Find your idea & build the brand
Niche & positioning
Own a wedge before you fight the giants.
How do I know if my niche is too narrow to matter or too broad to stand out?
Go uncomfortably narrow first - "skincare" loses to giants, but "barrier-repair skincare for post-acne Indian skin" is a market you can actually ow...
What's actually the difference between positioning, branding and differentiation - and which one do I need to nail first?
Positioning is the strategic decision of what market you compete in and why you win it - it comes first, in a spreadsheet or a doc, before any logo...
The category I want to enter already has ten funded brands doing the same thing - how do I find a real wedge?
Look for what the incumbents do wrong rather than what they do right - overpriced, opaque ingredient lists, a customer segment they're ignoring, or...
Should I try to create a whole new category like 'bed in a box' did, or just fight for share in an existing one?
Category creation (Casper's "bed in a box," Liquid Death's "heavy metal water") is the highest-upside, highest-risk move - if it works, you get to ...
My product solves a problem people don't like to talk about (hygiene, intimacy, mental health) - how do I position it without scaring off buyers?
Pee Safe and Bombay Shaving Company both built real scale by naming the taboo directly and treating destigmatising the conversation as the marketin...
A bigger brand just copied my positioning almost word for word - what do I actually do about it?
You can't out-copy a copycat with a bigger budget, so don't try to win by shouting louder - double down on the specific proof points (ingredient so...
Related in Starting Up
Every founder hits these, so they sit in the wider founder hub.
Family, social pressure and the quit-your-job decision
eChai Partner Brands
