Valuing Brand at the Early Stage

By: Matt Berberian

When we begin working with startups, they often lack a critical asset: a brand. To help entrepreneurs develop their brands, we start by asking what they are trying to accomplish.‍

The answer (more often than we’d like to admit) is typically some version of “We just need to look legit” or “We’re busy building a product and haven’t thought about it.”‍

With easy design templates like Canva and Pitch, off-the-shelf domains and logos, and more pressing priorities like product development, many wonder why early-stage companies should focus on brand at all.

As if these questions weren’t enough, there are two more major challenges to building brands for startups:‍

The first is the agency partner challenge. Agencies have created brand development systems that will cost $100K-$300K+ (with a healthy 30–70%+ margin built in for the agency). Agencies usually provide a fixed-duration approach, which works well for established companies with existing products and audiences. However, it doesn’t work for startups with nascent products, as they need the optionality and flexibility.‍

The second is the “ Iron Triangle “ challenge: when choosing between “Good,” “Fast,” and “Cheap,” only two can be selected (e.g. Good + Fast = cannot also be Cheap). For early-stage companies, this creates a dilemma because two of the three vectors are already locked in. They must be fast and likely have very little capital to do it. In this…