Foundational Startup Strategy
How to think clearly about markets, positioning, business models, and growth before execution
Course Overview
Who This Course Is For
- Founders who feel busy but strategically unclear
- Builders who validated something but don’t know what kind of company they are building
- Bootstrappers and early teams preparing for scale or funding
What This Course Will Give You
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Reason clearly about markets vs customers
- Understand positioning as a strategic choice, not marketing copy
- Select a business model intentionally (not accidentally)
- Recognise when growth is premature
- Avoid common strategic traps that feel like progress
This course teaches how to think, not what to copy.MODULE 1 — Strategy Is Not Planning
Lesson 1.1: What Strategy Actually Is
Strategy is often confused with:
- Roadmaps
- Goals
- Execution plans
These are not strategy.
Strategy is:
A coherent set of choices that constrain behavior in pursuit of advantage.
If everything is possible, nothing is strategic.
Lesson 1.2: Why Founders Avoid Strategy
Strategy requires:
- Saying no
- Accepting trade-offs
- Living with constraints
Founders avoid strategy because:
- Optionality feels safer
- Commitment feels irreversible
- Focus feels risky
But lack of strategy does not preserve freedom.
It guarantees drift.
Lesson 1.3: Strategy as Constraint
Good strategy answers:
- What will we not do?
- Who are we not serving?
- Which metrics do we not optimise?
If your strategy cannot disappoint someone, it is not real.
Entrepreneur Edge 