I'm a developer. How is this different from ChatGPT or Claude?

ChatGPT and Claude are strong for one-off prompts and quick drafts. Stratts runs live competitor research, checks the plan against your budget and hours, runs automated quality checks, then writes paste-ready drafts for the formats you pick in intake. One structured launch plan, usually under 5 minutes, ready to save, export, and revise.

What are the two pricing options?

Two options. Pulse is $17.99/mo with 3 launch plans and 75 weighted credits per billing period for drafts, launches, competitor intel, campaign kits, and the Execute Plan tracker. A single Launch Plan is one complete plan charged on delivery.

What do I get for $29, and how long does it take?

One complete launch plan with positioning, target personas, a prioritized action list matched to your budget and hours, competitor breakdowns with talking points, launch drafts for your priority channels, and a first-10 customers playbook. Stratts researches your market, builds the plan, and writes your drafts, usually in under 5 minutes. After you save it, you can export a PDF and revise up to 5 sections if your direction shifts.

I ship solo with no marketing team. Is Stratts built for me?

Yes. It's built for solo devs and indie founders without a marketing hire. You enter your runway, available hours, and constraints up front. Stratts prioritizes organic channels you can run yourself and only suggests paid spend when your inputs support it.

How do I get my first users for a SaaS or app?

Stratts builds a focused go-to-market plan with channel priorities, positioning, and a sequenced launch checklist matched to your budget and time. The plan covers organic channels and includes community launch guidance. Pulse members can draft Product Hunt, Reddit, and outreach posts in the Launch Engine.

Does the launch plan help with Product Hunt, Reddit, or Hacker News launches?

Yes. The launch plan includes community launch sequencing and platform-specific angles, plus announcement drafts when those channels rank in your plan. Pulse subscribers can create additional Product Hunt pitches and community launch drafts in the Launch Engine within monthly Pulse Suite limits.

How many competitors should I analyze?

Three to five direct alternatives plus two workaround options is enough for most solo launches. Depth on real buyer complaints matters more than counting every clone in Product Hunt comments.

Is it okay to mention competitors in launch copy?

Yes, when you are factual and focus on buyer outcomes. Compare categories and tradeoffs. Avoid trash talk and unverifiable claims. Strong founders acknowledge incumbents and explain the wedge.

Does Stratts replace manual competitor research?

No. Stratts gives you a researched starting point: live competitor work, positioning, comparison angles, and drafts tied to your constraints. You still sanity-check it with real buyers and update the plan after calls.

Competitor research

Competitor Research for Solo Founders Before You Launch

You do not need a forty-slide competitive matrix. You need enough signal to answer three questions before you post anywhere: what buyers already pay for, where incumbents are slow or hated, and what you say when someone compares you in a thread. Skip this and you sound like every other "AI-powered" launch that week. MicroConf's State of Independent SaaS keeps showing the same pattern for bootstrapped founders: clear positioning and realistic channel choice beat raw feature count.

Start from the buyer's workaround

Competitors are not only companies with similar homepages. They include spreadsheets, manual workflows, generic ChatGPT threads, and doing nothing. List what your buyer uses today and what they complain about in public: review sites, forum threads, GitHub issues, App Store reviews.

Two hours of reading real complaints beats a paid market report for early-stage positioning. You are looking for phrases to reuse ethically in your own copy and gaps you can honestly claim.

Capture six fields per rival

For each direct competitor, write: who they sell to, headline promise, pricing shape (free tier, seat-based, one-time), obvious strength, common complaint, and where they show up (SEO, YouTube, partnerships, ads). One row per competitor on a single page is enough.

Refresh this monthly in fast categories like AI tools and browser extensions. A positioning line that was differentiated in January can be common by March.

Turn research into talk tracks

Research only pays off when it changes what you say. Write three short replies: "Why not stay with [incumbent]?", "How are you different from [closest clone]?", and "Why should I trust a solo founder?" Use their complaints without naming people disrespectfully.

Stratts runs live competitor research during a plan build, then folds the output into positioning, comparison angles, and launch drafts. On Pulse, Competitor Intel helps you refresh one rival when something in the category shifts.

Match channels to where rivals win and lose

If every competitor ranks on SEO for the problem, you probably need a narrower wedge or a community-led path first. If they ignore a sub-niche in reviews, that sub-niche may be your first beachhead. Channel choice is a competitive decision, not a personal preference.

Y Combinator's advice on first customers still applies: go where the easiest buyers already are. Competitor research tells you where those buyers found alternatives and whether those surfaces are worth your runway.

When to stop researching and ship

You have enough when you can explain your buyer, your wedge, and your reply to the top two alternatives without opening notes. Past that, research becomes procrastination with better fonts.

Run the plan through real conversations: five outreach notes, one community post, three demo calls. Update competitor rows when someone names a tool you missed. Stratts saves the plan so you can revise sections instead of rebuilding from scratch after each call.

Common questions

How many competitors should I analyze?: Three to five direct alternatives plus two workaround options is enough for most solo launches. Depth on real buyer complaints matters more than counting every clone in Product Hunt comments.
Is it okay to mention competitors in launch copy?: Yes, when you are factual and focus on buyer outcomes. Compare categories and tradeoffs. Avoid trash talk and unverifiable claims. Strong founders acknowledge incumbents and explain the wedge.
Does Stratts replace manual competitor research?: No. Stratts gives you a researched starting point: live competitor work, positioning, comparison angles, and drafts tied to your constraints. You still sanity-check it with real buyers and update the plan after calls.

More questions? Read the FAQ or browse all launch guides.