# Positioning and competitors

URL: /code/builders/startup/positioning · Id: `page:code/builders/startup/positioning`

> 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](/business/nouns/startup) stands against what its [ICP](/business/nouns/icp) uses today. It compiles from the Founding [Hypothesis](/business/nouns/hypothesis), so every [Page](/business/nouns/page), [Ad](/business/nouns/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](/business/nouns/organization), spreadsheet, or person they would leave |
| Differentiation | Where the Startup wins | The differentiation slot: two axes, each measured by a [Metric](/business/nouns/metric) |
| Value | What winning is worth | The [Problem](/business/nouns/problem)'s current cost, in time or money |
| [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) | Who cares most | The customer slot: the ICP |
| Category | Where a buyer looks for it | The [Story](/business/nouns/story)'s category |
| One-liner | All of it in one sentence | The Story's one-liner |

The [Marketing Lead](/agents/marketing/marketing-lead) writes the positioning from those parts, and the [Founder](/agents/founding/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](/systems/marketing/market-data) watches each competitor from the outside: search rankings, answer citations, the ads it runs, and its social reach, each with provenance. [Strategy](/workflows/processes/strategy) reads those readings beside the Startup's own [Evidence](/business/nouns/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](/business/nouns/audience) the Startup owns.

Data that compounds with each Customer is another, and so is a low cost that the [Portfolio](/business/nouns/portfolio)'s shared [Systems](/business/nouns/system) 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](/code/builders/startup/experimentation) ranks it for testing first.

A comparison published on a Page names a competitor only truthfully. [Comparative advertising](/systems/legal-and-corporate/floor/comparative-advertising) requires every comparative claim to be substantiated before it runs. A competitor that disputes a claim writes to the [legal notices](/systems/trust-and-governance/intakes) intake.

## When positioning changes
The differentiation slot changes through an [Experiment](/business/nouns/experiment). A fake door tests a new axis on the live [Site](/business/nouns/site) before anything is built, and the winning [Variant](/business/nouns/variant) becomes the slot.

A changed slot is a new Founding Hypothesis version. Site copy, [Offers](/business/nouns/offer), and [Plays](/business/nouns/play) built on it recompile, and the diff is previewed as a [Change](/business/nouns/change) before it lands. On a Live Startup, a new version is a [pivot](/business/nouns/startup/pivot), recorded as a [Decision](/business/nouns/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](/business/record/customers-and-hypothesis): the five slots positioning reads from.
- [Marketing playbook](/workflows/marketing/playbook): how positioning drives every Page and Play.
- [Experimentation](/code/builders/startup/experimentation): how a slot is tested.