Putting your Competitive Landscape research onto your Launch Path Canvas.

There are three boxes on your Launch Path Canvas that will be informed by your research on the landscape of competitors and alternatives for your startup.

• Alternatives – I intentionally didn’t name this box “Competition”, because it’s important to think of this as being the alternative ways to solve the problem your startup solves – which includes both competitors and alternatives. From this box you might link to a spreadsheet you’ve prepared plus a visualization of the landscape.
• Positioning – How would you describe your startup’s positioning within the landscape?
• Defensibility – If you are successful, competitors will try to come into your lane. What do you have that makes your positioning defensible? Ultimately you want to have patents, proprietary IP, exclusive distribution agreements, etc. For an early stage company you probably don’t have much of that yet, which is fine, but it’s important to at least think about defensibility because you’ll need it in the long run.