SaaS Positioning Without VC: A Practical Framework

Most SaaS marketing problems aren’t marketing problems. They’re positioning problems.

If you’re bootstrapping (or simply not counting on venture cash), unclear positioning hits harder: you don’t have budget to “outspend” confusion with ads, events, or a big outbound team. Your homepage, cold emails, and content marketing have to do more work—because they’re often the only things doing work.

This post is part of our SMB Content Marketing United States series, where the core theme is consistent: grow with clarity and consistency, not burn-rate. The framework below is adapted from a conversation on Startups for the Rest of Us (Episode 772) with Anthony Pierri (Fletch), expanded into a step-by-step playbook you can apply without a large team.

Positioning that actually helps you sell (not “brand vibes”)

Product positioning is how you frame your product’s value against a real alternative for a specific buyer.

That sentence matters because most founders default to one of these traps:

• Brand-ish statements (“We stand for innovation”) that sound nice but don’t help a buyer choose.
• Outcome-only promises (“Increase revenue”) that skip the practical reason someone would believe you.
• Vague ICPs (“B2B SaaS companies in mid-market”) that describe a LinkedIn list, not a buying moment.

Anthony’s distinction is useful: brand positioning is what Apple “stands for.” Product positioning is what a buyer uses to answer, “Is this for me, and is it better than what I’m doing now?”

For bootstrapped SaaS, positioning isn’t a branding exercise. It’s an organic growth strategy. When you get it right, content marketing becomes easier, referrals become more consistent, demos close faster, and your homepage stops trying to please everyone.

The 3-question framework: who it’s for, what it is, why better

Here’s the framework in plain language. If you can answer these three questions clearly, you can write a homepage that sells.

1. Who is it for?
2. What is it?
3. Why is it better?

Simple doesn’t mean easy. The power comes from how you answer them.

1) “Who is it for?” means workflow first, not firmographics

In B2B, most software is workflow software. Buyers don’t purchase “innovation.” They purchase help doing something that’s already on their calendar.

So instead of:

• “Marketing teams at B2B SaaS companies”

You want:

• “Customer marketers who need to collect case studies reliably”

That shift—toward a specific workflow—is the difference between “interesting” and “I need this.”

A practical litmus test from the episode is referral language:

If someone asked their network for a recommendation, what would they ask for?

People ask for tools and vendors at the workflow level, like:

• “What are you using to collect customer proof?”
• “How are you automating SOC 2 evidence collection?”
• “What’s your process for onboarding new hires?”

They rarely ask:

• “How do I turn happy customers into my best sellers?”

That’s an outcome. Outcomes are fine, but they’re not how buyers shop.

What this looks like for SMB content marketing

If you’re running SMB content marketing in the US on a budget, workflow-first positioning makes your content pipeline obvious:

• Your blog posts become “how to do X workflow” content.
• Your landing pages become “replace Y process” pages.
• Your demos become “here’s how Tuesday afternoon gets easier.”

That’s organic growth fuel.

2) “What is it?” is your category—choose one buyers recognize

The second question is: what category do you want to be in?

Examples:

• “Customer proof platform” vs. “survey tool” vs. “case study automation”
• “Marketing automation” vs. “email marketing” vs. “lifecycle messaging”
• “AI meeting assistant” vs. “call recorder” vs. “sales coaching tool”

Here’s my stance: bootstrapped SaaS should usually pick a category buyers already understand.

Why? Because creating a new category is expensive. It takes repeated exposure, lots of explanation, and lots of market education. If you don’t have VC money, you’re better off:

• joining an existing category,
• sounding like the buyer’s existing mental model,
• then differentiating sharply.

You can still be novel in product. You just don’t want to be novel in the buyer’s understanding.

3) “Why is it better?” means “better than what?”

Most differentiation is written as if the buyer is comparing you to “nothing.” In reality, they’re comparing you to:

• a competitor,
• a spreadsheet,
• a manual process,
• a messy stack of tools,
• or “we’ll deal with this later.”

Anthony calls this out directly: your competitive alternative might not be another SaaS.

That’s critical for founders who are early or in emerging markets. If you’re the first “real tool” for a workflow, your strongest competitor is often a human being doing it manually.

So your “why better” should be written against the actual alternative:

• “Stop begging customers one-by-one for case studies.”
• “Replace your spreadsheet-based onboarding checklist with automated tasks and reminders.”
• “No more stitching together Stripe exports and QuickBooks tags to understand MRR.”

