To brand or not to brand… your venture client unit.
Let’s imagine Mike.
Mike is young, energetic, and passionate. One day, he shows up at your door trying to sell you his homemade apple cider. It’s from regionally sourced, organic apples, hand-pressed in small batches. He’s excited, he tells you about the unique taste, the health benefits, how he crafted it himself.
It sounds charming. But you don’t really know Mike. You’ve never heard of his cider. And honestly, you’re busy. You politely decline.
Now, imagine a slightly different version:
Mike shows up again, but this time he represents a brand called Ciderella. It’s the same cider, but now there’s a professionally designed bottle, a small brochure, a website with customer reviews, and a few local restaurants are already offering it. Mike still tells the story — but now, he’s not selling his own homemade brew.
He’s presenting a brand you can trust, look up, ask about.
You don’t just listen because Mike is enthusiastic.
You listen because Ciderella has earned some credibility beyond him.
Selling venture clienting: The same problem.
Now replace Mike’s cider with venture clienting.
Replace his regional apples with startups.
Replace your doorstep with business units across a global corporation.
Without a brand, you’re just another enthusiastic person knocking on doors, asking busy people to try something new — something that sounds untested, risky, and easy to ignore.
With a brand, you become part of something bigger — structured, credible, and easier to trust.
Why? Because brands signal consistency, structure, and backing.
In large organizations, where internal initiatives constantly compete for attention, something with a name, an identity, and a presence simply carries more weight. It feels official. Considered. Endorsed.
This isn’t about being flashy—it’s about being findable, memorable, and taken seriously.
Because inside corporates, the reality is simple:
People are busy.
They’re focused on KPIs, deliverables, and fire-fighting.
They switch roles, departments—or leave entirely.
And there are already countless internal programs vying for their attention (think health campaigns, employee advocacy efforts, innovation challenges…).
If your venture client unit relies solely on you—your energy, your network, your calendar—it’s fragile.
With a brand, you build something bigger than yourself. A brand becomes your agent. It works for you—even when you’re not in the room. It speaks for your team when roles change, when org charts shift, when leadership turns over. It turns your initiative into something others can support, carry forward, and protect.
Branding: More than a logo.
One of the biggest misconceptions we encounter is the idea that branding = logo + fonts + colors.
No. That’s corporate design — an important part of branding, but not the brand itself.
Branding includes:
Strategic positioning: Who you are, why you matter, and how you fit into the corporate landscape.
Visual identity: Logo, colors, design aesthetics, templates, layouts, imagery.
Verbal identity: Tone of voice, messaging, storytelling style.
Rational and emotional promise: What colleagues expect to gain and to experience when they interact with your unit.
Branding is about coherence:
A clear, credible identity reinforced consistently across all touchpoints — hallway conversations, decks, emails, internal events, websites.
How to brand a venture client unit: Two main strategies.
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Branding a venture client unit usually follows one of two strategic paths:
1. Close alignment to the corporate brand.
Goal: Signal legitimacy, security, official endorsement.
How it feels: “We are part of this company’s DNA.”
Benefits: Easier internal acceptance, quicker trust among leadership, less risk of feeling “external” or rogue.
Challenges: Harder to stand out among the sea of internal initiatives.
Good fit for: Corporates with strong innovation brands or strict brand architecture guidelines.
2. Deliberate distance for distinction.
Goal: Signal fresh thinking, new energy, a different way of working.
How it feels: “We are powered by the corporate, but we are something new.”
Benefits: Easier to attract attention, establish a distinct voice, build momentum around a niche identity.
Challenges: Requires careful management to avoid feeling disconnected from the core business.
Good fit for: Corporates who want their venture client unit to act as an innovation lighthouse or gateway to the startup world.
Practical branding tips for venture client units.
So how do you move from door-to-door persuasion to building lasting recognition?
Here’s where practical branding comes in:
Craft a clear, simple value proposition: If colleagues can't explain what you do in one sentence, you have a problem.
Develop a visual and verbal identity: Not just logos — but presentations, one-pagers, templates, websites, event booths.
Equip your ambassadors: Internal supporters need materials that make it easy for them to share your story.
Document your brand basics: Even if it’s just a simple brand guide, so your identity survives team changes and handovers.
Keep showing up: Branding is cumulative. Every touchpoint matters, even the “small” ones.
Branding in venture clienting: A hard but necessary advantage.
We know it’s not easy. Budgets are tight. Internal buy-in is tough. Every department already feels flooded with initiatives and messages. But branding gives you the leverage to cut through that noise.
In the venture client space, branding isn’t about ego. It’s about creating trust, recognition, and scalability — giving your work a real chance to survive leadership changes, organizational shuffles, and the endless waves of corporate distraction.
Without branding, you are just Mike, knocking endlessly on doors.
With branding, you are Ciderella — a brand people talk about, trust, and want to be part of.
P.S.: Don’t worry, dear startups and other non-Venture Clients, we are already working on a branding article for you too.