Check out a vendor, client or job offer

A new supplier, a client who wants a retainer, a job offer that looks great: each one is a commitment, and it pays to look before you sign. You don't need an investigator. An hour with an AI assistant (web search on) and four angles covers most of what matters, and the result is less a verdict than a list of good questions to ask.

Before you start: five minutes on the brief

Write down the decision, the question and what's out of scope. It keeps the research on track and stops it turning into collecting things you don't need.

Help me write a short research brief before I start.
Decision I need to make: [e.g. whether to sign a 12-month contract with this supplier]
The question in one sentence: [e.g. are they stable, and do their claims hold up?]
Who exactly: [legal name, location, website, any registration number]
Out of scope: [e.g. anyone's personal life, family, health]
What a good answer looks like: [e.g. go, no-go or ask first, with reasons and sources]
Time budget: one hour.
Ask me up to three questions to tighten this, then give me the brief as a short list.

The four angles

1. Who they are. Ask the AI to list name variants and look-alike companies you must not confuse with this one, then confirm the legal name and registration. Every later finding should tie back to the right entity.
2. What they claim. Paste their sales page, pitch or job ad into the Claim extractor. Pick the five claims that matter to your decision and grade them on the verdict ladder from Research with receipts. A claim backed only by them is Unsupported, not false.
3. Track record. Look for patterns, not single reviews. Note what you searched, where and when, so a clean result means something. See "Nothing found", done right.
4. Fit and terms. Ask what it costs over a year, what you're committing to, how you get out, and what happens if it goes wrong. Note what they don't publish. For contract wording, use the Contract and policy reader, and for anything that matters, ask your lawyer.

Using only the evidence and sources from this chat, write a one-page brief on [name] for my decision: [decision].
Sections:
- Bottom line (two sentences)
- What they actually are
- Claims against evidence (claim, what the evidence shows, verdict)
- What isn't published
- Checks run, and what they didn't cover
- Gaps and how confident we can be
- Questions to ask them before I decide
- Sources, with dates
Neutral tone. Don't add any fact that isn't backed by a source from this chat.

Three versions of the same hour

• A vendor: check the registration, test two of their headline claims, read reviews on at least two sites, and price the contract over its full term, including the exit.
• A client: confirm the business is real and active, look for a pattern of disputes or late payment in public records, and check that the scope they describe matches what they'll sign.
• A job offer: confirm the employer and role are real, check recent news and reviews from staff, compare the pay with published ranges for the role, and read the offer letter for anything that wasn't said out loud.

Common mistakes

• Researching the wrong company because the name matched.
• Treating their own website as evidence about them.
• Reading one bad review as a pattern, or no reviews as a clean record.
• Skipping the exit: what it costs to leave is part of the price.
• Letting the AI's bottom line replace your judgement. It finds and drafts; you decide.