Alexander Estner

I help early-stage SaaS founders build & execute their Go-to-market foundation to grow from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀

3 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU 👇
1️⃣ GTM Advisory - Work 1-on-1 with me in bi-weekly GTM sprints
2️⃣ GTM Audit - Get a 360° assessment of your current GTM status quo + custom action plan
3️⃣ GTM Content - Bi-weekly newsletter +  Daily LinkedIn posts + Free GTM Library

P.S. You will find the links to all 3 in the featured section.

Among other things, I help you with:
👉 Creating your early/ideal customer profile (ICP)
👉 Working on positioning, messaging & value proposition 
👉 Choosing the right pricing for your business (pricing model, value metric & packaging)
👉 Implementing the right sales strategy (sales-led vs. product-led)
👉 Mastering 2-3 growth channels to continuously generate new deals/trials
👉 Setting up the right tech stack in sales, marketing & customer success
👉 Building your commercial teams.

Send me a DM on LinkedIn or book a free 15-minute intro call to learn more about my offering.

Startup Consultant for B2B SaaS

As a freelance startup consultant, I help early-stage B2B SaaS Startups quickly grow their business with a powerful Growth Strategy 🚀


I work on both, strategic and operational, levels and help you with the following topics.

► For Founders (Launch to Seed Stage):
- Clarify, validate and stress test your business idea
- Win first paying customers and kickstart growth for your SaaS
- Develop and implement a powerful B2B SaaS Growth strategy
- Find product-market fit and close your first funding (business angels & seed)

► For Startups (Seed to Series A Stage):
- Accelerate your growth to 5M€+ ARR
- Review or implement a powerful B2B SaaS growth strategy
- Optimization of direct & indirect growth channels
- Create a growth team mentality, track the right KPIs, and set OKRs

► For more information:
- check out my website (www.alexestner.com)
- subscribe to my FREE weekly newsletter for founders & early-stage startups (https://startupbusinesstips.substack.com/)

► Interested?
- Send me a DM on Linkedin

Your ICP must define your daily GTM work.

If it doesn’t, you’re not enforcing your ICP.
You just have one on paper.

If the ICP is real, it shows up everywhere 👇

• Hero section of your website
• Customers you choose for case studies and logo carousels
• Your LinkedIn post themes
• Upcoming blog articles
• The dropdowns in your product onboarding
• Mandatory CRM fields that define ICP fit
• Filters you use for outbound list building
• Keywords you monitor on Reddit and LinkedIn
• Industry influencers you follow
• Events and conferences you participate in
• Which features you show first in a sales demo
• The examples you use in sales calls
• The objection handling scripts you prepare
• The integrations highlighted on your homepage
• The use cases shown in product screenshots
• The pricing page structure and plan names
• The success metrics you track post-onboarding
• The landing pages you build (or don’t build)
• The partners you co-market with
• The communities you spend time in

And that’s just the obvious layer.

👉 What else is defined by your ICP?

P.S. This post is part of a short LK series: 6 most common GTM problems I see working with early-stage founders. 
Check out mrrunlocked.com for all 6 and follow for tomorrow's post.

Helping SaaS & AI founders build and execute their GTM foundation to grow from €0 to €1 million ARR with less trial and error | ‘Hands-on’ GTM Advisor👇

You’ve defined your ICP, worked on positioning + messaging.
Now it’s time to show your work to buyers.

That means updating your:
- Website
- LinkedIn profile
- Ads
- Outbound messages

…and your sales deck.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth I've found from working with 30+ startups over the last few years:

Most B2B SaaS decks are either…
- a feature dump, or
- a random collection of slides that don’t build conviction.

But a high-converting sales deck has one job:
Tell a buyer a story they can repeat internally.

In a nutshell, your deck should walk them through:
✅ how they currently handle [use case]
✅ what breaks / why it matters (limitations + cost of doing nothing)
✅ what changes with your product (new way)
✅ what they’ll achieve (results)
✅ why they can trust you (proof + “you’re not alone”)

I put together a slide-by-slide structure + a ready-to-use template built in Pitch.

If you want it, comment “sales deck” and I’ll DM you the link.

Most founders choose their positioning anchor randomly.

They don’t decide it. They drift into it.

And that’s dangerous.

Because your primary positioning anchor determines:

→ How buyers search
→ What they compare you against
→ Who owns the budget
→ What proof you need

Here’s the simplified breakdown of the 4 primary anchors:

1️⃣ Activity Positioning
“We help you do X.”
→ You’re replacing manual workflows
→ No category exists
→ Goal: Create awareness

2️⃣ Use Case Positioning
“We help you do X without Y.”
→ You’re fixing broken workflows
→ Category is emerging
→ Goal: Own the use case

3️⃣ Product Category Positioning
“We are a X.”
→ Buyers already compare vendors
→ Clear budget line exists
→ Goal: Win comparisons

4️⃣ Competitive Alternative Positioning
“We’re a [Leader] alternative.”
→ Market leader dominates
→ Budget already allocated
→ Goal: Steal demand

The mistake I see?

