Competition
Show you understand the landscape and have a defensible wedge. Underrated by founders, scrutinized by investors, they spend ~17 seconds here.
Draft your slide, then click Mark complete to move forward. The checklist and quiz below are optional self-tests. You can mark complete anytime.
Include, tick each as you draft
Nothing checked yet. You can still mark this module complete and continue.
Cut
- ✕'We have no competitors'
- ✕A 2x2 rigged so you're alone top-right
- ✕Ignoring the incumbent workaround (usually Excel + email)
- ✕Rating every competitor worse on every axis
Red flags investors call out
- !'We have no competitors', reads as naivety
- !Every competitor worse on every axis (transparently rigged)
- !No mention of the status-quo tool most customers use
Common failure patterns
What experienced readers spot first when this slide is weak.
- 1The 2x2 axes are chosen so you're alone in the winning quadrant.
- 2The 'status quo workaround' (Excel, email, in-house tools) is missing entirely.
- 3Every competitor is scored worse than you on every axis, transparently rigged.
Run this against your own slide (60 seconds)
- ?Is the incumbent workaround (the tool 60%+ of prospects actually use today) on the slide?
- ?Can you name one axis on which a serious competitor legitimately beats you?
If either answer is no, the fix is above in Include or in the Weak vs. strong block below.
Starter template
[Incumbent A] owns [segment]. [Incumbent B] owns [segment]. Most customers still use [status quo]. We win [our segment] because [durable advantage].
Weak vs. strong, the same slide, rewritten
“We have no direct competitors.”
“Deel & Remote.com own enterprise EOR. Rippling owns US-first mid-market. 63% of remote-native software cos still stitch a US EOR + Wise + a spreadsheet, that's our wedge, and we win because Nimbus is one vendor of record in 40 countries, paid from Slack.”
Names real incumbents by segment, names the real workaround (EOR + Wise + spreadsheet), and states a defensible wedge in one line.
Check yourself
Sources
See the full methodology for how dwell seconds and scoring weights are derived.