75 Lessons, Hot Takes, and Core Beliefs: What Anthony Pierri's Viral Post Reveals About B2B Strategy

When product marketing strategist Anthony Pierri hit 75k LinkedIn followers, he celebrated with something bold: 75 unfiltered lessons learned from years building FletchPMM and advising over 400 B2B SaaS companies. The post exploded. Within days, comments poured in—people saved the list, requested it be turned into a book, and picked out their favorite contrarian takes.

But why did this resonate so deeply with founders, marketers, and strategists?

Because hidden beneath the numbered list is a radical framework for how B2B companies should actually operate. It cuts through years of conventional wisdom, VC-backed dogma, and marketing theater to reveal what actually works.

For design and branding agencies serving B2B clients, these lessons are particularly crucial. They expose the fundamental misalignment between how companies think they should position themselves and how customers actually discover them.

Let's unpack the most critical themes.

Part 1: The Positioning Paradox—Why Most Companies Get It Wrong

The Core Insight: Positioning Is Clarity, Not Vision

Perhaps the most important lesson threading through Pierri's post: positioning is not about vision, purpose, or aspiration. It's about specificity.

Here's the mistake most B2B companies make: They lead with founder's vision.

"Accelerate innovation through visual collaboration in the new hybrid workplace."

Customers don't care. They can't parse it. They don't know if it's for them.

Pierri's insight flips this: Customers only think of your company for one thing. And that's not a weakness—it's a feature.

When people hear "CRM," they think Salesforce. Not because Salesforce is the only option, but because Salesforce owns the category in customers' minds. The company committed to that singular association and defended it ruthlessly.

For B2B design agencies: This has profound implications. Your clients aren't vague about their positioning problems—they're vague about their choices. They haven't decided who they want to own in the customer's mind. Without that clarity, any design work—whether a rebrand, homepage redesign, or marketing asset—will feel hollow.

Lesson 14 vs. Lesson 28: The Hidden Contradiction

Here's where it gets interesting. Pierri states:

Lesson 14: "Positioning is more important before a company has product-market fit, not after."

But then later:

Lesson 28: "Making strategy decisions by committee is a recipe for disaster."

One of the most thoughtful comments on the post came from someone pointing out this apparent contradiction. They noted: "Most companies obsess over tactics (tools, titles, logos) while the real leverage is in decision-making, positioning, and tradeoffs—things that compound over time."

The resolution? Positioning is a decision-making problem, not a communication problem.

Most companies don't have fuzzy positioning because they haven't communicated clearly. They have fuzzy positioning because their leadership hasn't made hard tradeoffs about who they serve, what problem they solve, and what they're not trying to be.

This is why rebrands often fail. A company commissions a beautiful rebrand without resolving the underlying strategic misalignment. Lesson 27 captures this perfectly: "Most companies that do rebrands are avoiding a much harder decision."

Part 2: The Specialization Imperative

Lesson 1 & 2: The Startup's Only Advantage

Without true product innovation, startups have one weapon: specialization.

Startups can win by intentionally enduring pain that larger companies won't—shrinking their market, saying no to customers, lowering prices, using customer-centric business models.

This is the inverse of what most startup founders try to do. They expand their TAM (total addressable market). They build for multiple personas. They say yes to every customer that pays.

Then they wonder why they don't grow.

Compare this to real-world examples:

• Figma didn't try to own "design tools." They owned multiplayer collaboration for designers.
• Linear didn't compete head-to-head with Jira. They owned "the best issue tracker for software teams that value speed."
• YouCanBook.me didn't try to replace Calendly. They owned "international scheduling with timezone and multilingual support."

The Three Patterns Emerging From Comments

One particularly insightful comment identified three recurring patterns across Pierri's 75 lessons:

1. Clarity is a must—niching down and specialization.
Complexity and staying too broad is a recipe for disaster. "We target all businesses" or "We offer 10+ solutions" = eventual mediocrity.

2. Everything can be traced back to leadership.
Success and failures mirror what's at the C-level. Funding, market conditions, timing—these are excuses. The CEO's decisions are the real bottleneck.

3. Reality over wishful thinking.
It's easier to build on what already exists. We wish people would think and behave a certain way. Yet people compare new products to what they already know. Dismissing that isn't strategy—it's denial.

Part 3: The Hidden Assumptions About Growth

Lesson 37: "You Can't Outsource Growth"

This might be the most misunderstood lesson on the list.

Founders often interpret this as "you can't hire marketers." They read it as a warning against delegation.

That's not what Pierri means.

He means the decision to grow—the strategic bet about where and how to win—cannot be outsourced. You can hire people to execute on growth initiatives. You cannot hire someone to make the growth decision itself.