Founders choose Category positioning...
...when there is no defined category. So they invent 'new categories'.

Or they try Competitive positioning…
…without a strong enough wedge.

Positioning must match buyer awareness and market maturity.

Quick test:

When buyers evaluate you, are they:

A) Comparing vendors and search for specific categories?
B) Comparing you to a specific leader?
C) Describing what they want to achieve, even if they don’t know what type of software solves it?

Your answer tells you your anchor.

If you want the full guide (incl. the decision tree + worksheet), comment “positioning” and I’ll send it over.

---
P.S. Follow Anthony Pierri, Rob Kaminski, and April Dunford to dive deeper into positioning.

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Digital Nudging: User Experience positiv beeinflussen

Climate Change, Risks and Challenges

Digital Advertising

The Complete Digital Marketing Course

'Hands-on’ GTM Advisor || I help SaaS founders build & execute their Go-to-market and go from €0 to €1 million ARR with less trial & error || Join 4000+ SaaS leaders & get my free SaaS GTM tactics in your inbox👇

I help early-stage SaaS founders build & execute their Go-to-market and quickly go from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀

3 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU
1️⃣ GTM advisory - Work with me 1-on-1 in weekly or bi-weekly deep-dive working sessions to build and execute your powerful GTM strategy.
2️⃣ List of 90+ actionable SaaS Growth Tactics and Free SaaS Growth Strategy Worksheet (Links are in the Highlight section).
3️⃣ Free actionable SaaS growth tips: Daily on LinkedIn and bi-weekly in my newsletter (read by 2300+ SaaS leaders)

Bonus: Sponsor my newsletter & reach 2300+ early-stage SaaS founders/leaders/decision makers.

Among other things, I help you with:
- Creating your ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Working on positioning, messaging & value proposition 
- Choosing the right pricing for your business (pricing model, value metric & packaging)
- Implementing the right sales strategy (sales-led vs. product-led)
- Mastering 2-3 growth channels to continuously generate new deals or/and trials
- Setting up the right tech stack in sales, marketing & customer success
- Building your commercial teams.

Send me a DM on Linkedin or book a free 15min virtual coffee to learn more about my offering.

------------
ABOUT ME:

Hi, I'm Alexander Estner - but please just call me Alex.

I'm based in Munich, Germany 🇩🇪 and I've spent my whole career in the startup environment with now more than 10 years of experience in SaaS and marketplaces from being the first commercial employee of a fast-growing SaaS-enabled-marketplace to being a Co-founder of a SaaS startup and now supporting other early-stage founders on their journey from pre-revenue to the first €1 million ARR.

Over the last 2 years, I've helped 25+ SaaS companies grow their business faster with a powerful GTM strategy - as a growth advisor, consultant, or interim manager.

What I care about: 

- Brainstorming new business ideas 💡
- Sustainability, healthy food, and barista coffee ☕.
- Traveling, well-being, and all kinds of sports like skiing, beach volleyball, yoga, and fitness 🧘‍♂️
- Books & podcasts about startups, leadership, personal development, & positive mindset 📚

------------
💡 Currently getting inspired for a new startup

Go-to-market in 2024 is tough.

My best SaaS GTM Guides help you master GTM in 2024.

1️⃣ The Ultimate Ideal Customer Profile Framework
2️⃣ The Ultimate SaaS Messaging Framework
3️⃣ High-converting SaaS Homepage template
4️⃣ The perfect Sales Deck template
5️⃣ The Ultimate SaaS Pricing Guide
6️⃣ The Best Outbound Tech Stack for SaaS
7️⃣ The Ultimate Content Marketing Guide for SaaS

The 7 Best SaaS GTM Guides 2024

The free Workbook helped 3000+ SaaS leaders build their SaaS GTM Strategy.

The Ultimate SaaS GTM Strategy Workbook [Free]

Grow faster from 0€ to 3€ million ARR with 100+ actionable & proven SaaS Growth Tactics (helped 200+ SaaS leaders)

100+ actionable SaaS growth tactics

Get weekly 3 actionable SaaS GTM strategies and tactics to grow your B2B SaaS business from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀.

MRR Unlocked 🚀 | Alexander Estner | Substack

RevGenius is a group of revenue-generating sales and marketing professionals brought together to learn, share, support, and grow with each other. You can consider us your alt work family!

The Mentoring Club is a pro bono platform where mentors and mentees meet and can schedule mentoring sessions. You can schedule a free mentoring session with me here: https://www.mentoring-club.com/the-mentors/alexander-estner

When I work with AI & SaaS founders, the GTM problem is rarely obvious at first.

