Does your startup brand affect your fundraise?

Yes. Your brand shapes how investors perceive your company, and for investors that perception often becomes the foundation of valuation. Brand here means more than a logo or a slogan. It is the strategic work of shaping how your company is perceived: what it stands for, how people remember it and why it feels different from everything else in the market.

A company with a clear position, a clear story and its own identity is easier to understand, easier to believe in and easier to bet on. This matters most at early stage. When there are few numbers to show, clarity and conviction in your story can become your strongest asset.

What is the Purple Cow strategy in fundraising?

The Purple Cow strategy means being remarkable enough that investors remember you. The idea comes from the marketing author Seth Godin. If you pass a field of brown cows, they all look the same. A purple cow makes you stop and look. Godin's point: in a crowded market, safe is invisible, and remarkable stands out.

Fundraising works the same way. Investors hear dozens of pitches a week. In my experience, most are mediocre at best, a few are excellent, and only a handful are memorable. The memorable ones get real interest, follow-up meetings and often higher valuations. A startup that is only better, faster or more efficient than its competitors often gets overlooked in that crowd. A startup that is different gets noticed. CEO Briefing #73 explains the principle in more detail.

Why do investors care about a startup's brand?

Investors want to back a company that defines or leads a market, and brand shows them whether you can. The companies that lead a market category are rarely only better in function. They are different from their competitors in emotion and in strategy.

A 2024 study by the brand consultancy Interbrand found that over 75% of investment analysts believe a company's brand strategy has a direct impact on valuation. According to the study, it often counts for more than competitive threats or even the CEO's reputation.

Brand shapes the answers to four questions about your company:

• Trust: are you credible?
• Clarity: are you focused?
• Excitement: do people believe in your future?
• Difference: are you different enough to matter?

Why is your website an underrated fundraising asset?

Your website can be the first thing an investor sees of your company, sometimes even before the pitch deck. Founders often put most of their effort into the pitch deck and overlook the website. As a VC, one of the first things I do is visit the startup's website, often before I look at the deck.

A website reflects your company's strategy and your team's communication skills. It shows how well you position the company, market the product and build products. Two parts decide the first impression:

• Design: a sloppy website can push investors away, because a poorly designed website often goes along with a poorly designed product interface. A well-made website can raise interest and the chances of a pitch meeting.
• Content: the content matters even more than the design. Clear website messaging tends to go along with a strong pitch, a clear B2B sales strategy (B2B means selling to other businesses), clear positioning and good communication overall. Vague messaging leaves visitors unsure what the company does.

What should a startup website tell investors?

A startup website should say clearly what the company does, for whom and why it helps. In CEO Briefing #9, I listed four points:

1. What your company does: define your products or services clearly.
2. Target customers: name your ideal customer.
3. Value proposition: show how your offer benefits customers. The value proposition is the concrete benefit a customer gets from you.
4. Simplicity and clarity: less is often more. A neat, simple landing page can work far better than a complicated website with too much information.

How do you test whether your startup brand stands out?

Ask yourself one question: if someone saw your pitch deck for 30 seconds, what would they remember? Your answer, and how well it fits your identity, mission and market, shows your brand at work.

Then look at your website the way an investor would, before opening the deck. Check whether it says what you do, for whom and why it helps. When the deck and the website leave the same clear point in the reader's mind, your brand and your fundraising story support each other.

How do you prepare your brand and website for a fundraise?

Prepare both together, because an investor may see your website before your pitch deck. Five steps:

1. Name what makes you different: write down what sets your company apart from everything else in the market. Being better at features alone does not always stand out.
2. Check the 30-second memory: show your pitch deck to someone for 30 seconds and ask what they remember. Compare it with the point you want them to remember.
3. Align website and deck: make sure the website states the same point as the deck: what you do, for whom and why it helps.
4. Simplify the website: remove information until a neat, simple landing page remains that a visitor understands quickly.
5. Review the design: look for sloppy details, because a sloppy website can make investors doubt the quality of your product.

Brand work for a fundraise covers positioning, story and perception. Done well, it becomes one of the most underrated drivers of valuation in today's startup market.