedicate analysts to maintain the system. DESTA is designed for a founder who has twelve minutes before their first meeting and needs to know what moved overnight.
If you are building a competitive intelligence program with a dedicated team, Klue or Crayon might be the right choice. If you are a founder who needs competitive intelligence woven into your daily decision-making without adding another tool to manage, DESTA is built for you.
What makes a good competitor signal?
Not all competitive information is competitive intelligence. DESTA evaluates every signal against four criteria before it makes your brief:
Is it new information?
DESTA tracks what it has already surfaced to you. If a competitor's funding round was in last week's brief, it does not reappear unless there is new context - like a job posting that reveals how they plan to deploy the capital.
Does it affect an active decision?
A competitor launching a feature you already shipped is interesting but not actionable. A competitor launching a feature that directly competes with the thing you are building right now - that affects your roadmap decision. DESTA knows the difference because it knows what you are working on.
Is the timing right?
Some signals are important but not urgent. A competitor's long-term infrastructure investment matters, but it does not need to be in today's brief if you are in execute mode on a product launch. DESTA adjusts signal timing to your current mode.
Can it be acted on?
The best intelligence comes with a clear next step. DESTA pairs every high-priority competitor signal with a recommended action - accelerate, pivot, delegate, or watch. If there is no action, the signal gets deprioritized.
How DESTA competitor monitoring works.
Tell DESTA who you are watching
Add your competitors, adjacent companies, and companies you admire. DESTA will also suggest companies you should be tracking based on your industry and positioning.
Set your decision context
Tell DESTA what you are working on - a product launch, a fundraise, a hiring push, a market expansion. This context shapes which competitor signals make your brief.
Receive your daily brief
Every morning, DESTA delivers an operating brief with competitor signals ranked by relevance to your active decisions. Each signal includes sources, context, and a recommended action.
The brief gets sharper
Mark signals as acted on, too early, or not relevant. DESTA learns your patterns and refines future briefs - better timing, cleaner prioritization, less noise.
Your competitors made moves today. Do you know what they were?
Start with your first operating brief. DESTA will show you what your competitors are doing, what it means, and what to do next.
No credit card required. Your first brief arrives in minutes.