Breakdown of VC Brands, and Why it Matters

Venture Capital has never been more competitive.

There were 2,718 active venture funds in 2022, up 140% from the 1,132 active venture funds in 2013. As more firms enter the market, brand matters more.

A distinct brand and position is a statement designed to attract founders, LPs and co-investors that align with the firm’s vision and values. It’s a signal. Funds establish their brand through what they put out into the world and the perception they receive from others.

VC brands vary greatly. Some are traditional. Some are bold. Some are unconventional.

Firms such as Conviction have an understated “no brand” brand. Other firms seek to leave a memorable impression.

While a minimalistic landing page can speak to a firm’s belief that its partners should do the talking and relationship building, a distinctive landing, like Spacecadet Ventures highlights the funds’ value add, or industry specific expertise.

The best brands speak to what is authentic about a fund and conveys a fund's position and focus within the ecosystem.

For example, through its brand, a fund like Iconiq Growth has articulated a clear generalist position in late-stage investing, while a fund like Root Ventures explicitly signals its focus on investing in technical founders.

We’ll explore in depth in this piece how venture firms use key brand assets like their landing pages to convey their chosen messages.

The TLDR:

• Effective branding has a clear target “customer” and position in the market. Successful product companies know who they’re building for, informing their brand and how they communicate with their target user. VCs should too. A clear founder definition should inform the firm’s brand and how they position themselves in the ecosystem against alternatives (i.e. other investors).

• A firm’s landing page is its flagship. Almost every founder visits the fund’s site before meeting with a partner. This is your opportunity to create a strong early impression and set the tone.

• A great brand isn’t necessarily big and flashy. Minimalist, understated presentations may resonate just as much as loud productions.

The following excerpts are pulled from various interviews, and online sources. 

How to Define Your Fund

A venture firm’s brand is an important part of its identity and external appearance.

“A venture firm’s brand communicates its personality and values, giving prospective founders, LPs, co-investors, team members, etc., a sense of what it would be like to work with them before ever meeting. Strong brands are built over time through consistent behaviors and actions, which is why there is usually a correlation between the brand's strength and the firm’s tenure and track record. New funds and emerging managers set expectations on what they are working towards through their choices in branding and positioning their firms.”

— Helen Min, Phenomenal Ventures

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But how do you define your brand? A few questions to ask yourself:

Why does my fund exist? What’s our investment thesis? The values, focus, and backstory for why a firm exists can be the best guide for defining its brand.

Who are the individuals that make this fund a fund? How do you want to communicate? Defining the language and “vibe” of the firm can help establish structure for its landing page, messaging, and aesthetic.

Who do you want to attract? Who are the founders you want to invest in? Who are the LPs who agree with your thesis?

South Park Common’s Brand Definition:

“Our process started from an honest need to communicate SPC's reason for being. We focused on category creation and were much less concerned with owning the category than with defining it for the rest of the industry. One of the most powerful things you can do with branding is to give people new language or concepts to help them better understand their own experiences. The definition helps create best practices, repeatable processes, and benchmarks. It lets you communicate what you are doing and why it is worth doing well. What's the thing your fund excels at that founders intuitively understand but can't articulate?”

—Ruchi Sanghvi, South Park Commons

Hustle Fund’s Brand Definition:

“Our definition of joy on our team is bringing our authentic selves to work. We don't put on any effect and just act like ourselves at work as we do at home. At Hustle Fund, we have a specific voice guide: imagine a 15-year-old girl, who is super sarcastic, but a closet idealist. That describes our team pretty well and gives us permission to create content and a brand that is funny, enjoyable, educational, and great to consume.

Our big tip to other VCs is to figure out what your authentic voice/persona is and to write it out in your own voice guide. Stick with your voice guide in all materials you put together for your website, social media, blogs, etc. Founders will notice the difference and will, over time, be able to clearly identify you from the sea of other VCs out there.” 

— Eric Bahn, Hustle Fund

MMC Ventures Brand Definition:

"At MMC we embed ourselves deeply within the fabric of the companies we partner with, ensuring our understanding and support are as comprehensive as they are genuine. We pride ourselves on a branding philosophy that reflects this depth of involvement—not just in the technologies that drive our portfolio companies but in the very ethos that propels them forward.