This has obvious implications for agencies. When a client says, "We need to grow. Help us grow," they're asking the wrong question. The work isn't how to grow. The work is where and how the founder has decided to grow.

Lesson 35: The Five Ones

If you want to start a productized business:

• One product
• One offer
• One conversion method
• One channel
• One year

This is a constraint framework disguised as simplicity. It's forcing you to say no to nearly everything.

Most agencies don't follow this. They offer branding AND web design AND content AND strategy AND SEO AND crisis management. They say they're "full-service."

What they've actually created is diffusion. Customers don't know what they do. Other agencies with laser focus will eat their lunch.

Part 4: The Uncomfortable Truths About Startups and Funding

Lesson 7 & 33: The VC Paradox

Lesson 7: "Most founders would be better off giving the money back to their VCs."

Lesson 33: "Receiving venture funding should not be seen as validation of your idea (most VCs fund based on the people anyway)."

This is where Pierri's framework reveals something uncomfortable: The startup ecosystem is selecting for founders, not ideas.

A VC looks at a founding team and makes a bet. That bet is mostly about whether these people can figure things out when things get hard. The product idea is secondary—it will change anyway.

What does this mean? Many funded startups are inherently misaligned. The founder took capital because they needed runway or because saying "yes" to a VC was exciting. But they didn't actually need the capital to learn if their idea worked. In fact, capital often prevents learning because it lets founders avoid hard constraints.

The companies that grow fastest? Often those that had to say no to money, that built under pressure, that made every decision count.

Lesson 32: The Softness of SaaS Founders

Here's a spicy take: "Most people who started in SaaS are very soft (because they've always lived in a growing market artificially inflated by venture capital)."

This generated significant pushback in comments, with some noting the distinction between "spiky opinions" (valuable) and "being a jerk" (not).

But there's a kernel of truth here: When your market is growing regardless of your execution, you can get away with poor decision-making, weak positioning, and muddy strategy. The rising tide lifts all boats.

This is precisely why so many funded startups look the same, sound the same, and fail to differentiate. They've never had to.

Part 5: The Copywriting & Marketing Disillusionment

Lesson 31: "Almost All Copywriting Advice on LinkedIn Is Useless for B2B Marketers"

Lesson 11 pairs with this: "AI has made product development exponentially faster, but marketing and sales have essentially stayed at the same speed as 10 years ago."

Why haven't B2B marketing tactics improved at the pace of product development?

Because copywriting advice on LinkedIn teaches pattern matching, not positioning. It teaches "use power words" and "create urgency" and "speak to pain points." These are tactics divorced from strategy.

If your positioning is clear, copywriting becomes almost secondary. The customer will find you. The message will resonate.

If your positioning is murky, no amount of copywriting will save you. You could write the most compelling, benefit-rich copy in the world. Customers still won't know if your product is for them.

Part 6: The Rebranding Reality Check

Lesson 16-18: The Rebranding Contradiction

Lesson 16: "You're better off launching a new product than trying to change people's perception of an existing one."

Lesson 17: "You shouldn't change your name (even if you outgrow it)."

Lesson 18: "People will only think of your company for your first big success, and that's a good thing you shouldn't fight against."

This trilogy explains why most rebrands don't work.

A company gets success. They think their brand is constraining them. They rebrand to signal evolution, growth, and expansion.

But in the customer's mind, they've just become a different company. And customers don't like that.

When people think of Salesforce as a "CRM," the company has actually pivoted a thousand times, added hundreds of products, and expanded their scope massively. But the rebrand attempts haven't changed what customers think of them as.

Instead of rebranding, own what you're known for. If you've succeeded at one thing, that's your permission to try other things—but don't rebrand away from the thing that gave you permission.

Part 7: The Agency Reality

Lesson 19: "Custom Service Agencies Have the Worst Business Model in Existence"

This is a gut punch for agencies. And it's true.

Why? Because every project is different. Every client is different. You can't systematize. You can't scale. You're always trading time for money.

But then Pierri offers a path out: Lesson 35 (the Five Ones) and Lesson 20: "If you want to sell an expertise-based business, you need to publicly demonstrate your expertise."

The agencies that escape the custom services trap are those that:

1. Define one specific thing they do (expertise-based positioning)
2. Do it the same way, every single time (systemization)
3. Publicly demonstrate how and why they do it (proof through teaching)

This is exactly what Everything Design does. The agency doesn't say "we do branding." They say "we do B2B SaaS branding and positioning." They don't do custom work for every client. They follow a framework. They teach the framework publicly (blog posts, videos, case studies).

Result? Inbound leads. Higher margins. Repeatable revenue.

