Positioning Isn’t Branding. It’s Survival.

In the early days of building a business, it’s easy to mistake branding for the hard part. We spend hours debating colour palettes, designing logos, refining websites, polishing what the world will see. And while these things matter, they are not what earns trust, unlocks revenue, or drives real action.

What matters, especially in the early stages of growth, is not how you look — but where you stand.

That’s positioning.

Positioning isn’t about aesthetics. It’s not a tagline or a mission statement. It’s about clarity: clarity in who you serve, what problem you solve, and why you’re the best answer to that problem. Without it, even the most promising businesses struggle to grow, because they fail to land in the minds of the people who matter most, their buyers.

I’ve worked with many founders, especially in healthtech, who come to me with beautiful branding and an incredible product, and no pipeline. They’ve spent time refining the product, polishing the message, and perhaps even gaining a few early pilots. But when they try to scale, things stall. The language is vague. The buyer doesn’t quite get what’s being sold. Conversations go nowhere.

When I ask who their product is for, they say, “Well, we could work with GPs, but also trusts, and potentially clinics…”

That’s the first red flag.

When you try to speak to everyone, you end up resonating with no one. If a buyer can’t immediately place what you do, and more importantly, how it fits into their world, they move on. Not because you’re wrong, but because you’re unclear.

Positioning is what forces you to make choices. It demands focus. It pushes you to say, “This is the problem we solve. These are the people we solve it for. And this is how we’re different from the five other things you’ve already seen.”

That may sound limiting. But in practice, it’s liberating. It’s the moment when your sales process starts to gain momentum, your messaging sharpens, and your team starts speaking with a unified voice. It’s how you stop describing features and start conveying value.

Because here’s the truth: buyers don’t invest in vague ambition. They invest in clear relevance. And positioning is the bridge between the two.

So if you’re early-stage and thinking about brand pause for a moment. Before you spend time on look and feel, spend time on strategic clarity. Ask yourself:

How do I explain what makes us different, in a sentence that lands with someone who doesn’t already know our space?

If you don’t have that answer yet, you don’t have positioning.

And until you do, growth will remain frustratingly out of reach.

Branding makes you visible.

Positioning makes you viable.

Only one of them keeps your business alive.