On the surface, things look “busy”:
– Content is going out
– Demos are happening
– Tools are in place
– Pipeline exists

But momentum is missing.

When I audit the GTM, it almost always comes down to the same 6 things 👇

1️⃣ ICP exists, but isn’t enforced in decisions
2️⃣ Buyers don’t know what to compare the product against
3️⃣ Demos are feature tours, not a structured narrative
4️⃣ Every deal follows a different sales process
5️⃣ Website, decks, and case studies sound like everyone else
6️⃣ Content is vague and generic

None of this is a “talent” problem.
And it’s rarely a “more effort” problem.

It’s a foundation problem.

How we usually fix it:
– Make the ICP operational (not just a doc)
– Define positioning (what do we replace, how are we different)
– Design a demo structure that guides buyers, not just shows features
– Lock a default sales process with clear next steps
– Align assets around one positioning story

Especially in AI & SaaS, this matters.

Foundations first.
Everything else compounds on top of that.

👉 This post is part of a short LK series: 6 most common GTM problems I see working with early-stage founders. 
Check out mrrunlocked.com for all 6 and follow for tomorrow's post.

Your positioning statement gives your entire team clarity on why you exist.

When it’s missing, you see it immediately:

• Marketing talks about features
• Sales talks about benefits
• Product talks about roadmap
• Founders talk about vision

But no one tells the same story.

A real positioning statement answers:

• Who is your ICP?
• What core problem do they face?
• How do they solve it today?
• What limitations does that create?
• What did you build instead?
• Why are you meaningfully different?

Strong positioning is structured reasoning.

If your team can’t clearly articulate:

• Why you exist
• Why current solutions fall short
• Why you win

Your messaging will always feel inconsistent.

Below you find 4 templates for the different positioning anchors.

👇 Comment your positioning statement below. I will give feedback to every single one.

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When I review early-stage GTM setups, I often see:

– 4 channels running “a bit”
– Positioning that tries to do everything
– No anti-ICP
– Demo calls that are product tours
– CRM data that no one reviews

And when things are not moving, founders ask:

“Should we try more channels?”
“Should we pivot positioning?”
“Should we hire outbound?”

Most of the time, it's not about doing more.
It's about focus and clarity on the foundation.

So before adding anything new, fix what's already there.

Here are 10 GTM fixes you can ship this week 👇

• Define your ICP + Anti-ICP in 5 bullets
• Pick ONE positioning anchor (category OR use case)
• Kill one weak channel
• Add proper attribution (“How did you hear about us?”)
• Push your best case studies everywhere
• Make your LinkedIn profile crystal clear
• Systematize referrals
• Track lost reasons (mandatory field)
• Define when a deal opens & closes
• Review your last 3 demos critically

Choose 2 for your next week.

👇 What's on your list?

If you can’t explain what you do in one sentence...

Your buyers won’t understand it either.

Here are the 4 clean templates 👇

1️⃣ Activity Positioning

Template:
We help [ICP] [manual activity they currently do] so they can [outcome].

Example:
We help B2B SaaS founders track all their customer information in one place so they never lose deal context.

2️⃣ Use Case Positioning

Template:
We help [ICP] [clear job-to-be-done] without [limitations of the status quo].

Example:
We help B2B SaaS founders manage their prospects without juggling spreadsheets and scattered notes.

3️⃣ Product Category Positioning

Template:
We are a [product category] for [ICP].
We are a [product category] with [unique differentiator].

Example:
We are a CRM software for early-stage SaaS founders.
We are a lightweight CRM built for startups.

4️⃣ Competitive Alternative Positioning

Template:
We are a [product category] alternative to [leader] built for [ICP] with [unique differentiator].

Example:
We are a CRM alternative to HubSpot built for early-stage SaaS founders with simpler setup.

👇 Let's drop yours in the comments.

P.S. If you want the full positioning guide + worksheet, send me a DM and I will send it over.

Whenever I start working with a new founder, I don’t start with tactics.

No growth hacks.
No outbound playbooks.
No content strategy.

Instead, I ask questions.

Because after working with 30+ SaaS startups, I’ve learned something:

Most growth problems are actually clarity problems.

Here are a few of the questions I ask early on.

Customers & ICP

• Who specifically is your product built for today?
• Who are your best-fit customers?
• Who should you not target right now?
• What triggers someone to start looking for a solution like yours?

Positioning

• What is your primary positioning anchor?
• What alternatives are customers using today?
• What makes you meaningfully different?

Messaging

• What’s the core message on your homepage hero?
• What objections do you hear all the time?
• What proof do you communicate?

GTM Execution

• What stage of GTM are you currently in?
• What is your primary acquisition channel?
• What sales motion fits your product best?

If founders struggle to answer several of these questions clearly...

We don’t optimize tactics.

We fix the GTM foundation first.