This kind of copy tends to convert because it’s specific—and specificity is persuasive.

The homepage as a forcing function (the bootstrapped advantage)

A subtle point from the episode is one I’ve seen play out repeatedly: a strategy doc doesn’t change behavior; a homepage does.

When you rewrite your homepage based on real positioning choices, you force alignment across:

• content marketing topics
• paid search (if you do any)
• outbound messaging
• demo scripts
• onboarding and activation flows

Bootstrapped teams move faster here because you don’t need seven stakeholders to approve a new tagline. You can decide, ship, and learn.

A practical homepage structure you can implement this week

If you want a simple format to apply the 3-question framework, use this:

1. Hero headline (the workflow + outcome)
2. Subhead (who it’s for + the alternative you replace)
3. Proof (one metric, logo row, or a short testimonial)
4. “How it works” (3 steps that mirror the workflow)

Example template (fill in brackets):

• Headline: “[Do workflow] without [painful alternative].”
• Subhead: “Built for [role] at [type of company] who need to [job].”
• Proof: “Trusted by [X] teams” or “Cut onboarding time by 37%”

If your current homepage doesn’t mention a workflow, start there. It’s usually the highest-leverage fix.

The most common positioning mistake: trying to win 10 segments at once

The most repeated mistake Anthony sees across 400+ engagements: founders try to serve too many segments, too early.

This isn’t a morality play about being “focused.” It’s a math problem.

• If you target 10 workflows, you need 10 sets of proof, content, use cases, objections, integrations, and landing pages.
• If you’re a 2–10 person team, you won’t execute 10 plays well.

The bootstrapped path that works is sequencing:

1. Pick one workflow segment you can win.
2. Build proof there.
3. Become top-of-mind for that use case.
4. Expand to the next adjacent workflow.

This is also how you build efficient SMB content marketing: one strong content pillar (one workflow) beats ten “meh” pillars every time.

A fast “no-VC” positioning exercise (90 minutes)

If you want something you can do this Sunday afternoon and ship Monday (yes, even in January planning season), run this mini-workshop:

Step 1: List your top 10 customers (15 minutes)

Write down:

• role/title of the buying champion
• the workflow they used you for
• what they were doing before
• why they switched

Step 2: Circle the repeatable pattern (20 minutes)

Look for the cluster where:

• sales cycles were fastest
• retention is strongest
• onboarding was easiest
• they refer others most often

That cluster is usually your best “who it’s for.”

Step 3: Write your competitive alternative sentence (10 minutes)

Finish this:

“Before us, they were using ______ to do ______.”

If you can’t fill it in clearly, your positioning is probably too abstract.

Step 4: Draft 5 homepage headlines (20 minutes)

Use different angles:

• against manual process
• against a known competitor category
• speed-focused
• quality-focused
• compliance/risk-focused

Pick one. Ship it.

Step 5: Validate with 5 conversations (25 minutes)

Send the headline and subhead to:

• 2 customers
• 2 churned prospects
• 1 “perfect fit” prospect

Ask one question:

“What do you think this product does, and who is it for?”

If they answer correctly in their own words, you’re close.

FAQs founders ask when they tighten positioning

“Won’t we lose leads if we narrow our positioning?”

You’ll lose some. That’s the point.

The leads you lose are the ones who were going to waste your time with long sales cycles, heavy customization, and weak retention. Bootstrapped SaaS wins by being opinionated.

“Should we A/B test positioning?”

Test if you have traffic and clean attribution. If you don’t, don’t wait.

For most SMB SaaS sites, the best “test” is:

• ship the new positioning,
• watch demo-to-close rate,
• track sales cycle length,
• listen for “I found you because…”

“Do we need different positioning for executives vs end users?”

Eventually, yes. Early, no.

Pick your buying champion first (often manager/director level in B2B). Write for them. You can add supporting sections for executives and end users later.

Your next step: make one clear bet

If you’re growing without VC, positioning is one of the few moves that can increase performance across every channel—especially content marketing, SEO, and outbound. It’s not a cosmetic rewrite. It’s choosing which conversations you want to be invited into.

The bet to make this week is simple: pick one workflow segment and write a homepage that commits to it. Then see what happens.

What would change in your pipeline if your ideal buyer immediately said, “This is exactly for me”—and everyone else self-selected out?