Standing out in a sea of sameness

When you have 10 competitors, you need to get your story straight

AI startups trying to differentiate circa 2024

We’re in an unprecedented age of startup competition.

I recently met a founder who said he routinely runs into 10+ companies in deals, and in one case, a buyer evaluated 20 competitors. Yes, he is building in AI.

In conversations like this, and more, I’ve the same question comes up:

How can we stand out from the noise?

Here are a few best practices I’ve picked up.

Talk to your customers

This is the most obvious, but it can’t go unsaid.

Nobody knows what your customers want better than they do. You should have ideas about what they want or why they choose you, but your customers know best.

I recently spent time with a founder of an AI infrastructure company who believed customers chose them for their granular security features. After talking with their customers, I realized that while they valued security, they valued ease of use most.

While these aren’t mutually exclusive, they’re not the same. Consider the different landing pages you might create for the security message and the ease of use message.

Another failure mode is selling too far ahead. Your pitch to VCs and your grand vision aren’t necessarily what customers want now.

Nothing beats talking to customers.

Take a stand and commit

It’s easy to want to be everything for everyone. The best companies know their customer and commit to it. This doesn’t have to be forever, but you need to stick with it for awhile.

Keep the main thing the main thing (Source)

This helps your team stay focused and avoids confusing customers with constant positioning changes.

It’s better to be different than better

It’s better to be different.

Trying to be better invites comparison. Even if your product has an edge, the question will be “How much better?” Furthermore, with the rate of change of technology, just because you’re better today doesn’t guarantee your buyer will believe you’ll be better tomorrow.

Consider the opposite.

You buy an iPhone because you’re the type of person that wants to buy an iPhone — you aren’t price shopping or feature comparing versus an Android. If you book an Airbnb, it’s because you want something more unique than a hotel. When you type a question into Perplexity, you do so because it’s complex and won’t be answered by a blue link.

A seemingly similar product packaged well can create a world of distance from the competition.

Using your product should send a signal

The best products reflect who you are just by using them.

We are the type of company that _____. I am the type of person that _____. You want to be the company that helps fill that blank.

A classic example is Apple. Using an Apple product says something about you. It says you value sleek design and the latest technology, but aren’t too nerdy. You’re a personal power user, not a spreadsheet wizard. That’s the basis of the classic “I’m a Mac” campaign.

A modern example is Linear. If a company uses Linear over Jira, it says something about who they are: they’re modern and value craft.

Using Linear validates the customer’s identity. The positioning is also aspirational - who wouldn’t want to be modern?

---

---

Once you’ve found what works, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Once you’ve honed in on a message, you must repeat it relentlessly.

A company that does this incredibly well is Ramp. Ramp’s mission is to “Save companies time and money.”

This makes sense if you understand the product. Ramp sells to Finance teams whose job is to save the company money, and like everyone, they hate wasting time on manual processes.

Their homepage makes this point no less than 5 times.

1

2

3

4

5

This may seem like overkill, but it’s not. You must make it impossible for your prospective customer to walk away from a brand touchpoint without understanding what your product can do for them.

All happy companies are different

It’s hard to avoid competition completely. The market is efficient, and if there’s a good idea, people will want to compete for it.

If your market becomes crowded, you need to make your customer feel you’re different. Otherwise, you’re in a race to the bottom.

As Peter Thiel said in Zero to One:

“All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.”

Be the happy company.

---

Would also love to hear feedback from you if you agree, disagree, or have something to add. Always looking to learn and for great examples that prove/disprove my thinking.