---
number: "004"
slug: "004"
title: "A competitor teardown, cited and on slides, before lunch"
summary: "Perplexity's Deep Research gathers the evidence, Gemini Notebook cross-examines it with your own docs, and Gamma 5 turns the synthesis into an editable deck where every claim still has a source."
chain: ["Perplexity", "Gemini Notebook", "Gamma"]
for: "Strategists, founders, PMs and agency planners who get asked 'what are the other guys doing?' on a Tuesday and need a defensible answer by Thursday"
time_to_set_up: "About 2 hours for the first teardown (estimate), under an hour once the prompts are saved"
cost: "From $20/mo (Perplexity Pro) with Gemini Notebook and Gamma on free plans"
last_verified: "Oct 2026 (desk-checked, not run end-to-end)"
date: "2026-10-14"
---

# A competitor teardown, cited and on slides, before lunch

**Chain:** Perplexity → Gemini Notebook → Gamma

## Why now

Each of the three tools changed in the last four months, and together the changes close the gap between "research" and "something you can put in front of a client":

- **Perplexity moved Deep Research into Computer** (Jun 11, 2026). It now plans its own searches, can pull from premium sources such as PitchBook and Statista on paid plans, and hands back files (PDF, deck, dashboard) with inline citations instead of a chat transcript. ([Perplexity blog](https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/deep-research-now-in-computer))
- **NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook** (Jul 16, 2026). Same source-grounded idea: answers come only from the documents you add, with clickable citations. Since Sep 2, usage runs on a compute budget that refreshes every 5 hours up to a weekly cap, which is friendlier to one big working session. ([Google blog](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-notebook/notebooklm-gemini-notebook/), [plans](https://support.google.com/notebooklm/answer/16206866))
- **Gamma 5** (Oct 6, 2026) rebuilt the editor around a conversational agent and a freeform canvas, and imports and exports PPTX and PDF on every plan, including Free. ([Gamma pricing](https://gamma.app/pricing))

## Who it's for

Anyone who has to explain a market quickly and can't afford to be wrong in front of the room: strategists, founders preparing a board update, PMs scoping a new feature, agency planners pitching a new category.

## What you get

- A **sourced evidence pack** per competitor (positioning, pricing, recent launches, hiring signals, customer complaints) as PDFs you keep.
- A **notebook** that answers follow-up questions only from that evidence plus your own docs, with citations.
- A **10–14 slide teardown deck** in Gamma, editable and exportable to PPTX, with sources in the speaker notes.

## You'll need

| Tool | Plan you need | Current price (Oct 2026) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | Pro recommended (Free has much lower research limits and no premium sources) | Pro $20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually | [perplexity.ai/pricing](https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/pricing) |
| Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) | Free works (100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook) | $0; Google AI Pro $19.99/mo for higher limits | [Gemini Notebook plans](https://support.google.com/notebooklm/answer/16206866) |
| Gamma | Free works for a draft (400 one-time credits, 10 slides per prompt, Gamma branding). Plus for 100-slide prompts, no branding | $0; Plus $12/mo or $108/yr | [gamma.app/pricing](https://gamma.app/pricing) |

## Setup

### 1. Write the brief once (any doc, 10 min)

Teardowns go wrong when the question is fuzzy. Before you open a single tool, write five lines and save them as `brief.md`:

```text
Client / us: <who we are, one line>
Decision this informs: <e.g. "should we launch a self-serve tier in Q1?">
Competitors (3–5): <name + homepage URL each>
Must-answer questions: pricing & packaging, target customer, last 12 months of launches,
  what customers complain about, where they are hiring
Out of scope: <e.g. enterprise-only features, non-US markets>
```

### 2. Run one Deep Research job per competitor (Perplexity, 30 min mostly waiting)

In Perplexity, start a **Computer** task (Deep Research lives there now) and paste:

```text
Research <COMPETITOR> (<URL>) for a competitive teardown. Use only sources from
the last 18 months unless a fact is structural (founding year, funding history).
Cover, with an inline citation for every factual sentence:
1. Positioning: who they say they're for, in their own words (quote the homepage).
2. Pricing and packaging: every public plan, price, and limit. Note the date seen.
3. Launches in the last 12 months, newest first, with dates.
4. Customer complaints: recurring themes from reviews, forums and support docs.
   Quote 3 representative lines and link each.
5. Hiring signals: open roles by function, and what they suggest.
6. What you could NOT verify. List it explicitly.
Deliver a PDF report. No recommendations; evidence only.
```

Download each PDF. One job per competitor keeps sources focused and makes the citations easier to check.