Because once the foundation becomes clear:

• messaging improves
• sales conversations get easier
• pipeline quality increases

GTM suddenly feels much simpler.

Curious:
Which of these questions would be hardest for you to answer today?

---
On Sunday, I published a new newsletter episode on mrrunlocked.com where we deep dive into all 17 questions.

If buyers don’t know what to compare you against, fix this first 👇

1. Decide your anchor

Category positioning (default)
Use-case positioning (if no category exists)

2. Write one clear sentence

We’re a [category] for [use case + ICP]

If you can’t say this cleanly, nothing downstream will work.

3. Name the real alternative you replace today
Not your dream competitor.

The status quo:
-Excel
-Manual workflows
-Agencies
-Internal hacks

4. Define 2–3 competitive buckets

-Status quo
-Incumbents
-Direct competitors

5. Differentiate with sharp contrasts

- Unlike incumbent tools, we...
-Unlike point solutions, we...
-Unlike the status quo, we…

This is GTM foundation work.
Get this wrong and everything slows down:
website, sales, outbound, demos, pricing.

Get it right, and buyers finally know:
“Ah, this is what I should compare you against.”

👉 What's part of your positioning?

P.S. This post is part of a short LK series: 6 most common GTM problems I see working with early-stage founders. 
Check out mrrunlocked.com for all 6 and follow for tomorrow's post.

Most founders don’t have a product problem.
They have a positioning problem.
Last month I had 8 intro calls.

More than half needed 3+ minutes to explain what they’re building.
If I can’t repeat it back in 30 seconds, your buyers won’t either.

So here’s the simple 3-step framework I use with early-stage SaaS founders:

Step 1: Choose your Primary Anchor (What are you?)

When buyers ask:
“What is your product?”

You must answer in one sentence.

You have 4 options:

1️⃣ Activity Positioning
“We help you do X”

2️⃣ Use Case Positioning
“We help you do X without Y”

3️⃣ Product Category Positioning
“We are a X”

4️⃣ Competitive Alternative
“We are a [Leader] alternative”

Choose based on how buyers think today, not how you want them to think.

Step 2: Add a Secondary Anchor (Why you?)

Inside that primary anchor, differentiate:

• Niche down
• Low-cost
• Premium
• Unique attribute
• Lite version

Max 2. Not 5.

Step 3: Combine both into a clear statement

Strong positioning =
Primary Anchor + Secondary Anchor

Example:

(Product Category + Lite + Niche)
“We are a lightweight CRM built for startups.”

Positioning is a bet.
But no positioning is worse than wrong positioning.

If I asked you right now:
“What are you?”

Could you answer in one sentence without rambling?

P.S. I've launched my new positioning guide on mrrunlocked.com You will find the link in the comments.

One GTM problem that keeps repeating:

The GTM assets don’t reflect the 'internal strategy'.

I often review a team’s ICP, positioning, and messaging docs and think:
“This is actually very good.”

Then I look at:

- the website
-the sales deck
-the demos
- the LinkedIn profiles
- the outbound messages

...and the clarity disappears.

What this looks like in practice:

--> ICP and messaging frameworks live in Notion or Miro only
--> Sales decks are 80% product features
--> Homepage copy is fuzzy or overly technical
--> LinkedIn profiles don’t explain what the product is and for whom
--> No clear callout of ICP, category, or status quo problem
--> Strong insights exist, but prospects never see them

This is painful because the thinking is usually solid.

It’s not a strategy problem.
It’s a translation problem.

👇 What's your take?

P.S. This post is part of a short LK series: 6 most common GTM problems I see working with early-stage founders. 
Check out mrrunlocked.com for all 6 and follow for tomorrow's post.

Most startups waste time on growth channels before they’ve even tightened the basics.

Here’s a simple rule: Before adding anything new, fix 2 things you already have. 

Here are 10 quick fixes you can ship this week:

✔ Write your ICP + Anti-ICP in 5 bullets
✔ Choose one positioning anchor
--> product category OR use case. Don’t mix.
✔ Pause your weakest channel
✔ Add "how did you hear about us?" in your signup & demo flow.
✔ Share your best case studies everywhere.
✔ Revamp your LinkedIn profile for ICP clarity
✔ Ask your customers for referrals/warm intros.
✔ Track lost reasons in CRM (mandatory) + review weekly.
✔ Set hard rules for when to open/close deals.
✔ Coach yourself: Review your last 3 demo calls

None of these requires a strategy or expensive experiments.
They just reduce noise, clarify motion, and accelerate pipeline.

Start by simplifying what you already do. Then expand.

👇 What’s that for you?

P.S. For me, long hikes are where most of my GTM simplifications happen.
Distance creates clarity.

Most founders think positioning is about being clever.

It’s not.

It’s about clarity and choosing the right anchor.

