Value Propositions as Fractional Objects: Searching for Strands of Stabilization in a Startup’s Arguments

Early-stage technology startups must continuously learn: About potential markets and their problems, about the developing technology and its opportunities and limitations, about business models that could sustain an enterprise built around the technology. And they must continuously argue their value to a rotating set of stakeholders. To provide relative stability amidst constant changes to the argument, startups develop a multifaceted value proposition: a claim that can accommodate its diverse stakeholders’ values.

In this preliminary study, we apply the Orders of Worth framework to archival data and interviews from a startup developing its offering from 2016-2023. We focus on its value proposition, “Save more than you spend,” examining how elaborations on this phrase to different stakeholders invoke different orders of worth, yielding what one founder characterizes as a “multifaceted value proposition.” We conclude with implications for understanding the value proposition as fractional: cohering just enough to provide a relatively stable project object for the startup.