Leadership Positioning Guide for Vell¶

How to communicate your impact as Vell's leader and position the platform authentically using the "We-then-Me" framework.

Part 1: Positioning Yourself as Vell's Leader¶

We-then-Me Framing¶

When discussing Vell's achievements, lead with the team and ecosystem, then clarify your specific contribution.

Instead of:

"I built an AI-powered GTM platform for AWS partners."

Say:

"Our team built Vell to solve the GTM gap for AWS ISV partners. The engineering team architected the AgentCore workflow system, and our product team designed the partner collaboration features. I identified the 'Market category' gap in the AWS partner ecosystem and made the strategic bet to focus exclusively there rather than compete in the crowded Build/Sell space."

More examples:

"We've reduced GTM campaign time by 90% for our partners. The product team designed the 10 pre-built workflows, and our AI engineers tuned the prompts for AWS-specific outputs. I pushed for the credit-based pricing model after talking to 30+ partners who were frustrated with seat-based licensing."

"Early partners are seeing real pipeline from co-sell campaigns they couldn't execute before. Our customer success team has been phenomenal at onboarding. I spent six months mapping the AWS partner ecosystem to understand why co-sell rarely happens—turns out it's not lack of interest, it's lack of tooling."

Speaking to Scale¶

Quantify your scope without implying you did everything yourself. Use leadership-oriented verbs.

Weak:

"I launched Vell."

Strong:

"I directed the development of a GTM platform now serving AWS ISV partners across [X] product categories, with AI workflows that have generated [X] pieces of marketing content and identified [X] co-sell opportunities."

Scale indicators for Vell: - Number of AWS partners using the platform - Volume of content generated (blogs, LinkedIn posts, emails) - GTM hours saved (use the 90% time reduction metrics) - Co-sell partnerships facilitated - Pipeline influenced/attributed

Leadership verbs to use: - "I directed the platform architecture toward AWS-native services..." - "I greenlit the CleanRooms integration for privacy-preserving partner matching..." - "I secured buy-in from early design partners to validate the Market category thesis..." - "I oversaw the development of 20+ GTM-specific AI capabilities..." - "I audited competitor approaches before deciding to focus exclusively on post-listing GTM..."

Showing Strategic Judgment¶

Articulate the decisions you weighed, tradeoffs you made, and what you said no to.

The "Market Category" bet:

"I positioned Vell exclusively in the Market category—GTM and demand generation—even though Build tools like Tackle and Suger were getting more attention. Our research showed that partners had plenty of options for listing creation, but almost no support for what happens after. I said no to building listing management features, which meant walking away from some early revenue, but it let us go deep on the problem nobody else was solving."

The partner-to-partner focus:

"I prioritized partner-to-partner collaboration over AWS-mediated co-sell. AWS has to remain neutral, which means they can't facilitate the kind of direct partner matching and co-branded campaigns that actually drive pipeline. I saw that gap as our moat."

The AI architecture decision:

"I chose to build on AWS Bedrock with Claude rather than OpenAI. It was a harder path—less community support, more custom work—but it aligned us with the AWS ecosystem our customers live in and gave us compliance credibility that matters to enterprise partners."

The pricing model:

"I pushed back on per-seat pricing because our research showed partners wanted to scale content production without negotiating headcount. Credit-based pricing aligns our revenue with their actual usage and removes friction from expansion."

Naming the Invisible Work¶

Surface the relationship-building, research, and influence work that led to outcomes.

Examples:

"Before writing a line of code, I spent four months interviewing AWS Partner Development Managers to understand why co-sell programs underperform. That research shaped our entire product thesis—the problem isn't partner willingness, it's operational friction."

"Getting early design partners required rebuilding trust with ISVs who'd been burned by generic 'AI marketing' tools. I had individual conversations with 20+ partner marketing leaders to understand their skepticism and design around it."

"Aligning on the CleanRooms integration took significant internal debate. Some team members wanted to move faster with simpler matching. I facilitated three workshops to work through the privacy implications and get everyone aligned on why this was worth the complexity."

"The AWS Marketplace API integration required navigating relationships with AWS partner teams who weren't sure how to categorize us. That took six weeks of calls and documentation before we had clarity on our positioning within their ecosystem."

Highlighting Stewardship¶

Make explicit how you're cultivating talent and advancing organizational values.

Talent development:

"I saw technical depth in our content lead and created a path for them to own the AgentCore prompt engineering. They've now built the most sophisticated GTM-specific AI workflows in the market."

"I restructured the team to give engineers direct exposure to partner feedback. It slowed our sprint velocity initially, but our feature-market fit has improved significantly."

Mission alignment:

"Since 'win in the Market category' is our thesis, I put in place weekly co-sell metrics reviews—not just content volume, but actual partner-to-partner campaigns launched. It keeps us honest about solving the real problem."

"To bring our vision of 'GTM without the grunt work' to life, our team rebuilt the workflow system three times until partners could go from brief to full campaign in under 10 minutes."

