By Daniel Teixeira – Co-founder & CEO at Vogal
Even before your logo, your product, or your pitch deck, people already have an idea of who you are. That’s brand. You’re building perception before you’re building traction.
Whether you realize it or not, the moment you talk about your startup, publish a landing page, or pitch in front of a room, you’re creating a perception, and that perception is your brand. It doesn’t wait for you to define it, it starts forming from day one in the way you speak, the way you write, the way you explain your product.
At Vogal, we work with startups on a daily basis, some come to us with solid products and a clear market opportunity. But more often than not, they struggle to communicate what they do in a way that’s simple, different, and human. Not because they lack vision, but because they skipped a step that many founders assume comes later: building a brand with intention.
The myth around branding
Most startups treat branding as the final polish. Something that happens after the MVP, after traction, or after funding. It’s often treated as a visual layer, cosmetic, something for later. But branding isn’t decoration. It’s direction. It’s clarity. It’s what helps you explain your idea not just beautifully, but believably, and what makes people want to join your mission, not just your product.
If you’re focused just on creating a cool and trendy logo, you’re not building a brand.
If you’re using the color blue just because you’re a fan of FC Porto, you’re not building a brand.
If you’re calling yourself the best platform in the field without proving why, you’re not building a brand, actually you’re hurting it.
What your brand is really made of
A brand isn’t just how you look, it’s how you position yourself, how you make people feel. It’s the structure behind your message, the reason why someone remembers you after a pitch event, consider switching from their current solution – or no solution at all – to yours, or why a potential hire decides to reply to your job post. It’s the energy people feel and the reason they will remember you.
That’s why branding isn’t a matter of timing. It’s not something you do when you’re “ready.” You’re already building a brand, even without trying. The real question is whether you want to shape it intentionally or let it form on its own, with all the noise, inconsistency, and guesswork that comes with that.
Branding that unlocks growth
We’ve seen it play out in different ways. Comudel, a deep tech company, came to us before they even launched their product publicly. They understood early on that if they wanted to move with clarity and build long-term trust, the brand had to be part of the foundation, not something to do later. By working on brand strategy and identity from day one, they were able to grow with a solid narrative and visual system already in place.
Then there’s Intuitivo, a startup that wants to shift the education system from the paper era to the digital era. When they came to us, their biggest challenge wasn’t tech. It was focus. They didn’t know whether to speak to students, teachers, or school directors.
Through a series of strategy sessions (some of which they later called “therapy sessions”), we helped them uncover that the real impact, and the real pain point was with teachers. These were the ones drowning in bureaucracy, carrying paper tests home, and feeling disconnected from the digital world. That decision to focus unlocked everything else: the story, the tone, the communication, the roadmap, and the traction.
When branding meets fundraising
And beyond positioning or design, this kind of clarity also changes how you raise money. We’ve seen it. Investors receive dozens of decks a day and they don’t have time to read between the lines. If your value isn’t immediately clear, if your story doesn’t click in seconds, they’re gone. Startups with strong branding aren’t just easier to remember. They’re easier to believe in.
None of this is to say that design doesn’t matter, it does. But great design without a clear brand behind it is like running with no direction.
Build with intention
In startups, you’re playing against time, noise and doubt. A good brand won’t solve all your problems, but it can make the road clearer. It creates trust when you have no reputation yet. It brings alignment when the team is small and roles are messy. It adds perceived value when you’re still building the real one.
So if you’re a founder and branding feels like something for later, take a second look. You’ve been building a brand from the start. The question is: is it the brand you meant to build, or just the one that happened?
About the author:
Daniel Teixeira is the co-founder and CEO at Vogal, a startup branding studio based in Portugal that builds brands with “innovators and creators of the future.”
Featured image: Daniel Teixeira, co-founder and CEO at Vogal (Photo courtesy of Daniel Teixeira)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in contributed opinion pieces are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Portugal Startup News.
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