Hi friends - Happy New Year! I hope this email finds you rested and ready to rumble. As promised, I’m bringing in a few friends this quarter.

First up….Mr Bill Kenney - who is going to teach us about all things BRAND.

Bill Kenney is co-founder and CEO of Focus Lab, a global B2B branding agency helping organizations take the lead in their market. Past clients include Marketo, Salesloft, Zuora, Outreach, LaunchDarkly, Braze, and 600+ others over 15 years. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and son, enjoys camping along the Connecticut shore in the summers, and is a humble new white belt of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the ripe age of 46.

Without further ado…I’ll hand it over to Bill. 🫡 

Let’s talk about branding. Does any other word in business have such an influential impact while also being impossible for two people to align its definition?

Having spent fifteen years building a brand agency and serving 600+ B2B technology companies, from start-ups to publicly traded, I understand why people struggle to define brand. Branding is so all-inclusive that it becomes grey fast, or it gets boiled down to a logo and color palette.

In this series, I’ll do my best to crack open branding on both practical and tactical levels. Helping business owners at any stage understand how brand should be a secret weapon to their growth.

First, we’ll cover three common misconceptions, then move into what a brand is and why it matters to you and your customers. I’ll then unpack the branding process very specifically and finish with how to roll out a new brand in stages for maximum impact.

Common misconceptions

“My product is great; what the hell is a logo going to do for me?”

❌ Misconception: Many founders believe branding is solely about visual design, such as a logo or color palette, rather than the entire customer experience and emotional connection with a brand.

🧠 Reality: Brand is every touch point and feeling a customer has about your business, for better or worse. It’s no different than a restaurant that needs a strong front-of-house (i.e., curb appeal, customer service, cleanliness) and back-of-house (quality food). For simple analogies, consider the front of the house as your brand and the back of the house as your product. No restaurant will reach its full potential with just one side of the operation getting attention. Period. The same is true for your business.

Your brand leads the way. It sets the expectations, attracts new customers, defines who you are, how you’re different, what you “serve,” and creates a standard around the experience you want customers to have.

It aligns the business–front to back internally and externally. Your team and customers benefit from the structure and clarity an intentional brand delivers.

I often say we don’t sell branding; we sell clarity. And that clarity creates a 1+1=3 effect.

“Am I too small? Can I even afford branding?”

❌ Misconception: Branding is often considered a luxury reserved for large, established companies with big budgets.

🧠 Reality: While high-end branding agencies can be costly, there are plenty of solutions for startups—more than ever to be candid. You also don’t need to buy the whole house if you’re really nervous or limited financially. You can invest in foundational clarity first, like the company vision and mission, and high-level messaging that will align your team and customers to a north star, etc.

Being smaller doesn’t mean you haven’t earned the right to care how you present yourself to the world. Everyone at every stage should care about this. But sometimes you don’t know that until it’s too late.

Case in point: our two-time client Bob Moore from Crossbeam.

He went from a brand non-believer at his first company to a brand evangelist at his second. Why? Because in real dollars post sale, he saw the money he left on the table as a competitor with a better brand sold for 100x his company's sale. What did he do on his next venture? Call us before he even had a product at all.

To be fair, I understand a brand investment can be scary. It’s scary because of all the unknowns. There’s no standard for leaders like yourself to get a single source of truth on pricing, process, measurable outcomes, etc.

Thankfully, agencies like mine are now building start-up packages to support this gap in the market. Branding is more in reach than ever; just ask Jess :)

Without being too provocative, it’s also worth asking if you can afford not to take your brand seriously if you have big aspirations to grow or maximize your valuation.

“We Can Do It Later.”

❌ Misconception: Many founders deprioritize branding, assuming it can wait until they have more bandwidth or a larger market presence.

🧠 Reality: Without a clear brand, startups risk being perceived as generic or inconsistent (see the misstep from Bob above), which can hurt customer retention and growth from day one and, later, valuation on exit if never addressed. Early branding efforts are a superpower. It’s not too dissimilar to the “I’ll start eating good on Monday” trap. Waiting is not a benefit; it’s delaying what needs to happen.

We see this line of thinking A LOT. “I don’t have time to tackle something like that; I’m too busy in the day-to-day.”

This is the definition of working in the business and not on the business.

What I can tell you is I’ve never had anyone tell me they tackled branding too early. But I have had countless people tell us upon starting their project with us that they’re behind.

Think of it this way, your brand is either working for you, or against you.

When you’re behind the eightball and your brand looks dated, confusing, and undesirable to your customers, you’re late. Working from that position is more painful. Instead, consider how you can build momentum with brand when things are still working but could be improved. This will be mentally and financially easier.

Bonus point: What happens when your competition looks the part, and you don’t?

It all comes down to how you appeal to your target audience, or don’t.

Put simply, if your competition understands and appeals to the audience better they will outsell you. Even if you have better features, etc.

Buyers are always looking for a reason not to trust a service or product. They scour reviews, weigh costs and features against each other, but ultimately, they judge the cover of your book.

Your visual identity is your book cover. If you look like a scrappy start-up, that will 100% limit your ability to sell effectively to the clients you’re eager to reach. And honestly, this effect is true at any scale.

We’re currently in the middle of a rebrand due to a large merger. These are the exact words I saw typed into a chat upon the reveal of the new identity: “We look all grown up now.” This was said in a Zoom room of 150 team members, including the C-Suite. How you look matters; it even influences internal energy.

Investing in your brand is akin to securing a seat at the influential table in the room—it positions you to be seen, heard, and taken seriously. It builds opportunity and momentum from perception. More on this in next week’s email.

Takeaways and action steps…

• Ask yourself the question, “Is your brand working for you or against you?” If you’re unsure, it’s safe to say you know the answer.

• Consider how your ideal customers perceive you? Do they underestimate your value and offering because of how you look? Additionally, does your brand match the price you demand? Or does it feel misaligned?

• Find a brand shop that will give you a low-cost-of-entry audit or free candid conversation around your brand, your pain points, and what they see as opportunities. We offer this. 👇️ 

In part two of this series, we’ll dive deeper into where intentional branding will impact your business the most and outline a simple framework to follow when building your brand.

Hint: market perception is a powerful lever. 💡 

Want to learn more about how I help startups increase their revenue by 150-590%? 👀 

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With love and gratitude,