Ekaterina Howard 4/9/25 Ekaterina Howard 4/9/25

[S2E4] How to: message testing on a budget

Alex Atkins, VP of Marketing at Sturdy, walks us through the process of continuously optimizing the homepage variations by combining message testing, reaching out to target ICPs for feedback, and (sometimes) asking for help.

In this episode:

How Sturdy messaging changed with the rise of "AI-powered" messaging everywhere
How Alex combined outreach and running messaging test
His approach to increasing messaging stickiness without sacrificing clarity

Ekaterina Howard 3/20/25 Ekaterina Howard 3/20/25

[S2E3] How to: positioning

Before you start building a category of one (please don’t), listen to this conversation about positioning against incumbents. It’ll save you a lot of sweat and tears.

In this episode:

How B2B buyers think about shopping (hint: they don’t think it’s fun)
What startups can do to go against “big guys” and win
Examples of great positioning in the wild

Ekaterina Howard 2/27/25 Ekaterina Howard 2/27/25

[S2E2] How to find winning angles for your competitor pages

Competitor comparison pages are a must-have for every startup that’s ready to grow. Or are they?

In this episode:

When startups should consider building competitor comparison pages
How to think about framing the conversation
How competitor research can help with future differentiation and product development
Pros and cons of 2 popular frameworks: “Us vs everybody else” and “Why we’re better than {X}”

Ekaterina Howard 2/14/25 Ekaterina Howard 2/14/25

[S2E1] How to make research (like JTBD) a part of your company’s business processes with Eric White, ponder*

Ekaterina Howard 5/15/24 Ekaterina Howard 5/15/24

[S1E6] Katie Deloso: “Don’t sell them, just listen to them”

Ekaterina Howard 8/2/23 Ekaterina Howard 8/2/23

When copy gets in the way of traction: how to solve for startup growing pains

Early-stage startups need to move fast and break things to find PMF, identify best channels to reach their customers, and attract early adopters. But as you start scaling, this approach may be slowing down your growth. This is how you can make your website help you meet your MQL goals instead of getting in the way.