(2025-05-29) Maurya The Positioning Mistake That Kills 90% Of Startups

Ash Mauyra: The positioning mistake that kills 90% of startups.

1 Universal Principle
“You have < 8 seconds to win or lose.”

A compelling unique value proposition isn’t about how your solution works—it’s about what people get after using your solution. Think desired outcomes, not feature lists.

2 Underlying Strategies at Play

I. Your true competition isn’t who you think it is.

Your true competition is whatever people use today to accomplish the core job, not just products that resemble yours. (job to be done)

II. Incrementally better loses to incumbents every time.

To cause a switch, you need to be 3-10x better. But competing on features incumbents already have is a losing game.

*Instead, focus on things they don’t have that customers still care about, then go to extremes on those dimensions.

Tesla picked sustainability and performance, two axes where you could only have one or the other. They went to extremes on both, creating a “fastest and greenest” positioning that was impossible to ignore.

3 Actionable Tactics

I. Map your positioning landscape.

II. Find the broken tradeoffs.

List what’s broken with existing alternatives, then identify dimensions where customers are forced to choose between two things they want.
Create a simple 2x2 matrix with these dimensions.

III. Go to extremes on what matters.

Don’t try to be slightly better across all dimensions. Pick 1-2 dimensions that your ideal early adopters care about most, then make bold claims.