The significance of a robust brand identity for your pre-seed startup (beyond merely offering a product)

In the dynamic world of startups, branding is no longer just about a logo or colour palette. It encompasses a company's point of view, values, and its ability to communicate consistently. This was emphasised on June 17th, 2025, as we witnessed the importance of building a strong brand before product launch.

Take the example of Levels, a company offering metabolic health tracking. Despite having no public product yet, Levels attracted investor attention due to its sharp mission, detailed blog content, a high-trust tone, and founder visibility across podcasts and LinkedIn.

Notion, even before mass adoption, stood out with minimal design, a calm tone, and pages that felt usable and human, creating early believers who told the story for them. Similarly, Arc, a pre-launch job platform for remote tech talent, built early traction not just on product, but on brand, with a clean, confident site, consistent tone, and a focus on trust.

Investing in brand early, before people start searching for the company, can prevent a half-baked image from being the first impression. Tella, a video recording service for startups, launched with a personality-packed brand, attracting users who not only trusted the tool but liked it, making them more likely to stick around.

A strong brand can make early-stage startups appear established and build momentum while the rest of the business catches up. The company "plancraft" applied a pre-startup branding approach around its Series-A funding in June 2024, which led to rapid growth, doubling its team from 40 to over 100 employees and expanding operations across Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Italy, supported by a strong product and ambitious mindset in transforming the crafts industry with AI.

Moreover, a clear, coherent brand can help earn trust when the founders or team are not present to explain the company. For instance, Vanta turned curiosity into quick demos by having a strong brand.

Investors at the pre-seed stage judge potential not just by numbers, but by how clearly a startup frames the problem, talks about the market, and aligns the product, pitch, and brand. A clear, confident brand can help attract better people, including early hires who are believers in the company's mission.

The best brands punch above their weight, attracting attention even before a logo is created. A well-defined brand can attract mission-aligned teams that early-stage startups aspire to have, as seen with Clay.

To assess where your brand is thriving and where it needs improvement, consider using the Brand Pulse Audit tool. By investing in brand early, startups can establish themselves as credible, trustworthy, and competent entities, even before the product is launched. Building something ambitious? So are we. We work with early-stage startups to help them communicate their mission, ambition, and values in a genuine way, serving as a magnet for talent.