Advanced Business Strategy
8 concepts · ~40 min · Advanced
Equip yourself with elite strategic frameworks. Understand industry forces, find uncontested market space, map your business model, and choose the right monetization motion.
What You'll Learn
- ✓Write a positioning statement that differentiates your product from the status quo
- ✓Map your entire business using the Business Model Canvas and identify high-risk assumptions
- ✓Design a Freemium funnel with the right friction points to convert free users to paid
- ✓Evaluate an industry's attractiveness using Porter's Five Forces
- ✓Identify when to execute a pivot and structure it around data, not panic
Positioning
Strategy
💡 The Concept
Positioning is the deliberate act of defining how your product is perceived in the minds of your target customers compared to alternatives. It dictates your obvious ideal customer, the specific problem you solve, and why you are clearly better than the status quo.
⚠️ The Trap
The 'all-in-one' trap. Most startups are terrified of turning away potential customers, so they use vague, broad messaging like 'the modern platform for teams.' When you try to be everything for everyone, you end up competing with everyone and appealing to no one.
🎯 The Action
Write your positioning statement: 'For [Target Customer] who [Need], [Product] is a [Market Category] that provides [Key Benefit] unlike [Main Competitor/Status Quo].' If your sales team can't recite this, you don't have a position.
Scenario Challenge
Your startup builds project management software. You're currently positioning as 'The easiest way for teams to collaborate.' Growth has stalled, and your CAC is skyrocketing as you compete directly with Asana, Monday, and Trello.