Starting a business is a bit like jumping out of a plane and assembling your parachute on the way down – hoping to land on a paradise island and not in the middle of the sea. You’ve got big ambitions, tight budgets, and about five seconds to grab people’s attention before they scroll past, switch off, or get distracted by another cat video.

But before you throw everything into a full-scale branding exercise (and risk investing when your message may change, your product may change… hell, even your audience may change!), there’s a smarter way.

Enter the MVP Brand – your Minimum Viable Product, but for branding. Think of it as a confident new recruit – slightly scrappy but full of potential and ready to prove itself. Right now, an MVP brand will provide just enough branding to help you make an impression – without the bells, whistles or hefty price tag. Just a lean, focused identity that does its job while you figure out the rest. Then the more you learn, the better it gets.

1. Getting your startup off the ground

The early stages of startup life are messy, unpredictable and full of drama. Here are some of the biggest challenges you’re likely to be facing:

• Limited time, limited money: most startups are pre-revenue, meaning you’re probably wearing 20 different hats –  juggling everything from operations to outreach
• Limited reach: with no audience yet, finding your first clients takes creativity, relentless persistence – and maybe even bribing your friends to spread the word
• Lack of proven results: right now, you need clients willing to take a chance – on you as a founder, your vision, and your untested promise
• Becoming investable: the chances are that you’ll need to attract investment in one form or another to really get going
• Wavering confidence: you know you need to stand up and stand out, but imposter syndrome whispers, "Maybe you should play it safe for now?" Ignore that voice!

With all these challenges, it’s easy to overthink your brand. But that comes later. Just like you wouldn’t perfect your product before testing it in the market, you shouldn’t over-engineer your brand before you truly understand your customers. Right now you need momentum to get your business out into the world, start building relationships and learn as you go.

An MVP brand gives you a launchpad to do exactly that. It’s a lean, high-impact brand foundation that gets you noticed, and enables you to gather intel and evolve as you grow.

So, what does an MVP Brand consist of? Well, aside from Minimum Viable Product, MVP stands for three brand essentials: Mission, Values and Purpose. By identifying these, you’ll give your startup a powerful guiding focus while you navigate these chaotic early days.

Mission, Values, and Purpose (MVP)

But let’s tackle it back to front…

Purpose:

Start with why you exist. And no, ‘to make money’ doesn’t count here. What impact do you want to make? Your purpose is the emotional core of your brand – the thing that keeps you driven and your audience invested. If you can articulate this with passion and clarity, it’ll help you make those big decisions, attract the right people and keep you motivated – even when things get messy.

Values:

What do you stand for? How do you do business? What lines will you never cross? Your values shape everything from your startup’s culture to the way you look after your customers. The stronger and more distinctive they are, the easier it is to attract like-minded customers, employees and partners who want to buy into what you’re building.

Mission:

Once your purpose and values are in place, it’s time to define your mission – what you do, day in and day out, to solve your customers’ problems. From this, you can create a clear Unique Value Proposition (UVP) or brand promise. This is your headline pitch in a nutshell. It’s your ultimate hook – the way to stop people scrolling!

Next, bring your MVP to life with a simple brand starter kit. A basic logo, core colours and an idea of your brand personality are enough to get going. Think of this as your prototype – something you can test, evolve and refine once you have real market feedback.

When to evolve your MVP to a full brand identity

Over time – whether it’s a year in, or even two – you’ll have been trading, securing clients, and gaining real insights. By this point, you’ve proven your concept. You’ll know who your customers are, what they love about working with you, and what truly sets you apart. That’s when you move from a brand that’s  ‘good enough’ to one that’s built to make a real impact.

2. DARE to level up your identity

Once you’ve validated your business and have a clearer understanding of your sweet spot, it’s time to level up and transform your MVP Brand into something truly irresistible.

So what makes a good brand?

If you look at the most effective and successful brands – no matter the industry, no matter the audience, no matter where they are in the world – you’ll find they all have four things in common: They stand out. They feel genuine. They resonate deeply. And they show up, consistently over and over.

