Positioning and competitors
How a Startup's positioning compiles from its Founding Hypothesis, how it tracks competitors, and how every comparison it publishes stays provable.
Positioning is where a Startup stands against what its ICP uses today. It compiles from the Founding Hypothesis, so every Page, Ad, and opening line says the same thing.
Six parts, one source
Positioning is never a separate document. Each part reads from a slot or a record the Startup already keeps.
| Part | Answers | Read from |
|---|---|---|
| Alternative | What the ICP hires today | The switch slot: the Organization, spreadsheet, or person they would leave |
| Differentiation | Where the Startup wins | The differentiation slot: two axes, each measured by a Metric |
| Value | What winning is worth | The Problem's current cost, in time or money |
| Customer | Who cares most | The customer slot: the ICP |
| Category | Where a buyer looks for it | The Story's category |
| One-liner | All of it in one sentence | The Story's one-liner |
The Marketing Lead writes the positioning from those parts, and the Founder makes the calls. Every Page and Ad records the slot and version it came from.
Competitors
A competitor is a company that sells to the same Customers. The Startup records each one as an Organization it competes with. The relationship runs one way: a competitor need not track the Startup back.
The switch slot names the strongest alternative, and it is often not a rival product. A spreadsheet, a bookkeeper, or doing nothing beats most new Startups, so the alternative leads and named rivals follow.
Market data watches each competitor from the outside: search rankings, answer citations, the ads it runs, and its social reach, each with provenance. Strategy reads those readings beside the Startup's own Evidence and keeps the positioning true to both.
The differentiation 2x2
The differentiation slot's two axes form a 2x2. The Startup and each competitor take a placement on it, and each placement cites its Evidence.
The axes are chosen so the Startup sits alone in one corner. The stronger axis is one a competitor cannot buy, such as an Audience the Startup owns.
Data that compounds with each Customer is another, and so is a low cost that the Portfolio's shared Systems make possible.
Proof, not adjectives
Each differentiation axis shows the strongest grade of its outside Evidence, as every slot does. An axis graded Opinion is a guess, and the weekly test ranks it for testing first.
A comparison published on a Page names a competitor only truthfully. Comparative advertising requires every comparative claim to be substantiated before it runs. A competitor that disputes a claim writes to the legal notices intake.
When positioning changes
The differentiation slot changes through an Experiment. A fake door tests a new axis on the live Site before anything is built, and the winning Variant becomes the slot.
A changed slot is a new Founding Hypothesis version. Site copy, Offers, and Plays built on it recompile, and the diff is previewed as a Change before it lands. On a Live Startup, a new version is a pivot, recorded as a Decision.
Example
platecost.app names the spreadsheet and the bookkeeper as the alternative, and two restaurant back-office suites as rivals. Its axes are speed (margins the same day) and grain (cost per plate), worth four owner hours a week. Its one-liner reads: "plate costs that update the day the invoice arrives."
Next
- Customers and hypothesis: the five slots positioning reads from.
- Marketing playbook: how positioning drives every Page and Play.
- Experimentation: how a slot is tested.