Part 8: The Content and Audience Building Lessons

Building an Audience of Believers (Not Followers)

Pierri's own growth to 75k followers offers lessons in its own right. His strategy:

The Super Specific How: Share how to do very specific things in great detail.

Spikey Opinion: Have a strong POV that goes against bad "best practices."

Belief Filtering: LinkedIn isn't about maximizing reach—it's about attracting people who believe what you believe.

Here's a direct quote from Pierri's reflection on audience building:

"If you're a consultant, the most important ICP characteristic is shared belief. LinkedIn is the way to foster this. Most important is for prospects to think of your brand first when your use case arises."

This flips the traditional funnel on its head. You're not trying to convince people. You're filtering for people who already agree with your worldview.

Why does this matter for B2B agencies?

Because a client who hires you because you "seem capable" will judge your work against their own standards and wishes. A client who hires you because they believe what you believe will judge your work against the outcomes you promised.

The second type are infinitely better to work with.

Part 9: The Framework Critique—What's Missing?

The Resonance Gap

One particularly thoughtful comment came from Paul Synge, who respectfully disagreed with Pierri's emphasis on differentiation over identity. His argument:

"Differentiation can win you attention. But identity wins you trust, loyalty, and ultimately market leadership."

Pierri's framework: Target Customer + Use Case + Differentiation from Alternatives = Positioning

Synge's argument: This misses emotional resonance and aspiration. The most successful brands (Stripe, Patagonia, etc.) tap into both functional and emotional drivers.

This isn't a contradiction so much as a reminder that positioning is multidimensional. Pierri is right that early-stage startups should focus on functional positioning. But Synge is right that identity eventually becomes the moat.

Part 10: The Uncomfortable Truths About People and Hiring

Lesson 10: "People Value 'Years of Experience' Way Too Much When Hiring"

And Lesson 21: "We Overvalue Hiring Employees Who Were Present During a Period of Rapid Growth in a Previous Business"

These challenge a fundamental hiring assumption: tenure and pedigree.

In reality, someone who worked at a hypergrowth startup during its explosion often learned bad habits. They learned in an environment with unlimited capital and artificial tailwinds. They never learned to make hard tradeoffs because they didn't have to.

By contrast, someone who built something from zero might bring more valuable skills: How to do more with less. How to say no. How to focus.

Lesson 22: "Nobody Has Their Sh*t Together"

This is the humanizing lesson that threads through everything else.

Big companies are as dysfunctional as small ones. The difference isn't that big companies have figured it out. They've just hidden the dysfunction under layers of process, politics, and institutional inertia.

This is liberating for founders, but it's also a warning. If you're waiting until your company feels "ready" to commit to a positioning or make hard strategic decisions, you'll never get there. The readiness doesn't come first. The decision comes first.

Practical Takeaways for B2B Design and Branding Agencies

1. Position Your Client Before You Design Anything

The most valuable thing you can do is help your client make the strategic decision about who they serve and what they own in the customer's mind. A beautiful homepage designed for a client with blurry positioning is just expensive confusion.

2. Push Back on Expansion

When a client says they want to "rebrand to signal evolution," ask them what they've actually decided to stop doing. If they haven't decided, the rebrand will fail.

3. Teach Your Framework Publicly

Your competitive advantage isn't the design work itself. Anyone can do that. Your advantage is the positioning framework, the thinking, the why behind what you do. Share it.

4. Filter for Belief Alignment

You don't need more clients. You need clients who believe what you believe about how B2B branding should work. Turn away the others. They'll drain you and judge you unfairly anyway.

5. Build Your Own Brand Around One Thing

If Pierri is right about agencies, the path forward is specialization, not expansion. Define one specific thing you do. Do it the same way, every time. Become known for that one thing.

6. Remember: Clarity Before Creativity

Your client doesn't need more creative options. They need more clarity about strategic choices. Put positioning work before design work. Put decision-making before tactics.

Conclusion: From Lessons to Decision-Making

Anthony Pierri's 75 lessons aren't a roadmap. They're a mirror.

They force founders, marketers, and agency leaders to confront uncomfortable truths: that clarity beats creativity, that specialization beats expansion, that identity beats differentiation (over time), and that every problem traces back to decisions made or not made at the top.

The comment that best captured this spirit: "This whole list could be a book."

And it's true. Each lesson deserves unpacking, context, and real-world application.

But the real gift of the post isn't the individual lessons. It's the permission structure it creates.

Permission to say no. Permission to specialize. Permission to admit you don't have it all figured out. Permission to make hard tradeoffs and defend them publicly.

The B2B companies and agencies that build on that permission won't be the most creative. They'll be the clearest. And in a crowded, noisy market, clarity is the rarest competitive advantage of all.