### 3. Build the notebook (Gemini Notebook, 15 min)

Go to [notebook.google.com](https://notebook.google.com) (the old notebooklm.google.com address redirects) and create a notebook named `Teardown – <topic> – <month>`. Add as sources:

- the Perplexity PDFs from step 2;
- each competitor's **pricing page URL** directly, so the notebook can check Perplexity against the primary source;
- your own material: your positioning doc, pricing, recent win/loss notes;
- `brief.md`.

### 4. Cross-examine before you synthesize (Gemini Notebook, 20 min)

Ask these in the chat, in order. The first one is the honesty step; don't skip it.

```text
1. Compare the pricing in each Perplexity report against the pricing page sources.
   List every mismatch with both citations.
2. Build a table: competitor × (target customer, entry price, top-tier price,
   headline feature, top complaint). Cite each cell.
3. Where do at least two competitors make the same promise? Where is nobody playing?
   Only use the sources. Say "not in sources" rather than guessing.
4. Given the decision in brief.md, what are the three strongest arguments for and
   against? Cite each.
```

Fix anything the mismatch check turns up (usually stale pricing). Then save the answers to 2–4 as notes, or generate a **Report** from the Studio panel and copy its text out.

### 5. Turn it into a deck (Gamma, 20 min)

In Gamma, choose **Create → Paste in text**, paste the synthesis, and give the agent this instruction:

```text
Make a 12-slide competitive teardown for <audience>. Structure:
title; the decision; market map (2x2 from the table); one slide per competitor
(positioning, pricing, recent moves, top complaint); shared promises; white space;
arguments for / against; recommendation placeholder (leave blank for me);
appendix: sources. Keep each slide under 40 words. Put the citation URLs for every
claim in the speaker notes, not on the slide. Neutral, sober style; no stock photos
of handshakes.
```

Then edit in the freeform canvas: fix the 2x2, swap in real logos (from each competitor's press kit), and write the recommendation slide yourself.

### 6. Export and keep the trail (Gamma, 5 min)

Export to **PPTX** or **PDF**. Put the deck, the Perplexity PDFs and a link to the notebook in one folder, so anyone who challenges a slide can follow the citation in under a minute.

## Time to set up

About 2 hours for the first teardown (estimate, not timed). Most of that is waiting on research jobs and the cross-examination step. With the prompts saved, later teardowns take under an hour of active time.

## Cost

- **Minimum:** Perplexity Pro **$20/mo** ($17/mo annual), with Gemini Notebook Free and Gamma Free at $0. Gamma Free decks carry Gamma branding and cap a prompt at 10 slides, so you'd generate in two passes.
- **Comfortable:** + Gamma Plus $12/mo ($108/yr) for unbranded decks and longer prompts.
- **Heavy research use:** + Google AI Pro $19.99/mo for more sources per notebook and higher limits.

Prices are list prices as of Oct 14, 2026.

## Gotchas

- **Citations aren't verification.** Deep Research cites what it found, and sometimes what it found is an SEO roundup quoting last year's prices. Step 4's mismatch check exists because of this. Don't skip it for pricing.
- **Gamma's Plus price went up.** It was $10/mo earlier this year and is $12/mo now. If a tutorial quotes $10, it's out of date.
- **Gamma credits are a hard stop.** Free is a one-time 400 credits. Agent edits spend credits too, so do the heavy rewriting in the notebook, not in Gamma.
- **Gemini Notebook limits changed in September.** Expensive outputs such as Audio and Video Overviews eat the compute budget fastest. This chain only needs chat and Reports, which are cheap.
- **Client confidentiality.** Uploading a client's internal docs to a consumer Google or Perplexity account may breach your contract. Use a Workspace or Enterprise account where the terms cover it, or leave internal docs out.
- **Paywalled sources.** Premium-source access in Perplexity doesn't give you rights to republish that data. Summarize; don't paste tables onto slides.

## Remix

- **Pitch prep:** swap competitors for the prospect's last three press releases and earnings calls, and the deck becomes a "what we heard" opener.
- **Quarterly refresh:** keep the notebook, add new Perplexity reports every quarter, and ask "what changed since <date>?"
- **Skip the deck:** Gemini Notebook can generate a slide deck or infographic from the Studio panel. It's rougher but free.

## Freshness log

- **Oct 14, 2026:** First published. Desk-checked against Perplexity's pricing page and Deep Research-in-Computer post, Google's Gemini Notebook rename post and plans page, and Gamma's pricing page and Gamma 5 launch notes.

---

*Last verified: Oct 2026 (desk-checked, not run end-to-end). We checked every step, setting and price against the vendors' current docs. We have not yet run this chain live. If a step doesn't match what you see, reply and tell us. It'll be fixed in the next refresh.*