So back again to what I actually do for startups. One of the most important things that I do for my friends and my collection of startups is something I dub Positioning. Now, I spent a long time trying to figure out what to call this but here is what I consider Positioning.

It is the overall development of a Sales & Marketing Strategy stemming from customer research and feedback and including but not limited to: Name Selection, General Branding, Niche Branding, Sales Pitch, Process, Training and Recruiting, Market Planning, Go TO Market Strategy, Traditional, online, alternative, napalm & hijack marketing. (this the verbose business school definition i came up with)

It's a lot of stuff. At the end of the day its figuring out what your product does, how it solves a customers problems and figuring out how to most effectively get your product in your customers hands and make money. It's a whole lot of crap. It's basically what a CMO would do starting from the time a startup is the still in the womb of its founders and leading up to launch.