Your Market Tells You Who You Are

I launched Varstatt as "Fundable MVP in 6 weeks." Standard playbook: fixed scope, fixed timeline, fixed deliverable. Get in, build fast, get out.

Then I read Obvious Adams and actually looked at what was happening instead of what I thought should be happening.

The Data Was Obvious

Best three clients:

• Client 1: Started as MVP project, stayed 12+ months
• Client 2: Redesign project, stayed 6+ months
• Client 3: Lead gen work, stayed 6+ months

Nobody came for a 6-week sprint. They all stayed for ongoing development.

Meanwhile I had three pricing tiers: Production ($997/week), Production+ ($1,797/week), and Custom (quote). Give people options, let them choose their level. Classic marketing fluff.

The Gap Was Obvious

The mismatch wasn't subtle once I saw it:

• I marketed: "Build your MVP in 6 weeks"
• Clients hired me for: Continuous product development

The tiers were pointless complexity:

• I offered: 3 options with feature differentiation
• Clients chose: The same option, every time

I was also stuck on labels. Is this an "agency"? (Solo operator — contradiction.) A "freelancer"? (Commodity framing.) A "productized service"? (Doesn't fit custom work.)

None of it matched reality. I was describing what I wanted to be, not what I was actually doing.

What I Changed

Homepage went from:

"Fundable MVP in 6 weeks"

To:

"Ongoing product development on weekly retainer"

Pricing went from:

Production ($997) + Production+ ($1,797) + Custom

To:

Production ($997/week). One option.

Labels went from:

Agency / Freelancer / Productized Service

To:

"Consistent end-to-end web development without the agency hassle"

That last one is just plain language. What clients actually buy, not a category from a marketing blog.

Three Things I Took From This

1. Client behavior beats your initial pitch. If your "MVP" clients stay 12+ months, you're not running an MVP shop. You're doing ongoing development. The market already decided — you just haven't updated your positioning yet.

2. If everyone picks the same tier, you don't have tiers. You have confusion. Multiple options create decision overhead without adding value. Simplify until the choice feels obvious.

3. Stop trying to fit impressive-sounding categories. "Agency" and "productized service" are marketing terms. They describe what you want people to think, not what you actually do. Describe the reality in plain language — that's what converts anyway.

The repositioning didn't require a rebrand or new strategy. It just required paying attention to what was already happening.