Ask for a company research brief from a Slack channel
Looking up the basics on every company that comes across your desk is slow and repetitive.
What the agent did
Jon Goh, who researches companies for investing, built a Zapier workflow in Slack. When someone posts "Research:" and a company name in a set channel, an AI step finds the company's website and a two-line description and posts it in the thread. A person has to click approve to confirm it's the right company. Only then does a longer AI request run, covering the company's products, customers, competitors, funding, and risks. The answer is formatted into sections and posted back in the same thread.
What the owner still checks
The approval step matters, because names like "Acme" match many companies. Each run uses several Zapier tasks and AI usage, which can add up on the free plan. Treat private-company numbers as estimates.
Start with one small workflow and test it on a single example. Add an approval step before anything costly or customer-facing.
Try this job
Starter prompt written by Agents 101. This was written for this guide. It is not a quote from the original post. Change the names, amounts, and accounts so they match you before you send it.
These words are for someone already comfortable with tools and files. If you are just starting, the story above is the useful part.
Research [company] ([website]). Give me a short brief with these headings: what they do, who their customers are, how they make money, three close competitors, recent news or funding, and three risks. Mark anything you're guessing as an estimate and link sources where you can. Keep it under one page.
Source
jgoht.substack.com (opens in a new tab), dated .
Added to Agents 101 on . Any dollar amounts are what the original person said. We did not check them.