Developing your firm’s brand

One of the keys to standing out among a sea of VC firms is to develop a strong brand identity. Your brand is a representation of your firm’s mission, values, reputation, track record, communication style, and aesthetic. Just as consumer brands have certain associations and reputations, VC firms do, too.

Why build a brand? 

Your brand identity has a huge influence on the way investors and founders think and talk about your firm—and whether they have positive, negative, or neutral feelings about the work you do. That’s why it’s crucial to actively build your brand instead of letting your extended network dictate your reputation. 

Build a brand can bring you more success in:

• Differentiating your firm from competitors
• Getting founders to come to you as a new fund manager
• Establishing trust with founders and investors
• Cultivating a community

You can’t create an authentic brand overnight. Building your brand takes time and strategy, but you can get started by thinking about the following factors: 

• Investing philosophy: What’s your philosophy on investing? What are your core values and beliefs as a firm? 
• Investment stage and sector: What stages and sectors do you invest in? More importantly, why? 
• People: Who do you enjoy working with and why? What types of investors and GPs do you typically gravitate toward? 
• Communication: What’s your communication style as a firm? Are you direct and transparent? Empathetic and candid? 
• Work style: How do you operate? Do you welcome cold introductions or do you prefer to work off of established connections only? 
• Founders: What kinds of founders do you invest in and why? 
• Visual aesthetic: What colors, fonts, and images best represent your firm? 

Building your brand is similar to investing in that seeing the results of your work can take a long time. That said, there are a few steps you can take quickly. Try these four tactics: 

1. Host a private event

Engaging with people is an important part of strengthening your brand. Bringing your acquaintances, peers, and portfolio founders together for curated events can result in deeper connections, not to mention expand your network. 

Work on hosting an event that will show off your brand identity and keep you top of mind among founders and investors alike. Depending on your brand values, you could host an intimate summit with personalized activities, plan a massive party, or design an education workshop. The possibilities are endless. 

Try testing out a few different formats and themes to see what works best for you. You may also want to partner with a complementary organization or fellow manager to expand the guest list and save time in planning. 

2. Develop a digital presence 

How you present yourself in the digital space affects how people view your firm’s brand. Make sure you’re regularly sharing informative and thoughtful insights on social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as commenting on discussion threads and following other people in your network. 

And remember: It’s easy to scroll, like, and comment with abandon, but it’s crucial to make sure your online activity is consistent with and representative of your brand. Here are a handful of tips to embrace:

• Write in a voice that’s authentic to you, whether it’s casual or more elevated
• Leave original comments; don’t copy or repeat what other people are saying
• Give credit when you’re sharing or quoting another person or organization
• Don’t engage with content that doesn’t represent your firm well
• Never use or post discriminatory or damaging language or content; your digital trail is written in ink

3. Fill your calendar with coffee meetings

Meeting new people isn’t just part of growing your firm—it’s also part of developing and cementing your brand. Consider the type of people you want to meet with, then work on making a few new connections every week or month. 

You may want to build relationships with PR people or journalists to help promote your brand, for example; set up meetings with marketing or recruiting experts for potential platform positions; connect with investors to address a gap in your network; or get to know a new subset of founders you want to focus on. 

4. Create original content

Creating and sharing original content is one of the best ways to define and strengthen your firm’s brand. When you write an article or record a podcast, not only do you give prospective investors and founders an idea of your firm’s ethos and offerings, you also give them a glimpse of your personality and expert insights as a fund manager. 

Here are just a few content mediums to consider: 

• Blog posts
• Newsletters
• Podcasts 
• Books 
• Data reports 
• Contributed articles to media outlets
• Social media
• Video 

As you start creating and sharing original content, make sure you’re also engaging with the content other entrepreneurs, investors, founders, and firms put out. Commenting on and sharing other people’s work is a great way to build connections and scale relationships.