Analytical briefing on a business contact

Know who you’re meeting — before you walk in.

You have a meeting that matters. We prepare a written briefing on the person across the table: their role and mandate, how they got there, what they have publicly argued for, and where the conversation is likely to go wrong. Built from public sources, with every claim sourced.

  • Public sources only
  • Every claim carries its source
  • Written by analysts, checked before delivery
Briefing excerpt Section 3 of 7

What they argue for in public

Has consistently pushed for phased rollouts over big-bang launches — three separate conference talks, 2024–2026.

Confirmed · 2 independent sources


Reported relocation to Zurich in 2025.

Not confirmed · single source, excluded from conclusions

Before an important meeting, you know too little about the person

Searching yourself eats an evening

Twenty browser tabs, a LinkedIn profile written by a marketing team, and three interviews you skim at midnight. You end up with facts, not with a read on the person.

An assistant gives you a list of links

Delegation moves the tabs, not the thinking. Someone still has to decide which of the two people with that name is yours, and which claim is actually load-bearing.

You walk in and improvise

Which works, until the one thing you didn’t know is the thing they care about most — a public position they have argued for years, or a topic that ends the conversation.

How it works

Three steps, one working day

  1. 01

    You tell us who and why

    Name, company, and — most importantly — what the meeting is about. The purpose shapes the whole report: a briefing before an investment decision and one before a hiring call are not the same document.

  2. 02

    We build and verify

    We identify the right person first — ambiguity stops the work rather than producing a confident answer about the wrong human being. Then we gather from public sources and mark each claim as confirmed or not.

  3. 03

    You get a document you can read on the way

    A written briefing, structured for someone with fifteen minutes. Key points first, evidence behind them, and an explicit list of what we could not establish.

What’s inside

Seven sections, written to be used — not filed

Who this person is

Role, mandate, and the decisions that are actually theirs to make.

How they got here

The career path that explains the current position, not a chronological résumé.

What they argue for publicly

Positions taken on record — talks, interviews, published writing — with dates and sources.

How they work with others

Observable patterns: what they praise, what they push back on, how they handle disagreement in public.

What to open with

Concrete ground to stand on, tied to the purpose of your meeting.

What to avoid

Topics likely to close the conversation, and why.

What we could not establish

Named explicitly. A gap stated is worth more than a gap filled with a plausible guess.

Source log

Every source consulted, with the date it was accessed and the level of confidence attached to it.

Who uses this

Written for the meeting you cannot repeat

Enterprise sales & partnerships

You have one call with the decision maker. The briefing tells you what they have already committed to publicly, so you are not pitching against their own stated position.

Investment & M&A

You are backing a founder, not a deck. A record of what someone has claimed, delivered, and walked back is due diligence on the person.

Executive hiring

The final candidate looks strong on paper. The briefing surfaces what is publicly on record beyond the paper — and flags where the record is thin.

Legality and limits

Public sources, stated limits, no surveillance

This is business analysis, not investigation. We work only from information the person or a publisher has made public. We do not access private records, we do not use leaked databases, and we do not follow anyone.

  • Public sources only. Company filings, official sites, established press, published talks and writing.
  • Every claim is sourced. Each key fact carries its origin, the date it was accessed, and a confidence level.
  • Two independent sources before a claim is marked confirmed. One source means it stays marked unconfirmed.
  • Gaps are stated, never filled. “Not established” is a legitimate finding and appears in the report.
  • Not a basis for legally significant decisions about a person. It is preparation for a conversation.
  • You confirm a legitimate business interest when you request a briefing.

Questions

Before you ask

How is this different from searching myself?

Mostly in what happens after the search. Identifying the right person, separating a claim with two independent sources from one repeated by twenty sites, and deciding what actually matters for your specific meeting — that is the work, and it is what takes the evening you do not have.

What if you can’t find enough?

Then the report says so, section by section. A briefing that admits thin coverage is useful; one that pads it out with plausible-sounding filler is worse than nothing, because you would act on it.

Do you contact the person?

No. Never. The subject of a briefing is not contacted, surveyed, or approached in any way.

What do you need from me?

The person’s full name, their company or role, and what the meeting is about. If several people share the name, we will come back to you rather than guess.

How long does it take?

Normally within one working day of us confirming we have the right person.

What does it cost?

We are quoting per request while the service is new. Send the details and you will get a price with the confirmation.

Request a briefing

Tell us about the meeting

We reply to every request personally. If we cannot do a good job on a particular person, we will say so rather than take the work.

By sending this form you confirm you are requesting the briefing for a legitimate business purpose. We use your details only to prepare and deliver the briefing.

Send us the details

Prefer email? Write to hello@persbrief.com — a person reads every request.