Thanks for sharing your perspectives. I think you’re spot on here. I’ve only observed start-ups as a “vendor”, but I would be curious as to how much you think the lack of focus on developing positioning and a differentiated brand also impacts success? As you noted, most of these founders are engineers, not brand strategists. From what I’ve noticed, many tech start-ups spend their marketing energy and resources trying to market the product to funding sources, speaking the language of the venture capitalists rather than the customer. They do this without thinking about how to best position the brand to compete in the market. My theory is that most founders are not overly concerned with positioning because their intention is to build and sell, not build and stay. It’s what I would call “marketing for money rather than minds”. To be fair, it’s difficult to position a company or product you are building in the air, but I wonder if this step is being overlooked entirely in favor of a “that’s how they did it” marketing strategy — simply trying to duplicate the success of other start-ups. In this case, rather than attempt to build a brand that customers will not only recognize as useful but that also fulfills their human need to feel good about their purchase (even b2b technical buyers have these same human desires), money spent on marketing is really “packaging” and outbound sales. The true essence of the brand is never explored or developed, so marketing and sales teams don’t know how to position the product with the audience beyond features and benefits (usually using the same industry jargon as their competitors). Without brand roots, buyers don’t form a connection or desire for the product, sales flounder, growth eventually falters, and funders start looking for greener pastures.
