Strategy & Positioning

Before channels and budgets comes the harder question: what game are you playing, and for whom? These guides cover go-to-market strategy, positioning, demand creation, and launch planning for Seed–Series B startups — the decisions that make every downstream marketing dollar work harder.

24 articles, 4 h 45 min of reading in all.

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Every article in Strategy & Positioning, newest first

  1. Employer Branding for Startups: How to Attract Engineers Without a Famous Name

    26 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Brand & Voice

    Build an employer brand for engineers from facts: research what candidates doubt, write an employee value proposition, publish pay and process, and measure hiring with five numbers.

  2. Running a Discovery Call: Ask About the Problem, Not Your Product

    9 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Sales & Pipeline

    Run a 30-minute discovery call: open with an agenda, ask about the problem and its impact, price the pain, learn who decides, agree a dated next step.

  3. Value Proposition and Messaging Framework: Turn Your Positioning Into One Story

    9 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    A value proposition is one promise to one buyer: outcome, mechanism and proof. Build one core message and 3 to 4 pillars on it, each backed by proof.

  4. Running and Synthesizing Customer Interviews

    9 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Audience & Customer Research

    Ask about real, recent events, code notes the same day, count people not quotes, weight problems by cost, and stop when three interviews add nothing new.

  5. The B2B Buying Committee: How to Market to Everyone Who Signs Off

    11 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Sales & Pipeline

    B2B software is bought by a group. Map each role and its question, message the whole group, and equip your champion. Five steps with one example company.

  6. How to Launch on Product Hunt Without Wasting the Day

    10 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Launch on Product Hunt with something people can use today. Set goals that fit the crowd, ask for feedback, never upvotes, and follow up for pipeline.

  7. Startup Brand Identity: How to Name a Product, Refresh Your Look and Decide Whether to Rebrand

    11 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Brand & Voice

    Write the foundations first, default to a branded house, pick names across the trademark strength spectrum, clear them in stages, rebrand for a reason.

  8. Category Design for Startups: Create a New Category or Win an Existing One?

    12 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    Create a new category only when the label buyers use judges you on the wrong test and you can fund teaching a new one. Five steps, one worked example.

  9. Founder Story and Company Narrative: How to Tell Yours Without Overpromising

    12 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Brand & Voice

    Explain why this problem, why your team and why now, with every claim true today. Write one company narrative, then cut it for each audience. Five steps.

  10. International Expansion for SaaS Startups: How to Choose and Enter Your First Foreign Market

    11 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Expand abroad once you win at home and foreign buyers find you. Pick the country needing the fewest changes and fix what buyers check first. Five steps.

  11. How to Size Your Market: TAM, SAM and SOM for an Investor Pitch

    13 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    Size your market bottom-up: define the customer, count them, multiply to get TAM, narrow to SAM, build SOM from capacity. Six steps, one worked example.

  12. The Market and Competition Slides in Your Investor Pitch

    11 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    Build market and competition slides that hold up: what investors weigh, the market slide, every real alternative, an honest comparison and sources. Five steps.

  13. How to Market an AI Product (When Every Product Says It Has AI)

    9 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Industry Playbooks

    Market an AI product by the job it does for one buyer, not the word AI. Six steps: lead with the job, prove it on their work, check every claim, price it.

  14. Competitive Analysis for Startups: Research That Changes Decisions

    11 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    List every alternative, including doing nothing, find where you clearly win, and turn the research into the competition slide investors expect.

  15. Product-Market Fit: How to Tell If You Have It

    10 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    You have product-market fit when one segment keeps using and paying without being pushed. Five steps and several signals to check before you scale spend.

  16. The Craigslist Story You Read on LinkedIn Is Wrong. The True Version Is More Useful.

    11 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    Craigslist did not turn down an $11B offer, and it does not make $700M a year. Four of the viral post's five claims fail against the record, and the three lessons that survive are about distribution, pricing and design.

  17. Startup Positioning: How to Become the Obvious Choice (Not a Nice-to-Have)

    12 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    Startup positioning explained: April Dunford's five components, the 95-5 rule, the signs your positioning is broken, and how to niche down and win.

  18. Go-to-Market Strategy Examples: 10 B2B Startup Launches Analyzed

    22 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Ten real go-to-market strategy examples (Slack, Notion, Gong, Figma, Airtable, Linear, Snowflake, Drift, Webflow, Datadog) broken down by ICP, channel mix, messaging, and the sequence each used to find GTM fit.

  19. Marketing Strategy for Startups: A Four-Layer Framework for Founders

    9 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    A startup marketing strategy is four layers decided in order: ICP and positioning, two channels, a 90-day cadence, and a three-tier KPI tree.

  20. How to Build a B2B Go-to-Market Strategy from Scratch: A Founder's Playbook

    13 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Build a B2B go-to-market strategy in five decisions: ICP, positioning, one entry channel, a gated 90-day launch, and staged metrics.

  21. Product Launch Checklist for Startups: 15 Things Teams Forget

    18 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Most startups don't fail their launch because of a bad idea or weak tech. They fail because the go‑to‑market details are fuzzy. Use this 15‑point checklist to launch with positioning, pricing, onboarding, support, and measurement actually ready.

  22. Why the Core Principles of Marketing Haven't Changed in the Age of AI

    9 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Strategy & Positioning

    AI made marketing output cheap, so output stopped being an advantage. Buyers still shortlist the brands they remember and trust proof; here is which decisions to keep and which work to hand to AI.

  23. Demand Creation vs. Demand Capture: What Each Does and How to Rebalance

    10 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Demand capture wins buyers who are already looking; demand creation adds to the buyers who will look later. Here is why capture alone runs out, how to rebalance toward creation, and how to measure it.

  24. Marketing Strategy Roadmap: A One-Page Plan for a New Business

    7 min read — Category: Strategy & Positioning

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    A marketing strategy for a new business fits on one page: who you serve, the problem you solve, your positioning, two or three channels, 90-day milestones and the measures that decide what stays. Here is how to fill in each line, with a worked example.