There are only 4 real types of positioning in B2B SaaS:
(credits to Anthony Pierri  and Rob Kaminski )

1️⃣ Activity Positioning

“We help you do X.”

You frame your product around a manual activity.

Example (Scheduling):
“Send emails back and forth to find a time.”

You’re replacing spreadsheets, Slack, email.

Best when:
• Market is early
• No clear software category exists
• Buyers still do it manually

GTM goal: Create awareness.

2️⃣ Use Case Positioning

“We help you do X without Y.”

You anchor around a clear job-to-be-done.

Example (Product Analytics):
“Understand how users behave inside your product.”

Buyers know the problem.
They may not think in category terms yet.

GTM goal: Own the use case.

3️⃣ Product Category Positioning

“We are a X.”

Example:
CRM software
Scheduling software
Product Analytics software

Buyers:
• Google the category
• Compare vendors
• Check G2

GTM goal: Win comparisons.

4️⃣ Competitive Alternative Positioning

“We are a [Leader] alternative.”

Example:
HubSpot alternative
Calendly alternative
Mixpanel alternative

Best when:
• A dominant leader exists
• Budget already exists
• You have a strong wedge

GTM goal: Steal demand.

Important:

The same product can be positioned in all 4 ways.
But only ONE anchor should lead your narrative.

Choose based on:

→ Buyer awareness
→ Market maturity
→ What they compare you against

Not based on what sounds cooler.

If you want the full positioning framework + worksheet, head over to mrrunlocked.com

B2B Homepage Positioning // I play 🎸 in the band Good Hangs

Co-Founder @ Fletch | Positioning & Messaging for B2B Startups

Quick test: Can you answer these 4 ICP questions?

Most GTM problems actually start with a bad ICP.

You rarely struggle with tactics.
You struggle with who you should actually target.

Many teams define their ICP like this:

❌ “Mid-sized companies”
❌ “HR teams”
❌ “Any company that wants to automate X”

Which usually means...
the ICP is still too broad.

Before optimizing messaging, content, or outbound, I ask founders four simple questions:

1️⃣ Who specifically is your product built for today?
Not your TAM.

Your actual ICP.

Can you clearly define it with 4–6 attributes like:

• firmographics
• technographics
• persona attributes
• use case

Early-stage startups usually need one segment and one use case.

2️⃣ Who are your best-fit customers?

Look at your existing customers.

Who has:

• the highest usage
• the lowest churn
• the fastest sales cycle

These signals often reveal your real ICP.

3️⃣ What type of customers should you not target right now?

Define your Anti-ICP.

Companies that:

• don’t value your product
• don’t have the pain you solve
• don’t fit strategically

GTM becomes repeatable once you narrow your focus.

4️⃣ What triggers someone to start looking for a solution like yours?

Every purchase has a trigger.

For example:

• a new hire
• a new regulation
• a broken tech stack

Understanding this moment is critical for messaging and demand generation.

Can you answer these four questions today?

Writing blog posts and LinkedIn posts, but still 0 Inbounds.

I call it: "Content is done, but without a strategy"

I mean, the content isn’t designed to support real sales conversations or capture existing demand. 

This usually means teams are creating a lot of TOFU blog posts and random LinkedIn posts.

Results are usually 0 Inbounds.

What this looks like in practice:

- Random LinkedIn posts (or disconnected from ICP pain points)
- No repeatable content format (every post is a different topic)
- No Inbound generating lead magnet
- TOFU blog posts that don’t attract buyers
- Content optimized for likes, not ICP engagements
- No measurement of pipeline influence

How to fix:

- Prioritize BOFU content
alternatives, comparisons, “best X for Y”, use-case pages

- Focus early on the 5% of buyers who are already *in the market*

- Build a content map based on ICP questions by awareness stage
from problem-unaware → problem aware —> solution aware —> product (category) aware —> purchase-decision

- Build a high-performing lead magnet

- Turn real sales objections into posts and articles

- Record customer calls and use insights for your content roadmap (objections, pains, desired outcomes...)

- Measure content by meetings influenced, not impressions
e.g. via self-reported attribution (How did you hear about us?)

👉 What's missing? 

P.S. This post is part of a short LK series: 6 most common GTM problems I see working with early-stage founders. 
Check out the other 5 on mrrunlocked.com and follow for tomorrows post.

graphical user interface, text, application

Whenever I ask founders to walk me through their sales process, this is where it breaks.

Sales is a set of calls, but not a designed journey.
They don’t guide prospects through a set of clearly defined steps.
 So they can’t describe what should happen after each step.

What this looks like in practice:

- Buyers decide on next steps at the end of the call
- 10 demos, 10 different next steps 'agreed'
- Unclear what the goal of each call is
- Deals are created without a clear definition
- Trials are offered without commitment or success criteria
- Deals stall because the next steps were never designed

The root cause. No 'designed' process. 
Meaning no repeatability.

