London and Paris, October 27, 2026. Positive and Fast Growth Advisors partner to bring world-class messaging to UK startups. Positive, the London-based PR credibility experts, and Fast Growth Advisors, the French-founded leader in Message-Market Fit (MMF) for B2B startups, today announced their partnership bringing AI-powered market positioning to the UK for the first time.
The Message-Market Fit methodology uses proprietary AI techniques to objectively measure B2B marketing promises against the latest customer needs. Building on Fast Growth Advisors’ audit of 369 post-funding French startups, the goal is to help British companies build global credibility to their marketing claims at AI speed.
Using frontier AI techniques, the team scrutinised the publicly available data of 370 funded UK startups. They found that 68% of UK startups are unreadable to the AI engines their buyers use, that the average message clarity score was just 6 out of 10, and that lack of clarity affects all investment rounds, pre-seed, seed, Series A, Series B and beyond.
Free practical advice
The English language version of the Message-Market Fit Report is available now. For those interested in learning more, a bespoke overview and detailed Message-Market Fit audits with recommendations will highlight positioning issues and potential remedies. These company-specific reports break current messaging issues in detail and offer free practical advice on how to align customer needs with future messaging.
Remove guesswork from marketing
“Credibility is about consistency. Unsuccessful awareness campaigns built on unclear messaging cost the same as those that excel. The key is sharper differentiators which mirror the fast-changing requirements of buyers. Before MMF, comms professionals relied on gut feel. There was no objective gauge of Message-Market fit. Now, and for free, we can objectively audit messaging, before committing to expensive marketing communications,” commented Paul Maher, founder of Positive.
“When we measured the booming French startup scene, the question we heard most, from investors and founders alike, was ‘Is this solely a French, or a European, startup problem?’ Europe’s largest ecosystem, the UK, is the right place to find out,” said Hervé Dhélin, founder of Fast Growth Advisors.
The context: B2B buyers now turn to AI first
According to The Answer Economy, a G2 study of 1,076 B2B software buyers published in April 2026, 51% start their purchase research in an AI assistant rather than a search engine. This is up 29% YoY and results in one out of three buyers purchasing from previously unknown vendors. Clear, machine-readable messaging is now a condition of making shortlists.
Hervé Dhélin and Paul Maher previously worked together in senior roles at Mercury Interactive, purchased for $4.6 billion by IT giant HPE.
About Fast Growth Advisors
Fast Growth Advisors is a French consultancy founded by Hervé Dhélin, positioned as “the Message-Market Fit firm” for post-funding B2B startups and scale-ups in Europe. It publishes the Message-Market Fit Observatory, an annual study of message clarity among funded startups, and was named Best B2B Message-Market Fit Consultancy 2026 for Europe by UK magazine Acquisition International.
About Positive
Founded in London in 2009, Positive is a PR, content and AI optimisation (AIO) agency dedicated to B2B tech. Winner of the SABRE Awards EMEA in 2022, 2024 and 2026, it works with companies including Okta, Boomi, Quantexa and Sectigo across the UK, EMEA and the United States.
Sources
- Fast Growth Advisors and Positive Marketing, The State of Message-Market Fit: UK B2B Tech 2026, October 2026.
- G2, The Answer Economy: G2’s 2026 AI Search Insight Report, survey of 1,076 B2B decision makers, March 2026.
- Positive: positivemarketing.com
FAQ
What did the UK Message-Market Fit study measure?
How clearly 370 funded UK B2B tech startups state what they do.
Each company was read twice from public data only. A 15-criteria audit scores the message out of 75, from the prospect’s point of view. A five-layer GEO audit, scored out of 100, checks whether AI engines can read and quote that same message, with visibility measured on Google AI Overviews.
What are the headline figures of the UK report?
An average message score of 45.5 out of 75, and 68.1% graded D or F on AI readability.
Not one of the 370 startups reaches 85.3% of the potential: the best scores 64 out of 75. On the 146 companies with a disclosed raise, the Spearman correlation between amount raised and message score is -0.073, so funding does not buy clarity.
Where can I read the full report?
On fast-growth.fr, as a web page and as a PDF.
The State of Message-Market Fit: UK B2B Tech 2026 was written by Hervé Dhélin, founder of Fast Growth Advisors, with Positive Marketing as UK partner. It covers the four failure patterns, eleven sector groups, the decisions shared by the top 5% and a to-do list for UK startups.
How can a UK startup get its own Message-Market Fit audit?
By contacting Fast Growth Advisors or Positive.
Fast Growth Advisors scores the message with the same 15-criteria grid used in the report and returns a prioritised list of fixes. Positive then works on PR and visibility so the corrected message gets heard and cited in the UK. Contact Hervé Dhélin at herve@fast-growth.fr or Paul Maher at pmaher@positivemarketing.com.