Stop Competing on Features: The Real Way to Win in AI Agents
About this episode
Rob Kaminski has positioned nearly 600 B2B startups, including Notion, GitLab, and Superhuman. In this live, on-camera teardown, Fletch's co-founder explains why a great AI product isn't enough to win: every AI agent startup now sounds identical, and what separates the winners isn't the product or even the words, it's a decision most founders are too scared to make. He walks through his full positioning framework, applies it to a real startup in real time, and argues there's no shortcut to standing out.
Key moments
- 0:00 Why do all AI startups sound the same?
- 1:13 Who is Rob Kaminski and what is Fletch?
- 2:15 Positioning a real AI agent startup, live on camera
- 3:49 What is positioning, really?
- 5:43 Why your brain sorts every product into a category
- 8:34 Mature vs. emerging categories — and why it matters
- 10:17 Strategy 1: win a category buyers already know
- 13:29 Strategy 2: sell to a category buyers don't know exists
- 16:54 Strategy 3: should you create your own category?
- 26:46 Which positioning bet should you actually pick?
- 31:29 Why more features make you harder to remember
- 35:53 How often should you change your positioning?
- 40:25 Can you win as an add-on instead of a category?
- 49:36 Is positioning just words on your landing page?
- 51:35 Are landing pages dying in the age of AI?
- 52:56 What founders get wrong that drives Rob crazy
- 54:50 Is there really no shortcut to standing out?
- 59:50 Books that make you a better founder
- 1:01:12 outro