And as it's not repeatable, it's also hard to measure and optimize.

So here's my recommendation: How to fix:

- Define a simple, explicit sales process 
 e.g., Disco → Demo → Trial/Pilot → Close
- Assign a clear goal and exit criteria to each stage
- Define when a trial is “earned” (qualification threshold)
- Create standard follow-ups for each stage (post-demo, trial kickoff, recap)
- Enforce pipeline hygiene: every deal needs a next step and a close date

Ofc, if you're advanced, implement a methodology like SPICED, SPIN, or MEDDIC.

👉 This post is part of a short LK series: 6 most common GTM problems I see working with early-stage founders. 
Check out the other 5 on mrrunlocked.com and follow for tomorrows post.

Most SaaS/AI positioning fails for one simple reason:

Buyers don’t know what you are.

So they also don't know what you replace.
They can't mentally classify you.

So your differentiation becomes useless.

When that happens:

• your messaging feels vague
• demos take too long to explain
• sales conversations become harder

So before improving messaging, I ask founders three positioning questions.

1️⃣ What is your primary positioning anchor?

How should buyers mentally classify your product?

Product category = CRM
Use case = We help you do X

2️⃣ What alternatives are customers using today?

Spreadsheets.
Manual processes.
Internal tools.
Other SaaS products/categories.

Every product replaces something.

3️⃣ What makes you meaningfully different?

Your differentiation needs to be:

clear, believable, and relevant.

Quick check: Could a new visitor understand what your product is in <30 seconds?

Most founders choose their positioning anchor based on opinion.

Here’s a better way:

Choose your primary anchor based on how buyers think today, not how you want them to think.

No strategy debates.
No branding workshops.
Just yes / no.

Use this simple decision tree 👇

Step 0: Leader Dominance Test (Check First)

Q0: Is there a dominant, well-known market leader that:

- Almost every buyer already knows?
- Owns most of the category mindshare?
- Is frequently referenced in conversations?
- Is the default comparison point?

If yes, and you have a clear wedge:
→ Consider Competitive Alternative Positioning

If no, continue below.
(If you choose Competitive Alternative, still validate Category Awareness below.)

Step 1: Category Awareness Test

Q1: When buyers start evaluating solutions, do they:

- Google a specific software category?
- Compare vendors on G2 or Capterra?
- Ask for demos of multiple vendors in the same category?

Examples:

- CRM software
- Scheduling software
- Product analytics software

If buyers already think in category terms:
✅ Yes → Product Category Positioning
❌ No → Go to Step 2

Step 2: Problem Articulation Test

Q2: Can buyers clearly describe what they want to achieve, even if they don’t know what type of software solves it?

Examples:

- “We need to schedule interviews faster.”
- “We need better onboarding walkthroughs.”
- “We need to coordinate approvals more easily.”

If they articulate the job, but not the category:
✅ Yes → Use Case Positioning
❌ No → Go to Step 3

Step 3: Manual Behavior Test

Q3: Is the dominant solution still manual? When you talk to potential customers, do most of them say:

- “We just use spreadsheets.”
- “We handle this in Slack/email.”
- “We don’t really have a tool for this.”

If yes:
✅ Activity Positioning
If no → Re-evaluate your market understanding.

That’s it.
Answer top to bottom.

If you want the full guide + worksheet, send me a DM and I will send it over

One thing I’ve learned working with 30+ early-stage SaaS founders:

Positioning debates don’t end after choosing the anchor.

That’s just the beginning.

Because you can choose the “right” anchor...

...and still lose buyers with the wrong level of specificity.

Here’s what I see all the time.

Founders avoid competition by inventing new categories.

“We’re a Revenue Intelligence platform.”
“We’re a Workflow Orchestration Engine.”

Sounds strategic.

But buyers don’t think that way.

Or they go too high-level on the use case:

“We help companies increase revenue.”
“We improve productivity.”

Technically true.
Practically useless.

Buyers don’t buy “increase revenue.”

They buy:

• Manage pipeline
• Schedule meetings
• Guide onboarding
• Understand user behavior

Clear jobs. Clear boxes.

The opposite mistake also happens:

Founders get so feature-driven that their positioning sounds like a Jira ticket.
That’s too narrow.

Strong positioning lives in the tension between:

Too vague → confusing
Too specific → limiting

When we fix positioning specificity in my GTM audit, something interesting happens:

• The homepage headline gets simpler
• Sales calls get shorter
• Prospects “get it” faster

Positioning isn’t about sounding sophisticated.

It’s about being understood.

If you want me to get your positioning right, send me a DM. I have 1 free spot available starting in April.

Last weekend my wife and I escaped to the Alps for a few days.
One of the first sunny spring weekends after a long winter.

Hiking, fresh air, no Slack notifications. 
Just mountains.

