There's a reason 90% of startups blow through their marketing budget and get nowhere.

Helping brands go public and also raise tens of millions of dollars and do hundreds of millions in revenue, one of the questions I get asked the most is how to spend (marketing) budget at each phase of company growth.

What I find is that typical companies want to build additions to their house before they’ve built a house. They want to build a skylight before they’ve poured concrete in a foundation. It’s easy to get ahead of ourselves…

It doesn’t make sense to throw ad spend on a company with no brand and no consistent messaging.

It doesn’t make sense to start with SEO in a deep tech environment, where the world doesn’t even know what it is you’re offering yet. People don’t search for new technology the way they search for “discount dentists near me”.

The way I’ve helped so many start-ups and scale-ups get to the next level is by ruthlessly focusing on sequencing. Yes, some day, you will want to do everything. But today? You need to get your branding, your messaging, and your assets right. Without those things, you can blow through your budget and get nowhere.

There’s a reason unicorn start-ups all tend to work in a certain way. And that way is almost always: brand first.

Your brand is either a liability or an asset that will pay dividends for years to come.

The order matters.