Question 1

How quickly can I get access?

Accepted Answer

Immediately after payment – fully automatic, login credentials sent by email.

Question 2

Who is MinimalTools for?

Accepted Answer

For any leadership team that wants to make strategic decisions based on real data – from SMEs to large enterprises.

Question 3

Why not just use ChatGPT?

Accepted Answer

ChatGPT delivers unverified prose based on its training – without a source per fact, without fact-checking, without your company context. It can also hallucinate, for example confusing one company with another. MinimalTools is not chat output but a 7-stage research pipeline: it researches current public data in real time, backs every claim with a source and verbatim quote via a verification cascade, and structures the result so it's decision-ready for the board meeting. At volume (5 users, 4 reports/month) the ChatGPT route costs around CHF 2,500 per month including proofreading – the MinimalTools Starter plan costs CHF 1,490. In short: generic AI answers questions – MinimalTools prepares evidence-backed decisions.

Question 4

What exactly is a MinimalTools report?

Accepted Answer

Not chat output, but a 7-stage research pipeline: it integrates leading deep-research providers and website scraping, generates hundreds of sub-queries per report, and checks every fact in a multi-stage verification cascade; facts without a sufficient source basis are discarded. A market analysis contains 50–100 decision-relevant, sourced statements instead of 20–30 pages of free text. The method was developed over years in research (Innosuisse) and client projects – including with Swiss Post, SBB, Pistor, Gehrig Group and the economic development agency of the Canton of Bern.

Question 5

CHF 390 for a trial month – isn't that expensive for an SME?

Accepted Answer

Depends what you compare it to. An external strategy consultancy for a comparable analysis costs CHF 5,000 to 50,000. An internal employee who spends half a day researching costs CHF 300–800 depending on salary level – for a single analysis. MinimalTools costs CHF 390 for the entire trial month.

Question 6

What makes you better than a regular Google search?

Accepted Answer

Google finds pages. MinimalTools analyses, structures and evaluates – and puts everything into a strategically relevant context. Imagine googling a competitor: you find 50 pages, have to decide yourself what's relevant, manually compile everything and then put it into a format you can present in a meeting. That takes hours. MinimalTools does all of this automatically – including sources, fact-checking and structure. In 25–35 minutes.

Question 7

Isn't this just a fancy wrapper around ChatGPT?

Accepted Answer

Understandable question – but no. We orchestrate multiple LLMs and AI agents into a high-performance research system. The real value lies in particular in what is built around them: real-time data research, fact-checking engine, structured report logic, company memory and behaviourally optimised question architecture. The LLMs are the language engines.

Question 8

Is MinimalTools audit-ready and traceable?

Accepted Answer

Yes. MinimalTools cleanly separates three layers: the audit trail records what happened, when and by whom. Provenance traces every reported fact back to its authoritative source without gaps – you see where a statement comes from. And governance documents how a decision was reached: roles, phases and votes with name and timestamp. Even months later you can reconstruct who decided on a market entry, when and on what data basis – and who was against it. “The tool is audit-ready and supports us in demonstrating and documenting various standards.” – Daniel Scheidegger, CEO, Gehrig Group AG

Question 9

How does my team work in the platform?

Accepted Answer

Instead of hundreds of isolated chat threads, you work in a shared state: an idea board with voting, clear roles (stakeholder, analyst, admin), shared sessions and live sync. Decisions take shape transparently as a team – with votes including name and timestamp.

Question 10

Why would someone buy this when they can build it internally with AI?

Accepted Answer

You could ask the same question about any SaaS offering. Yes, technically you can build many things yourself – but who builds it, who maintains it, who continuously improves it? Our clients are leadership teams, not development teams. They want a result in hours – not a 6-month development project with an uncertain outcome. And we've invested many years of development, research and Innosuisse funding into the platform. An internal project won't catch up in 6 months.

Question 11

Where does my data go?

Accepted Answer

All data is processed exclusively in the EU on AWS – never in the US. The platform runs inside a private, isolated Virtual Private Cloud. Tenants are strictly isolated at every layer: API, database, file storage and compute. Other customers never see your data. AI processing runs on AWS Bedrock exclusively within the EU – your data is never used to train AI models.

Question 12

How reliable are the AI-generated analyses?

Accepted Answer

No automated system is 100% error-free – this applies to MinimalTools just as it does to any other information source. What we do differently: we extract structured facts and discard those with too weak a source basis – every reported fact is backed by a source, and interpretations are marked as such. This makes the risk of hallucinations significantly lower than with a pure AI chat, and you can verify every statement immediately. We call this integrated fact-checking. MinimalTools is a decision support tool – not a decision machine. Final responsibility stays with the leadership team. But the foundation is significantly better than manual research.

Dimension	AI tool	MinimalTools
Output	Prose without clear structure	Decision-ready, verified reports
Methodology	Subjective application	Sound, maintained, reproducible method
Evidence	Few sources, hallucinates	Source and verbatim quote per statement
Governance	No audit trail	Provenance: who, when, based on what
Collaboration	Chat histories, simple sharing	Shared board, voting, roles
Data handling	US servers, unclear data handling	AWS EU (Frankfurt), no model-provider access

Option	Cost per analysis	Sourced & audit-ready
External agency	CHF 3,000–15,000	partly
In-house (half to full working day, CHF 150/h)	CHF 600–1,200	no
ChatGPT (prompting/correction only, 3 h, excl. subscription)	CHF 450	no
MinimalTools	CHF 275*	yes

What's included	Incl. 3 reports in the trial month LITE CHF 390 / mo billed monthly	Recommended STARTER CHF 1'490 / mo billed monthly	PROFESSIONAL CHF 2'490 / mo billed monthly
Reports per month	Billed per reportCHF 350.– per report	4 reports	8 reports
Users	1	5	15
Upload and analyse your own documents
AI planner & analyst
Proactive prompts
Discussion board
Additional reports available
360° stakeholder assessment	CHF 350.– per participant	CHF 350.– per participant	CHF 350.– per participant
	Choose plan For individuals in analysis mode. First month as a trial month with 3 reports. Cancel monthly.	Choose plan For teams running their first strategic analyses.	Choose plan For teams with regular analysis needs.

Strategic analyses in hours, not weeks.
Robust and traceable.

AI tools deliver fragments. Your board demands evidence.

Arbitrary

Unverified

Not defensible

From planning to decision

01Planning

02Analysis

03Decision

Your data, market intelligence, team knowledge – united in one platform. Decision-ready in hours.

What our clients say

ChatGPT is fine for brainstorming. Board decisions are missing six things.

What does MinimalTools get you? Run the numbers.

Every management team asks first: where does our data go?

The team behind MinimalTools

Christian Kalbassi

Matthias Junker

Peter Kauf

Bettina Höchli

Plans

Enterprise

Frequently asked questions

Your first reports are on us.

Strategic analyses in hours, not weeks.Robust and traceable.