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team-voices.md

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1# Team Voices
2
3Stage 4 in full: what the company's founders, leaders, and staff say in public about how they grow. Interviews and talks are often the strongest evidence a teardown gets, because people say outright what worked, when, and why. Their job posts say what they plan to do next.
4

Team Voices

Stage 4 in full: what the company's founders, leaders, and staff say in public about how they grow. Interviews and talks are often the strongest evidence a teardown gets, because people say outright what worked, when, and why. Their job posts say what they plan to do next.

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5## Contents
6- Finding the people
7- Finding what they said
8- Getting the words
9- Extracting claims
10- Job posts as strategy documents
12---

Contents

  • Finding the people
  • Finding what they said
  • Getting the words
  • Extracting claims
  • Job posts as strategy documents
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14## Finding the People
16Start with leaders whose work shapes growth: founders, CEO, heads of growth, marketing, product, sales, partnerships, community, and devrel. Sources:
18- The team, about, and press pages, and author bylines on the blog
19- X and Bluesky bios that name the company, and who the founders' accounts follow and reply to most
20- Podcast guest pages and conference speaker lists
21- Funding announcements and press releases, which name leaders and early hires
22- LinkedIn company pages, read by hand (this repo doesn't scrape LinkedIn)
24Keep it to people speaking publicly in a work capacity. Don't profile private lives, and don't contact anyone.

Finding the People

Start with leaders whose work shapes growth: founders, CEO, heads of growth, marketing, product, sales, partnerships, community, and devrel. Sources:

  • The team, about, and press pages, and author bylines on the blog
  • X and Bluesky bios that name the company, and who the founders' accounts follow and reply to most
  • Podcast guest pages and conference speaker lists
  • Funding announcements and press releases, which name leaders and early hires
  • LinkedIn company pages, read by hand (this repo doesn't scrape LinkedIn)

Keep it to people speaking publicly in a work capacity. Don't profile private lives, and don't contact anyone.

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26## Finding What They Said
28| Source | How to find it |
29|---|---|
30| Podcasts | Search "[name] podcast" and "[company] founder interview"; Apple Podcasts and Spotify search; podcast search APIs (Listen Notes, Podscan) if the user has a key |
31| YouTube talks and interviews | Search "[name]" and "[company] [conference]", sorted by views |
32| Conference talks | Event sites, slides on Speaker Deck or SlideShare |
33| X threads | The person's top posts, and searches for "how we grew", "lessons", "ARR", "users" from their handle |
34| Blog posts and newsletters | Their own blog and guest posts, investor blogs, growth newsletters that interviewed them |
35| Founder AMAs | Reddit, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, Product Hunt maker comments |

Finding What They Said

SourceHow to find it
PodcastsSearch "[name] podcast" and "[company] founder interview"; Apple Podcasts and Spotify search; podcast search APIs (Listen Notes, Podscan) if the user has a key
YouTube talks and interviewsSearch "[name]" and "[company] [conference]", sorted by views
Conference talksEvent sites, slides on Speaker Deck or SlideShare
X threadsThe person's top posts, and searches for "how we grew", "lessons", "ARR", "users" from their handle
Blog posts and newslettersTheir own blog and guest posts, investor blogs, growth newsletters that interviewed them
Founder AMAsReddit, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, Product Hunt maker comments
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37## Getting the Words
39- **YouTube, TikTok, X videos:** transcripts via [ScrapeCreators](../../../tools/integrations/scrapecreators.md) (`/v1/youtube/video/transcript`, `/v1/tiktok/video/transcript`, `/v1/twitter/tweet/transcript`), or YouTube's own captions.
40- **Podcasts:** many feeds publish transcripts (a `podcast:transcript` tag in the RSS feed), and many shows post episodes to YouTube too. Otherwise, download the audio and transcribe it locally.
41- Save each transcript to `teardowns/<target>/voices/<date>-<person>-<show>.txt` with the source link.

Getting the Words

  • YouTube, TikTok, X videos: transcripts via ScrapeCreators (/v1/youtube/video/transcript, /v1/tiktok/video/transcript, /v1/twitter/tweet/transcript), or YouTube's own captions.
  • Podcasts: many feeds publish transcripts (a podcast:transcript tag in the RSS feed), and many shows post episodes to YouTube too. Otherwise, download the audio and transcribe it locally.
  • Save each transcript to teardowns/<target>/voices/<date>-<person>-<show>.txt with the source link.
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43## Extracting Claims
45Read every transcript and pull out claims about growth into `voices.csv`:
47`said_on,person,role,source,claim,topic,dated_to,quote,link`
49- **Topics:** channel, tactic, number, mistake, hire, pricing, positioning, ICP, what's next.
50- **dated_to** is when the thing they describe happened ("our first 1,000 users came from Reddit in early 2024"), which is often different from when they said it.
51- **Quote** the exact words, short. Label every claim "reported": it's what they say, not what was measured.
52- Each claim with a `dated_to` also becomes a row in `moves.csv` (evidence: Inferred, source: reported).
54Then look for:
55- **Claims that match the data** (they say templates drove SEO, and the template family grew before the inflection): strong evidence.
56- **Claims the data doesn't back**: note them. Founders remember the story, not always the order.
57- **Things they say didn't work**: these go straight to plays to skip.
58- **Repeated phrases** across interviews: that's the positioning they've rehearsed.

Extracting Claims

Read every transcript and pull out claims about growth into voices.csv:

said_on,person,role,source,claim,topic,dated_to,quote,link

  • Topics: channel, tactic, number, mistake, hire, pricing, positioning, ICP, what's next.
  • dated_to is when the thing they describe happened ("our first 1,000 users came from Reddit in early 2024"), which is often different from when they said it.
  • Quote the exact words, short. Label every claim "reported": it's what they say, not what was measured.
  • Each claim with a dated_to also becomes a row in moves.csv (evidence: Inferred, source: reported).

Then look for:

  • Claims that match the data (they say templates drove SEO, and the template family grew before the inflection): strong evidence.
  • Claims the data doesn't back: note them. Founders remember the story, not always the order.
  • Things they say didn't work: these go straight to plays to skip.
  • Repeated phrases across interviews: that's the positioning they've rehearsed.
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60## Job Posts as Strategy Documents
62Read the full text of current and past job posts, not just titles. Past posts are on Wayback (`web.archive.org/web/*/target.com/careers*`) and on job boards.
64What to pull from each post:
65- **The mandate:** "own our PLG motion", "scale programmatic SEO to 10,000 pages", "launch our partner program", "build our first outbound team". This is the plan, written down.
66- **Numbers:** team size, targets, budgets ("manage $2M/year in paid").
67- **Tools named:** the stack the team uses.
68- **Reports to:** where the function sits.
69- **First seen:** the date the post first appeared, which dates the push.
71Add each mandate to `moves.csv` as `kind: hire` with the posting date. [TheirStack](../../../tools/integrations/theirstack.md) searches job posts by company if the user has it.

Job Posts as Strategy Documents

Read the full text of current and past job posts, not just titles. Past posts are on Wayback (web.archive.org/web/*/target.com/careers*) and on job boards.

What to pull from each post:

  • The mandate: "own our PLG motion", "scale programmatic SEO to 10,000 pages", "launch our partner program", "build our first outbound team". This is the plan, written down.
  • Numbers: team size, targets, budgets ("manage $2M/year in paid").
  • Tools named: the stack the team uses.
  • Reports to: where the function sits.
  • First seen: the date the post first appeared, which dates the push.

Add each mandate to moves.csv as kind: hire with the posting date. TheirStack searches job posts by company if the user has it.

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