Most “competitive intelligence” in a young company is the founder reading at midnight. That is not a layer. That is a habit that dies the week the company gets busy.
What a layer is
A strategic intelligence layer is standing. It has named inputs, a place claims live, a cadence where they meet a decision, and a rule for killing a claim that has expired.
A briefing is a file. A layer is a system you can point at when someone asks “what do we believe about this competitor, and how old is that belief?”
SENSE is the five-move version I publish:
- Scan — what must be sensed continuously?
- Evaluate — what evidence counts?
- Navigate — who decides, on what cadence?
- Simulate — what breaks before it hits a customer?
- Execute — what action lands with an owner?
Skip Simulate and you execute into a void. Skip Evaluate and you scan yourself into a trance.
Ninety days, four artifacts
Do not install five agent systems in a quarter. Install four artifacts.
Days 1–30 — Watchlist. Ten named signals, not a hundred. Each signal has a source and an owner. If it cannot change a Monday decision, it does not belong.
Days 31–60 — Assumption register. The bets you are already making, written down, with a confidence grade and an expiry. This is a thin evidence ledger, not an academic apparatus.
Days 61–75 — Cadence. One recurring meeting or written loop where a claim can change a decision. If the claim cannot reach that loop, stop collecting it.
Days 76–90 — Kill rule. Claims older than the expiry are retired in public. Silence is how zombie beliefs run a company.
The worksheets already hold the templates. Use those. Do not invent a second kit.
What this is not
It is not a dashboard wall. It is not a promise that agents replace judgment. SENSE exists so a model can produce a sourced claim instead of a vibe.
AI Agents for Startup Strategy is the book. What is an AI agent? is the worker definition. This page is the calendar.
If you cannot name the Monday decision this layer will change, you are not ready for the agents. You are ready for the watchlist.