Discoveries #4 | Importance of Brand for Startups
Welcome to Edition 04 of Discoveries. Each week, I share inspiration on design, product building, and what's next.
Importance of Brand for Startups
One of the questions I hear all the time:
“How much does brand really matter in the early days of building a company?”
My answer: Way more than most people think.
The conventional wisdom is to wait until you’ve found product-market fit before investing in brand. But in reality, brand can help you get there faster. A great brand builds trust—and trust is the currency of early-stage growth.
At BoomPop, we invested heavily in our brand from day one. Before we had much traction, we poured time into our visual identity, voice, and overall experience. And it paid off. When we started pitching early hosts to join our platform, we’d often hear:
“Your company looks super polished—I’ll give it a shot.”
We were less than a year old.
Of course, a beautiful brand doesn’t matter if you can’t deliver. But brand is what got people to take that first leap with us. That was the unlock for our earliest wins.
Today, people are mostly numb to traditional marketing. What actually builds brand loyalty is delivering an amazing, frictionless experience that makes people’s lives genuinely better.
The best brands of this decade—Airbnb, Figma, Hims & Hers—didn’t just sell products. They made the old way of doing things feel clunky by comparison. They built something better, and then wrapped it in a brand that made you feel that difference immediately.
At the end of the day, brand is experience. If your product delights, your brand grows. And if your brand builds trust, your product gets a shot.
Product Inspiration
Takeaways:
- You write a prompt, and Arcade's AI generates custom designs for physical goods—currently focused on jewelry and home decor.
- If you like what you see, the platform partners with artisans to craft the item and ship it to your door.
- It's like a next-gen Etsy—where AI handles the design, and humans handle the craftsmanship.
What I'm Reading
How to be extraordinary (from Scott Adams):
Other Finds
SF in all its glory:
Thanks for reading,
Blake
P.S. Enjoyed this week’s edition? I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend or colleague. Every share helps expand the reach and impact of this newsletter.
Forwarded this email? Sign up here
Find me on Linkedin