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Company Research Brief

To generate a structured company research brief programmatically, use Deepline’s 2-pass play: web search (Claude Code’s native web agent, Exa, or Parallel AI depending on the use case) gathers raw web data (news, funding, hiring), then call_ai synthesizes it into a consistent brief. Separating search from synthesis means each step can be validated independently — the AI only summarizes verified search results.
B2B buyers are 57% through the purchase decision before engaging a sales rep, according to CEB/Gartner research. Pre-call research briefs ensure your team walks in with context that matches where the buyer already is.
The play gathers and structures publicly available information about a target account — recent news, funding status, hiring trends, product launches, pain points — so your sales team walks into every call prepared.

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How do I research a company with Claude Code?

Tell Claude Code what companies to research and what angle matters to you. Deepline handles the multi-step search and synthesis automatically. Pass a single domain or a CSV of hundreds of targets.
“Research these target accounts and create a one-page brief for each”
“I need pre-call research on stripe.com — recent news, funding, hiring trends, product launches”
“Build research briefs for each company in targets.csv — focus on pain points relevant to cybersecurity”
With Codex: 
codex "Research these target accounts and create a one-page brief for each company"

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What does the research workflow do step by step?

Two passes: first, search the web for raw information; second, synthesize it into a structured brief with consistent sections. Each pass uses a different tool.
1

Read your target list

Claude Code reads targets.csv and identifies company domains or names.
2

Search for each company (Pass 1)

For each company, web search gathers recent news, funding announcements, hiring activity, and product launches. 25+ providers feed the search for broad coverage.
3

Synthesize into structured brief (Pass 2)

call_ai processes the raw search results into a structured brief with consistent sections.
4

Write output

Results are written to research-briefs.csv with columns: company, summary, recent_news, funding_status, hiring_signals, pain_points.

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Which providers and AI models power the research?

Two tools run in sequence. Separating search from synthesis is what makes it more reliable than single-pass tools. B2B data decays at roughly 22.5% per year (HubSpot via Cognism), so the live web search in Pass 1 keeps your briefs current rather than stale. Pass 1 — Web search: Queries the web for recent, relevant information about each company using Claude Code’s native web agent, Exa, or Parallel AI depending on the use case. Multiple searches may run per company (news, funding, hiring) to get comprehensive coverage. Pass 2 — call_ai: Takes the raw search results and synthesizes them into a structured brief. The AI follows your prompt to focus on what matters (e.g., “pain points relevant to cybersecurity”). 
deepline tools execute exa_search \
  --payload '{"query":"stripe.com recent news funding hiring 2026"}'
Customize the research focus by being specific in your prompt. “Focus on pain points relevant to cybersecurity” produces very different briefs than “focus on growth and expansion signals.”
Related: Enrich Company | Competitive Landscape | Qualify & Score Leads

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Frequently Asked Questions

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How do I research a company before a sales call?

Tell Claude Code: “Research stripe.com — recent news, funding, hiring trends, product launches.” Deepline runs a 2-pass search (web search for raw data, call_ai for synthesis) and returns a structured brief with summary, news, funding status, hiring signals, and pain points.

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Can I research companies in bulk from a CSV?

Yes. Point Claude Code at a CSV with company domains or names: “Build research briefs for each company in targets.csv.” Each company goes through the 2-pass workflow and results land in a single output CSV. No batch-size limit — runs of 200+ companies work without configuration changes.

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How accurate is AI-powered company research?

It depends on how much public information exists. Well-funded companies with active press coverage produce the richest briefs. For stealth-mode startups or very small companies, web search may return limited results — the brief will have thinner sections rather than hallucinated content, because search and synthesis are separated.

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Why run company research inside the IDE?

Research briefs are generated in the same environment where you manage your data and build workflows. Describe the research focus in plain language — no template configuration, no UI columns. The 2-pass approach (search, then synthesize) lets you inspect raw search results before synthesis, and you can customize the output format by adjusting the prompt.

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How much does a company research brief cost?

Each brief uses 1 web search credit and 1 call_ai credit. For a batch of 50 companies, expect roughly 50-100 credits depending on whether Claude Code runs multiple searches per company for deeper coverage.