Values in action:

"I changed how we prioritize features because I noticed we were chasing shiny AI capabilities over partner pain points. Now every roadmap item requires a documented partner problem statement."

Part 2: Positioning Vell in the Market¶

Apply the same framework to how you communicate about the product.

We-then-Me: Credit the Ecosystem¶

Position Vell as enabling partner success, not claiming it.

Instead of:

"Vell generates your GTM content."

Say:

"Your team's expertise drives the strategy. Vell handles the execution—turning your positioning into blogs, LinkedIn series, and email sequences in minutes instead of hours."

Instead of:

"Vell finds your co-sell partners."

Say:

"The AWS partner ecosystem is full of collaboration opportunities. Vell surfaces the ones that match your ICP and makes joint campaigns operationally feasible."

Speak to Scale: Quantify the Impact¶

Use specific metrics that convey scope without overclaiming.

Weak	Strong
"Vell automates GTM"	"Vell reduces product launch campaigns from 3-4 hours to 5 minutes"
"AI-powered content"	"20+ GTM-specific AI capabilities tuned for AWS partner workflows"
"Partner collaboration"	"Secure ICP overlap analysis via AWS CleanRooms without exposing raw data"
"Saves time"	"Partners report 80-90% reduction in GTM operational time"

Show Strategic Judgment: Explain the "Why"¶

Help prospects understand your product decisions.

Why Market-only:

"We focus exclusively on what happens after your listing goes live. Build tools get you on the Marketplace. Vell gets you pipeline from it."

Why partner-to-partner:

"AWS stays neutral by design—they can't play matchmaker. Vell enables the direct partner collaboration that turns co-sell from a buzzword into actual joint campaigns."

Why AWS-native:

"Built on Bedrock, integrated with CleanRooms, aligned with Marketplace APIs. Your compliance team won't have to evaluate another vendor's security posture."

Name the Invisible Work: Surface What's Hard¶

Help customers appreciate the complexity you've absorbed.

"The 10 pre-built workflows represent hundreds of hours of prompt engineering specific to AWS partner GTM—not generic marketing templates adapted for your context."

"Partner matching looks simple in the UI. Behind it is privacy-preserving computation that lets you find ICP overlap without either side exposing their account lists."

"Every generated asset passes through brand voice calibration trained on your existing content—not generic corporate speak with your logo added."

Highlight Stewardship: Show You're Building for the Long Term¶

Demonstrate commitment to the partner ecosystem.

"We're building Vell to strengthen the AWS partner ecosystem, not extract from it. Our success metric is partner pipeline, not content volume."

"The platform is designed so partners can collaborate directly—we facilitate, we don't intermediate. Your co-sell relationships are yours."

"We chose credit-based pricing because we want partners to scale their GTM without negotiating headcount. Your growth shouldn't require a procurement cycle."

Quick Reference: Phrases to Use and Avoid¶

For Yourself¶

Avoid	Use Instead
"I built Vell"	"I directed the development of Vell"
"I created the AI system"	"I oversaw the AI architecture decisions"
"I got us our first customers"	"I secured early design partners through..."
"I figured out the market"	"Through 50+ partner interviews, I identified..."

For Vell¶

Avoid	Use Instead
"Vell does your marketing"	"Vell executes your GTM strategy"
"AI-powered" (alone)	"20+ GTM-specific AI capabilities"
"Automates everything"	"Reduces campaign time from hours to minutes"
"Best in class"	"Purpose-built for AWS ISV partners"

Putting It Together: Example Narrative¶

Full positioning statement using all five principles:

"We built Vell to solve a problem I kept hearing from AWS partners: they'd invested in getting listed on the Marketplace, but had no operational support for what comes next. Our engineering team architected a workflow system on AWS Bedrock, and our product team designed the partner collaboration features based on 50+ partner interviews.

I made the strategic decision to focus exclusively on the Market category—GTM and demand generation—even though Build tools were getting more funding attention. Our research showed the gap was in execution, not listing creation. I also prioritized partner-to-partner collaboration over AWS-mediated co-sell, because AWS's neutrality constraints mean they can't facilitate the direct matching that actually drives pipeline.

Getting here required rebuilding trust with partners who'd been burned by generic AI marketing tools. That meant individual conversations with partner marketing leaders, six months of ecosystem mapping, and three internal workshops to align on our CleanRooms integration approach.

Since 'win in the Market category' is our thesis, I put in place weekly metrics reviews focused on actual co-sell campaigns launched—not just content generated. I've also created paths for team members to own critical capabilities, like our content lead who now runs all AgentCore prompt engineering.

The result: partners are reducing GTM campaign time by 90% and executing co-sell programs they couldn't operationalize before. We're not claiming to do their marketing—we're giving their teams the leverage to do it at scale."

When to Use This Framework¶

Investor conversations: Lead with scale and strategic judgment
Partner pitches: Emphasize the "we" framing and stewardship
Team communications: Name the invisible work and talent development
Content marketing: Show strategic judgment and quantify scale
Conference talks: Full narrative combining all five elements