And somewhere between the trails and the views, I realized something again that I tend to forget during busy weeks.

I need these breaks.

Every few weeks.

Being a solopreneur means wearing a lot of hats.
And working very hands-on with founders on their GTM means being fully present, focused, and sharp.

Right now I’m working closely with 6 startups.
Positioning, messaging, content, outbound, go-to-market foundations.

Work I genuinely love.
But it also requires a lot of energy and attention.

These few days in the mountains reminded me that recharging isn’t a luxury.

It’s part of doing great work.

So one of my big focuses for 2026 is simple:
Finding the right balance between deep work and quality time.

Time with family.
Time with friends.
Time away from screens.

Because the goal isn’t just building a business.
It’s building a life that actually feels good to live.

That's the real challenge of solopreneurship.

ZEISS Group

Advising partner accounts on applying performance marketing strategies to address diverse business challenges. Acting as a partner marketing expert, collaborating on omni-channel solutions—including Google Ads, Meta Ads, and WhatsApp advertising—to achieve both short-term and long-term account objectives.

Delivering consultative digital marketing solutions that address customer needs and drive digital maturity in Search. Serving as a trusted partner, advocating new approaches and supporting the adoption and setup of digital campaigns. Providing technical guidance to optimise campaign impact.

Building and managing relationships with external vendors, media agencies, and partners for large-scale activations. Utilising channel marketing techniques for driving Online-to-Offline (O2O) consumer journeys to deliver business outcomes by supporting campaign planning, execution, and optimisation—enhancing brand visibility, digital presence, and retail footfall.

Collaborating with cross-functional teams—including sales, retail, trade, partnerships, brand, and PR—to drive growth initiatives for customers. Developing 360° integrated marketing campaigns (B2B2C, B2B, B2C) and applying insights with a pronounced focus on below-the-line (BTL) and digital, furthering both partner and retail marketing excellence.

Leveraging data analytics to track impact and inform measurement approaches, with particular emphasis on campaign performance and budget allocation across all brand and media initiatives—including mobile, and above-the-line (ATL) like print, OOH.

Collaborating on strategy development, planning, execution, and performance optimisation for campaigns such as “Nobody Sees Like You” and “ZEISS DuraVision® Gold UV,” utilising research and insights.

Ensuring adherence to brand guidelines and maintaining consistency across touchpoints, creative development, media planning and buying, and comprehensive measurement—maximising the effectiveness of campaign efforts across channels.

Digital Marketing Executive

Mojro

Led B2B content marketing strategy and execution for an enterprise SaaS platform, focusing on technical product marketing and sales enablement.

• Developed enterprise-focused account-based marketing strategy driving $25,000 in sales pipeline

• Established LinkedIn social selling program achieving 18% growth in followers, 199% increase in MoM impressions, 25% improvement in qualified audience engagement

• Created comprehensive sales enablement program for improving enterprise sales through case studies, demo videos, blog posts, landing pages

• Implemented technical content strategy supporting product adoption and market expansion through cross-collaboration with product, sales, customer success teams

• Optimised email marketing nurture campaigns for SDR and AE teams targeting enterprises in FMCG, Retail, CEP, F&B, Dairy industries across geographies

Associate – Content Specialist

• Published research-backed blog articles offering insights into ongoing changes in the B2B SaaS marketing landscape

• Successfully ranked the first article on SERP 1 of Google and Bing for the target secondary keyword

B2B Content Marketer

Kraftshala

Delivered specialised content marketing and social media marketing trainings for a B2C EdTech platform’s flagship digital marketing program.

• Trained 250+ professionals in multi-channel content and social media marketing strategies across B2B and B2C scenarios

• Maintained 9/10 satisfaction rating through practical sessions on cross-industry marketing principles

• Guided professionals in functional skills, including keyword research, copywriting, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO

Content and Social Media Industry Expert

GreyB

Managed end-to-end operations for a boutique B2B content marketing agency.

• Led 75+ technical content projects for early-stage and medium-sized B2B SaaS clients

• Managed a hybrid team of 5+ specialist writers to deliver targeted content for diverse ICPs

• Created standardised processes for scalable B2B content production across markets

Associate – Digital Marketing

YouTube Partner Programme

Developed specialised educational content from business, strategy, management books focused on professional audiences.

• Presented practical insights in 50+ videos reaching 3,500+ views

• Achieved 3.4% CTR through targeted content creation and optimisation

• Managed end-to-end video production of technical educational content

Content Creator

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited

Coordinated strategic initiatives for premium financial products across retail and institutional channels.

• Managed partner marketing programs across distribution channels

• Developed training modules adapted for different partner segments

• Created performance tracking systems for multi-channel sales initiatives

Management Associate

I thrive at the intersection of content, marketing, product, and strategy, backed by 5 years of rich, hands-on work experience.

