There’s an order to brand building. A founder’s guide to doing it right
Brand building is one of the most confusing parts of starting a business…
Every founder you talk to gives you different advice. Every agency uses different jargon. Every course claims to have the right framework. The result is chaos. Early stage founders do what anyone would do in a confusing environment.
They default to the part that feels concrete: product.
But here is the truth: startup companies fail not because the product was bad, but because nobody cared. Audience apathy is the real killer. And the reason people do not care is that the brand was never built with intention.
Brand is not fluff. It is not a logo or a moodboard. It is the foundation that shapes what you offer, how you communicate, and why people should care. There is a simple order to doing it right. When you follow it, the entire business becomes clearer and easier to build.
Here is the order founders should follow, based on our experience working with many startups:
Stage One: Stand Out
The philosophy behind this stage is simple:
Start outside of your brand.
Too many brands get tripped up because they think the world cares about them. They don’t. Not yet. The world has enough going on.
Those brands that miss this step come running out of the gates shouting about themselves, when they haven’t build this fundamental understanding of the world around them. Don’t let this be you.
This is where you zoom out. Before you talk about colors or taglines, you define the deeper forces that shape your business.
This phase is about clear positioning in the mind of your audience about what your brand stands for and represents. When founders skip it, the result is a brand with no center of gravity. You see this in startups that look polished, but feel hollow.
To become a brand with purpose, to reach hearts and minds, root your brand in what your audience cares about. Their challenges. Their passions. The wider world they inhabit. Think about the category you find yourself in and who you’re competing for attention with.
Then you’ll find your mission and your purpose, and a brand that shines.
Without this, you will wander around in circles in the wilderness.
Summary of stage one:
Why
Connect with your audience so they pay attention.
What is solves
Know what you believe in, but don’t know how to say it clearly so your audience truly trusts and understands.
How to do it
Translate values into messaging and stories that earn trust and stand out from competitive offerings.
The steps
01 | Pick your audience niche
02 | Identify their #1 problem
03 | Tap into culture
04 | Differentiate from competitors
05 | Spot category trends
06 | Communicate a clear vision
07 | Craft your brand story
08 | Write key message
09 | Organize your brand
What you get
A single source of truth for all your decisions - the brand book.
Stage Two: Express
The philosophy behind the expression stage is this:
Creativity can flourish when given proper form.
It’s easy to think of an idea and just start creating content and putting it out in the world. Indeed, curiosity and experimentation and key tenets of brand building.
However, in order to have creativity with purpose, in order to focus your creative energies into the approaches that are going to align most with your audience and mission, they have to be given direction and form.
Put another way, you have to decide how to dress before you leave the house.
Otherwise you will be wearing a cornucopia of different items.
And people may think you’re a little coo-coo. Now there’s nothing wrong with coo-coo - some of the best of us are. But there’s only one chance to make a first impression with your audience. Let’s make it a good one.
Identity is where strategy becomes visible. When founders jump into identity too early, the visuals look nice but have nothing to say.
Summary of stage two
Why
Be remembered and chosen by your customers.
What is solves
You have a clear strategy, but you don’t know which direction to go in when it comes to bringing it clearly into the world in a way that will resonate with your customers.
How to do it
Express your founder personality into memorable visuals and language.
The steps
01 | Create a distinctive personality
02 | Pick a memorable name
03 | Develop a logo
04 | Select brand colors
05 | Pick fonts
06 | Develop a visual style
07 | Write core messages
08 | Output brand guidelines
What you get
Brand guidelines and visual assets you can use to launch your website, social media, and test ads.
Stage Three: Launch
So far we’ve been crafting what your brand is, and crucially, is not.
This has been about defining a state of being, rather than a state of doing.
Launch makes a shift towards doing.
The intentional action of putting out messages into the world. Before you act, we have create a plan, and set intentions, ensuring that your actions come from a grounded set of principles rooted in your brand mission.
We want to make sure our words have the intended impact on our audience.
We want our efforts to drive our business goals.
The launch stage is about setting these right intentions. So that our brand purpose can rise to the top in everything we say and do.
This is where everything becomes tangible. Planning launch is the most important part of this phase. This means going to market intentionally, and getting in front of customers step by step:
Summary of stage three
Why
Go “live” in the market in a structured and intentional way.
What is solves
You have the strategy and visual assets, and don’t know where to start when it comes to getting them in front of your audience.
How to do it
Create a plan in front of your customers step by step.
The steps
01 | Define launch goals
02 | Plan your funnel messages
03 | Decide where to launch
04 | Create launch plan
05 | Set up social media
06 | Build a website
07 | Test and launch
What you get
A launch plan that gets you live in market, with a website and social media.
Recap: The simple rule
Brand building is not about making things pretty. It is about building in the right order.
Stand out first. Express second. Plan launch third.
Get this sequence right and brand becomes one of the most powerful drivers of early traction.
Resources and links :
To see if your brand is ready for launch, download our 25 Task Launch Checklist.
If you want the full plug and play DIY process, we built the Founder’s Launch Toolkit just for that.
Want to hire us to develop your brand? See our services or get in touch.