The Highlights: Is branding important?

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People often ask “So, who are the startups I should be talking to?” If folks are asking me these questions, they might be asking you too. This newsletter is a way to share founder news, member updates, events, asks and resources.

New on StartupNash:

📆 You’re invited to our Office Hours with our new In-House Talent Strategist, Wendy Taylor (Taking Charge). Office Hours is an opportunity to get introduced to other members in the community.

📆 For members-only: we have a growth strategy office hours coming up in November.

StartupNash has an updated site and new services. Check it out. We have a new section called Build your Team in partnership with our In-House Talent Strategist, Wendy Taylor of Taking Charge. Here, small startups can make a plan, build a team, and get coaching for a team.

News items:

• Possip, an Edtech communication startup, is expanding their reach and product to non-profits, businesses, communities and higher-ed.

• Nashville Healthcare Council Sessions Conference was this week

• Venture Atlanta was also this week

• Founders are busy (including me!)

👋 Have you met these founders yet?

• Ian Bouchett, Founder of Ledgr (Fintech)

• Katie Merth, Founder of Olomon (Fintech)

• Chris Hefley, Founder of LLMasaService (B2B)

Is branding important?

I asked ChatGPT, and it gave me the longest answer ever. So I dug back into my own marketing experience.

In early-stage startups, it's essential to shorten the time it takes for people to understand what your company does and the values that drive your business to benefit customers.

Branding is a way to scale recognition.

📆 This past week, StartupNash met online for the Build Your Brand Blueprint workshop with Jamie Cox, founder and owner of Strange Salt. Jamie shared some ideas with us that apply specifically to early stage founders:

• Branding is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room

• It’s important if you want to shorten the time it takes for people to recognize what your company does and what the values of your company are that help customers.

• Brand strategy is defining the stories you’ll tell about what you do, how you do it, and why you exist

• You need to define purpose, key messages, and assets to create your company’s brand.

• A great branding blueprint has three parts:

  • resonance

  • brand alignment

  • audience understanding

• Branding is a huge part of what makes a marketing strategy successful, especially when you don’t have the budget for customer acquisition through paid advertising. Understanding brand identity is an important early growth strategy.

You can get her slides here. Want to reach out to Jamie about a branding challenge? Join StartupNash, where she is actively helping folks with early branding strategy.

Community Asks:

🌞 A member is the author of an intro to Marketing digital textbook that's in over 100 colleges. They are looking for startup founders to highlight for free. More details in the #ask-startupnash channel.

🌞 A member is looking for a reliable AI transcription tool

🌞 A member is looking for ideas about the best places to market their business

🌟 Have an ask or an offer? Join StartupNash. We are a group of founders and funders in Nashville. Our community focuses on using peer mentorship and the power of our collective network to help each other grow our businesses.

Those are this week’s highlights! See you on the brite side :)