This is why we created DARE – our simple yet powerful formula for building brands that make real impact. DARE stands for Differentiation, Authenticity, Resonance and Expression at every touchpoint. If you can tick all of these boxes – you’ll create a powerful brand that’s difficult to emulate and impossible to ignore.

So that’s the theory, now let’s go deeper…

D – Differentiation: showcase your unique value

The single most important job of your brand is to communicate your unique value:

• To give people a clear reason to buy from you
• To separate you from your competitors
• To enable you to charge premium prices

Without clear differentiation, we unintentionally make it very difficult for people to choose to buy from us.

How to differentiate? This comes back to your mission and your unique value proposition (UVP) or brand promise. If you remember, this is your headline pitch in a nutshell. It’s the core of your brand and should:

• Form the basis of your messaging
• Be reflected in your visual design
• Be evident throughout your whole business

A – Authenticity: build from the inside out

This is everything that makes you, YOU. Your vision, values, beliefs and personality. Often startups will try to mimic established brands, losing themselves and often their secret power in the process.

Richard Branson said it best: “Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealised, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust.”

Instead, being authentic enables you to:

• Claim your undisputed originality – stay true to your origins
• Ooze credibility and confidence – an authentic brand gives you a license to be yourselves
• Become magnetic to people who care about the same things as you do (aka your ideal customers!)

How? Define your why, what, how, who and where (if you’ve worked through the MVP process you’ll have a great start for this already):

• Purpose = why you exist
• Mission = what you do that solves every day
• Values = these become your behaviours – how you do what you do
• Personality = who you are when you show up
• Vision = where you’re heading

R – Resonance: win hearts, not just wallets!

The dictionary definition of resonance is ‘the power to evoke enduring images, memories and emotions.’ In branding this is everything. Resonance is the emotional and psychological connection that builds loyalty beyond logic. A resonant brand goes further than just solving business problems – it aligns with deeper motivations, values and aspirations. It answers questions like:

• Does this business truly understand me and my challenges?
• Do I believe in what they stand for?
• Do I want to work with them beyond just this transaction?

By building a brand that resonates on a deeper level, we go further than simply attracting attention – we make lasting impressions and win hearts as well as minds.

How?

• Identify your ideal clients
• Build avatars (detailed personas) for each client type
• Then spend time unpacking and understanding their core drivers

Ask yourself questions like this:

• What are they really buying? What outcome are they aiming to achieve?
• What problems keep them awake at night?
• What would they pay almost anything for?
• What do they believe in beyond solving this immediate problem?

E – Expression: show up consistently, everywhere

This step is straightforward. If you’ve got everything else nailed, it’s simply rinse and repeat. Showing up consistently everywhere. And of course, keeping your brand promise. Why?

• To show you are professional and trustworthy
• To demonstrate you’re serious about your business and your commitment to clients
• To build recognition, avoid confusion and capitalise on previous successes

How? Here are some tips to help you keep everything beautifully consistent:

• Produce your brand guidelines - we call these Brand Bibles – with full instructions on how to present your business both visually and verbally
• Brief your team to make sure everyone is aligned and singing from the same Brand Bible
• Draw up some checklists - last-minute preflight assurance before you hit publish on anything
• Invest in a great digital asset management system to keep all the latest files in the right place

When you apply the DARE Formula, you create a brand that is:

✔ Known – for your unique value (Differentiation)

✔ Trusted – for being real (Authenticity)

✔ Liked – by connecting emotionally (Resonance)

✔ Remembered – for showing up consistently (Expression at every touchpoint)

And what does that mean for you?

More sales, more advocates, stronger recognition and the freedom to command higher prices. Win, win, win.

The truth is that you don’t build brands in a boardroom – you create them in the real world. Even the most perfect brands don’t start out that way. These days they're built on the go. They evolve in public. They share their imperfect, first-pancake moments because that makes them real. Human. Believable.

So start with an MVP Brand. Learn fast. Stay flexible. Then, when the time’s right, DARE to become irresistible.

For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.