FAQ — Venka

Question 1

What is Venka?

Accepted Answer

A compete desk, run as a subscription. Most mid-market software companies know they need someone watching their competitors properly, and can't justify a full-time hire to do it. Venka is that function without the headcount.

Question 2

What actually lands, and when?

Accepted Answer

Three things. A watchlist, which is the standing decision about which rivals get attention and what's serious enough to interrupt your week. A brief every Monday: what moved, what it costs you, what to do about it. And battlecards on the vendors you meet most, kept current rather than written once and left to age in a shared drive.

Question 3

Is this an AI tool?

Accepted Answer

No, and that's deliberate. AI does the collection. A person does the judgement. The hard part of compete work isn't finding the press release, it's knowing which of the forty things that happened last week actually changes a deal you're in, and saying so plainly enough that a seller can use it on Tuesday.

Question 4

Who does the work?

Accepted Answer

Tom O'Neill. Two decades in enterprise B2B communications, including senior roles at BT, Digicel, Movius and Dubber, and the last few years running competitive intelligence and go-to-market programmes for vendors in CX, compliance and telecoms. Venka is deliberately small at this stage, which means you get the analyst rather than an account manager.

Question 5

Where does the intelligence come from?

Accepted Answer

Public sources, every one of them resolvable and dated. If I can't tell you where a claim came from and when it was published, it doesn't go in the brief. Where I'm giving you judgement rather than fact, the brief says so in the line. No pretexting, no ringing your competitors pretending to be a buyer, nothing taken from behind a login.

Question 6

Do you work with my competitors?

Accepted Answer

No. One client per competitive set. If there's a vendor in your category I'm already working with, you'll hear it before anything starts rather than after. That rule costs Venka revenue and it isn't negotiable, because the moment you're wondering whether your brief is also being written for the company across the table, the service is worth nothing to you.

Question 7

What do you need from us to get started?

Accepted Answer

Less than you'd expect. A conversation about which rivals actually turn up in your deals, and access to whoever loses them. The first pack gets built entirely from the outside and usually is. After that, the single thing that improves the work most is two minutes from a seller after a lost deal, not a data integration.

Question 8

How long before it's useful?

Accepted Answer

The first watchlist and brief land inside two weeks, with battlecards following. The honest answer on value is that month one tells you things you half-knew, and month three tells you things you didn't, because by then the desk has watched your market long enough to notice what has changed rather than just what's there.

Question 9

What's a design partner?

Accepted Answer

The first handful of clients, taken on at reduced terms in exchange for telling me what's wrong with it. You get the full service and real influence over what it becomes. I get a market I understand properly and, if it works, a reference. It's a working relationship rather than a discount scheme, and it does involve you answering the phone.

Question 10

How many places are there?

Accepted Answer

A small number, and they're going to companies in CX, contact centre and communications compliance, because that's where I know the market well enough to be useful from week one. If you sit outside those and think it fits anyway, say so. I'd rather hear it than not.

Question 11

When is Venka the wrong answer?

Accepted Answer

If you already have someone doing this full-time and doing it well, you don't need me. If your competitive set is one company and it never changes, a subscription is overkill. And if what you actually want is a one-off report to settle an internal argument, that's a piece of consulting work rather than a compete desk, and I'll say so.

Question 12

What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the size of your competitive set and how much of it needs battlecards. Design partner terms are different again. Tell me what you're up against and you'll have a number in the first conversation.

Question 13

How do we start?

Accepted Answer

Email hola@venka.es with the names of the three competitors you're most tired of losing to. That's usually enough for me to tell you whether this is worth a call.

Frequently asked questions

What it is

Who does the work

Getting started

Fit and pricing

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