My background includes exposure to entrepreneurship, freelance work, agencies, and in-house roles, contributing to my full-stack marketing background.

I am passionate about multi-disciplinary thinking and enjoy understanding the dynamics of different industries, learning about cultures, and generating ideas from diverse sources to solve complex scenarios.

My passion lies particularly in Search/SEO products, and I have a deep interest in marketing, content creation, strategy consulting, AI, and consumer technology.

Nitin Kaura

I was able to compress weeks of highly technical work into mere hours.

Here is the exact workflow I executed to conduct a market analysis on backend operational scaling challenges for retail SMEs:

→ Set up strict role-playing parameters and fed operational context into Gemini 3.
→ Forced the LLM to ask *me* clarifying questions before generating anything, keeping the outputs tightly constrained to specific tasks to optimize token usage.
→ Brainstormed and architected a highly relevant primary research survey.
→ Instructed Gemini to write Google Apps Script, executing it to instantly deploy a live Google Form.
→ Generated the survey in both English and highly accurate Hinglish to capture regional nuance.
→ Fed the raw response data directly into Claude 4.5 & 4.6.
→ Claude crunched the numbers, extracted the insights, and generated a polished, client-ready presentation by integrating exact brand logos, hex codes, and followed brand guidelines without missing a step.

Watching this all unfold in the blink of an eye, at the snap of a finger, is a mind-blowing experience. The possibilities truly are limitless; but only if you know exactly which buttons to push, and when to push them.

Why does this workflow succeed while others complain about receiving generic garbage?

It comes down to the evaluation gap. Verifying a complex output is much easier than creating one from scratch, but you still need the foundational expertise to do the verification. If you don’t know what the right answer looks like, you cannot separate a highly convincing hallucinated output from technical reality.

We are witnessing a mandatory shift from basic prompt engineering (typing instructions) to intent engineering (mapping a known solution to a machine).

A massive tsunami is already upon us. If your individual/team’s strategy relies on searching for copy-paste prompts instead of leveraging real expertise to steer the machine, you are going to get washed out.

✌🏼

Manager – Branding and Marketing at Avaan Excess ✦ Full-stack Marketer ✦ Logistics, DeepTech, EdTech ✦ GrowthX®, 10Xer Club ✦ FORE, Panjab University

A handful of communities genuinely attempt peer exchange. They're invite-only, sometimes fee-based, and deliver intermittent value through curated sessions, referrals, etc.

However, these suffer from engagement decay: active for a few months, then morphing into broadcast channels where a few loud voices dominate and the majority lurk passively.

The value prop is 'learn from industry leaders'. These charge anywhere from ₹20,000 to ₹80,000 per cohort. The curriculum is often assembled quickly, the instructors are pulled from the founder's own network, and the 'community' component is a Slack channel/WhatsApp group that gets abandoned when the next cohort begins.

The most damaging are ones with a waitlist that creates artificial scarcity, an application form that signals 'we're selective', a founding cohort at a discounted price, 2–3 genuinely good meetups, and then a slow, quiet fade.

The WhatsApp/Slack goes cold. The founder becomes 'busy' chasing a new money-making project. The next event/meetup gets postponed indefinitely. No accountability; the T&Cs were vague enough.

What makes this particularly insidious is that these professionals are exactly the borrowed credibility the grifter needs. The founding member list is the social proof that drives the next 50 sign-ups.

Paying five figures for a 'community' or 'accelerator' that dissolves in 4 months is a direct loss, and it depletes the individual's tolerance for this category of investment.

The onboarding effort, filling the application to attending orientation calls, engaging on WhatsApp, and attending 2–3 sessions, requires multiple hours of investment before the abandonment becomes apparent. That time is non-recoverable.

This cohort develops a distrust of structured peer communities. This means they become difficult to recruit into genuinely valuable structures that might emerge later.

The grifter's failure poisons the well for credible builders.

Over 3–5 years, the absence of genuine peer reflection leads to a narrowing of range. These professionals get very good at executing within their current frame and lose the ability to challenge the frame itself.

Peer communities at this level aren't just about learning; they're about the referral networks that drive strategic appointments, and lots more.

When these professionals opt out of structured community entirely and rely only on their MBA groups, their visible network contracts to the people who were in their cohort over a decade ago.

When LinkedIn replaces community, the incentive structure rewards the shareable over the useful. A carousel on 'What I learned from scaling a brand from 0 to ₹100Cr' gets 1000s of impressions.

The actual conversations about the campaigns that failed, the relationships that went wrong, the measurement decisions that cost the brand months: those stay private.

That's because the one structure that could have created collective intelligence never got built, or got abandoned for someone's personal brand.

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Alexander Estner

Nitin Kaura

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taplio

The Battle

Alexander Estner

Nitin Kaura

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Alexander Estner's LinkedIn Performance

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