Brand positioning worksheet for founders
Positioning is four answers: who it is for, what it replaces, what makes it different, and what you will not do. Write them down before a designer opens a file, because everything they make is downstream of those four lines.
1.Who it is for
Name the person, not the segment. "Founders raising a seed round" is a segment. "A first-time founder six weeks from a term sheet, worried the deck looks amateur next to a VC's other twenty pitches this month" is a person. Write down their job, their fear, and the moment they go looking for what you sell.
2.What it replaces
Every purchase displaces something, even if that something is doing nothing. Your real competitor might not be another agency in your category — it might be a founder's cousin who "knows Canva," or the founder simply not bothering and shipping something rough anyway. Name what you are actually up against, not just who shares your market.
3.What makes it different
One sentence that survives someone asking "so what?" twice. Write your first draft, then ask "so what?" If the answer is another feature, that's not it yet. Keep going until the answer is a result the person can feel - faster, cheaper, safer, or simply taken seriously.
4.What you will not do
The hardest and most useful line. Every service you rule out is a client you won't spend six months arguing with. Write down the work you are qualified to do but have decided not to offer, and why - that boundary is what makes the rest of the positioning credible.
Your checklist
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