Wait, without a website? Without a brand? Without a proper name?…we just… launch???
As someone with a long and illustrious career of working on brand names, logos and websites versus getting out and testing my ideas with real users, this was a concept I knew, but routinely ignored. The benefit this time was having a co-founder who lives in the startup world.
There is no doubt that it is scary putting your idea out into the light for people to see it and inevitably – judge it. We often think to get the best reception for our project we need all the right things in place around it – the aforementioned website, branding, etc. but an idea is an idea and people will love it or judge it regardless of its packaging.
A fear of having an idea judged and potentially crushed, can waste valuable time having our concept ‘out in the wild’ learning and iterating. Instead we can convince ourselves that spending the day choosing the right font is totally worthwhile.
So, we launched. Armed with a flyer, a slide deck and a clunky but descriptive name we headed out into the world. The thought was infinitely more scary than the reality, and it’s been amazing talking to people, hearing their needs and seeing where our ideas resonate.
In addition, people are joining our community! We didn’t need that pretty font on day one after all.
This experience has given me a new appreciation of startup web3 values. When I first entered the web3 space I remember thinking the brand aesthetic was intentionally, ‘I did this myself last night’. However, I now recognise it as “we want to get on and build the thing, not spend time building how we present the thing”. There is an air of boldness and experimentation within this tech and builder community – which I am happy to say is rubbing off on me.
Don’t get me wrong, GenX Crypto Women and all startups are fly-by-the-seat-of-pants oftentimes. As cofounders, we wear the hats of content creators, social media managers, business developers as well as DAO strategy and community planners in a day. And to boot, this is all having never met in person, being separated by a very large ocean and each having many other irons in the fire. But, with a mission we really want to see out in the world it makes it worthwhile.
As cliché as it may be, and as hard as it is to bring yourself to do it, if you have an idea you think isn’t ready to stand on its own or walk yet, give it a go and see what happens. It might just run!
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The irony is that this approach is arguably best practice from a branding perspective. The product evolves to fit the niche, then the brand identity and personality manifests organically. As opposed to the usual approach of defining brand identity then shoehorning the product/service to fit. Saves having to rebrand later (Like I had to 🫠)
Thanks for the vote of confidence Ryan. You are right, the idea of having to rebrand at a later stage was definitely a point Lana made also.