Case Study · Agentic AI · B2B SaaS
Taking Prefactor from stalling MVP to enterprise-ready category definer.
How a 9-week GTM engagement helped Prefactor discover their real market, rebuild their brand from scratch, and redirect their entire product roadmap.
Before — scroll down for the transformation
The brief
Over $1.5M raised. 45 Free users. Zero conversions. Three months out from a US launch.
When Prefactor approached me to build the foundations for a short, last-minute US market entry trip, the brief was lean: positioning and messaging frameworks, a fresh pitch deck, and a white paper — credible and sharp enough for Silicon Valley boardrooms.
But despite having secured Antler funding and holding plenty of conversations, they had 45 users on a free tier and zero conversions. Their product—an MCP authentication solution—wasn't landing.
A product demo revealed the core issue: the MVP was solving a problem their audience didn't have. The brief shifted — before building commercial assets for US soft launch, we had to validate whether the market actually wanted what Prefactor was building.
We added:
- A Customer Discovery Program
- The Diagnostic Package (problem definition, competitive intel, ICP definition, segmentation & targeting)
- Brand refresh and core design assets
Discovery Interview Insights
Three findings changed everything.
They were targeting the wrong buyer.
Engineers were an engaged beta user group, but they were never going to buy. They don't control budgets. Enterprise purchasing decisions rest with the CTO, CISO, or CPO. Prefactor needed a completely different language for this completely different buyer.
The product wasn't solving a real problem.
Prefactor was building a technically sound product, but it wasn't solving a burning problem. They'd built the wrong tool. Senior execs were concerned about auditability, visibility, control and demonstrable ROI from their agentic AI investments, not MCP authentication.
They had dismissed a primary segment.
The assumption that regulated industries were too cautious for agentic AI was wrong. Banking, finance, and insurance are moving methodically, leveraging existing governance frameworks to adopt safely. They have the most to gain—and the budget to act.
Brand refresh
From generic tech startup to enterprise-ready brand.
The Founders started rebuilding, and I started on brand. Prefactor had no cohesive identity — dark templates, AI-generated imagery that looked like every other early-stage tech company. We ran a series of brand workshops with the Founders, then built out the brand from strategy to production-ready style guide and visual design assets. The result: an enterprise-ready brand system reflecting credibility and gravitas, built for a small team to apply easily and consistently themselves.
Before
prefactor.tech — prior to engagement
After
New brand identity — November 2025
Strategic narrative
A pitch deck built around the new positioning.
We built the product pitch deck from the ground up, using the findings from our market research and ICP interviews. It centred around a new narrative positioning Prefactor as the MCP-Native Agent Control Plane for enterprise and regulated industries.
From strategy to execution
Fresh content reinforcing the new positioning.
Thought-leadership white paper, campaign-ready ad creative, pitch deck, a fully structured client workspace and asset library.
The outcome
A redirected product roadmap solving a real market problem, and commercial foundations built for scale.
Product roadmap redirected
The Customer Discovery interviews validated a completely new product direction — a unified control plane for enterprise agent governance. Development accelerated from there. The product Prefactor is building today is fundamentally different from the one that existed at the start of the engagement.
Brand built for enterprise
The new visual identity gave Prefactor the credibility to walk into regulated-industry and enterprise conversations without the brand working against them. The style guide and visual elements were crafted to be easy for the founding team to use, no ongoing designer costs.
Commercial foundations in place
Every asset: white paper, pitch deck, positioning framework, messaging architecture. All built around the new ICP and product direction. A coherent, credible story ready for the US market.
The work
Seven workstreams. Nine weeks.
Customer Discovery Programme
Hypothesis development, questionnaire design, senior-leader interviews, thematic analysis, roadmap insights and validation of key hypotheses.
Market Research
PESTEL analysis, VRIO model (competitive advantage assessment), competitive analysis and comparison matrix, market sizing, segment value, and targeting matrix.
Positioning & Messaging
New ICP personas, value proposition development, positioning statement, and full messaging architecture built for an executive buyer, not an engineering audience.
Brand Refresh
Brand strategy workshop, complete visual identity, style guide, and designer briefing and facilitation across multiple collaborative workshops with the founding team.
White Paper
Redefining Digital Trust — a thought leadership piece positioning Prefactor at the intersection of agentic AI and enterprise governance.
Pitch Deck
Investor and sales pitch deck built on a branded, reusable template, structured around the new positioning and ICP narrative.
Digital Ad Creative
Campaign-ready Reddit ad creative built on the new brand system, messaging framework, and ICP insights.
Notion Client Portal
All strategic work delivered in a structured, navigable Notion workspace — including investor snapshot, market research, segmentation model, interview findings, and brand assets.
The GTM Builder
The frameworks from this project, in a guided system you can run yourself.
Available as a guided Notion system with over 30 detailed JSON AI prompts to accelerate your research.
Explore the GTM BuilderWork with Toni
Ready to do this for your product?
If you're preparing for a raise, planning international expansion, or going to market with a complex or regulated product, let's talk.
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