We ask ourselves, 'What makes MMC inherently valuable to both founders and investors alike?' and 'How can our brand embody the transformative potential we strive to unlock in every venture?' This is what makes us 'Deeply Invested'—not just a tagline, but a solemn promise to our founders, investors, and the wider community we serve."

— Partner at MMC Ventures

Backing it Up

Once a position is established. Thought leadership is another vital component. It has the twin benefit of selling your expertise to prospective partners and reinforcing the identity we discussed above.

Successful VC firms position themselves as not just financiers but as visionaries and mentors. By contributing to industry discussions, publishing insightful articles, and speaking at key events, they establish a reputation for wisdom and leadership that is attractive to ambitious startups.

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In the Wild - Landing pages are often the first thing a founder or LP encounters before meeting with a fund. 

They therefore serve as both a magnet and a filter. 

Pages typically (although not always) provide useful information including a list of team members, portfolio companies, investment focus, and contact. But they’re also the “vibe setter”, and showcase the personality of the fund.

Some notable VC landing pages and what they reflect about the fund. 

What’s in a name? When you’re called First Round, a lot. The name is used for their branding frequently,. It’s there that you see the statement in large, bold letters that proclaims “We’re called First Round for a reason.”

If your firm already has a defining name, then play it up to the fullest on your website.

Kleiner Perkins uses their homepage to directly showcase their portfolio companies. Their expertise and legacy is the best brand ambassador that they have.

Emergence showcases their biggest partners, such as the founder of Zoom and the face behind Bill.com. They also are upfront about numbers. they freely share such information as their IPOs exceeding $500 million, their portfolio companies, and their market cap of portfolio. 

Having this information upfront may incline you to do business with them.

Roots website serves a clear filter and signal. It resembles a programming terminal and you need to have some familiarity with a terminal to even be able to navigate the site. Implicitly, Root Ventures is telling technical founders, “we get it”, reinforcing their target’s desire to feel understood, supported, and empowered.

Blackbird uses a unique design and fun copywriting; the tagline reiterating ‘Wild’ becomes more memorable and aligns with the team’s genuine playfulness. It suggests a willingness to support founders at their earliest stages, even when all of the other investors say “no”.

Playfair uses an infographic esque comic to talk about their value add, thesis, approach and legacy. Those custom animated illustrations on the homepage are very memorable.

This is visualising value in action.

The Daybreak website is built in 3D which conveys their modern and technology focused thesis. Daybreak also connotes hope and optimism through its name and imagery. 

Quiet Capital's minimalist website mirrors the firm's name. The absence of unnecessary embellishments and distractions on the website embodies their "Signal Above Noise" essence. The CTA to latest essays is also a way to assert their thought leadership position among those curious enough to visit the site.

You cannot come to this site as a founder and question whether or not you fit into Essence’s thesis. 

I think this is actually a bad landing page. Science is actually a generalist fund, with a name like Science and imagery akin to molecules/helixes, I don’t think this communicates who or what they invest in. 

Many VCs preach to founders to communicate their startup as - "We are a [X] that [does Y] so that [Z is better]." This applies to VC branding too.

The 'so that' is your gold; it's the tangible benefit you're offering. Athletico does a great job of that here, and the imagery is relevant to their investment and LP niche.

Don’t be a perfectionist

Your VC brand and website are not everything that makes you successful — it’s not like a SaaS you invest in, with its key metrics and CTRs/downloads — what needs to get across for VCs is reputation (team, portfolio and standout value/s).

Your website is essentially a business card

Rebrand or redesign — if you find yourself spiraling into overthinking — remember: for us as VCs, our websites are essentially big, business cards.

Look at your current website analytics — which are the most clicked sections on the menu? Team, job board and portfolio? Bottom line, whether founders, other VCs, or potential LPs — these are the things people are digging for on a VC website. Don’t make those things hard to find.

Rebrands come to an end.

This process is temporary. But long after the rebrand is done, you’ll still be raising the firm’s profile, being of service to your portfolio, creating content, communication with LPs, and so on. Make sure you build a brand that supports that.