This week we had Chris Williams, Co-Founder & Managing Director at Wolves Not Sheep, join the Bowery Capital Startup Sales Podcast to discuss "Early-Stage Startup Positioning."
Here are some of the main questions and ideas we discussed in the podcast:
1. To kick things off, Chris, let’s talk about what we even mean by early-stage startup positioning. What all does that entail?
2. What's the end goal here of your early-stage startup positioning exercise? Is it that you can get to that product-market-fit faster, you can attract investment faster, waste less time figuring out what resonates in the market, etc.?
3. Let's talk about just the positioning creation process more broadly and then we can dive into each step individually. How would you outline the typical process for ideating and executing your early-stage positioning?
4. Let's get into the actual how. I've done some customer discovery, but it hasn't really been specifically related to my positioning. Do I need to do discovery again now that I'm more specifically focused on positioning or do I go back to them with a couple ideas?
5. Let's dig into these seven fundamental components that really make up your starting point when you're trying to get this exercise off the ground.
6. Are you going through this exercise and then testing it all at once or are you testing it piecemeal?
7. Any differences between horizontal SaaS and vertical SaaS or SaaS vs. marketplaces when it comes to strategy or process?
8. What about ICP and buyer persona? Does that change the process at all?
9. Let's touch on this second piece of actually the expression of that positioning. What does that look like?
10. What are some common mistakes early-stage startups make when it comes to positioning?
11. Any additional resources or final tips and tricks you want to share?
Big thank you to Chris for coming on the podcast and sharing his insights with us!
After nearly two decades in advertising and brand building, Chris co-founded Wolves Not Sheep to collaborate with early-stage founders to craft uncommon brand strategies. Leveraging tools from business design to creative development, he works to build alignment of investors, internal teams, and consumers. He has worked across a wide range of industries helping organizations, startups and teams to build market-defining positions and human-centered marketing. He also mentors for several accelerators across the country.
If you liked “Early-Stage Startup Positioning” and want to read more content from the Bowery Capital Team, check out other relevant posts from the Bowery Capital Blog.
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