Branding Private Equity Beyond Greek Gods, Trees, Rivers and “The Great Man”

It’s no secret that the investment landscape for great deals has become more crowded and competitive than ever before. Venture capital firms and those in the private equity world have learned that distinguishing themselves from competitors has become critical to long term success.?

You need to be doing things differently, approaching your investment strategies and client communications through a unique lens. But what happens when these behind the scenes value adds aren’t enough??

Buzzwords can only take you so far when your competition claims to be as mission — driven and founder-friendly as you are — so how do you stand out in a field packed with investment dollars, and the firms competing to control them?

Brand differentiation is the critical missing piece of the puzzle. Without a well-defined, well-articulated strategy that asserts why your brand is both distinguished from and preferable to others purporting to do the same thing, your firm risks floundering by failing to meaningfully connect with the forward thinking clientele you need to succeed.?

The Era of “The Great Man” is Over?

In the past, many successful investment firms functioned as an extension of an individual personality. Managers like Steve Cohen, James Simmons and Daniel Loeb drew high net worth clients on the force of their personal reputations, and proven ability to seal the deal.

But this individualist strategy has obvious drawbacks. People are fallible — and in the wake of public scandals showcasing that fallibility, the people you need to trust your firm to make critical decisions are less likely to be comfortable buying into these cults of economic personality that drove brand value in ages past. The Sam Bankman-Fried trial just might have put the final nail in the coffin of the great genius of finance.

Even absent malfeasance, people and relationships change. For example, the co-founders of $60 billion hedge fund Two Sigma recently agreed to step down from their Co-CEO roles (but remain as Co-Chairmen) due to what the Wall Street Journal described as “irritation to cold war to hot war” between the duo. The compliance department even formally disclosed “a variety of management and governance challenges” in a regulatory filing and some have speculated this public squabble could lead to reluctance from some LPs to invest in the firm’s venture fund. Regardless of the outcome, the scenario underscores the potential downside of investing too much brand equity in any one or two individuals.

So how do we replace this individualist approach? By investing in the institutional reputations and legacy of our brands. After all, a brand has no hand to be caught in the cookie jar, becoming uncomfortably cozy with an intern or embezzling millions for illegal self-enrichment. Brands aren’t subject to the same errors in judgment that we humans suffer all too frequently, and it helps that they’re a lot longer lasting than we humans are, too.

Some firms have made the switch to enlist seasoned branding and marketing professionals to build institutional brand equity. Venture capital firm General Catalyst recently hired senior executive Arielle Gross Samuels away from Blackstone to be its new CMO/CCO. By focusing on brand differentiation rather than hero worship, you’re establishing a true legacy of enduring success that effectively future proofs your firm in the eyes of your clients as individuals and the market as whole. You’re creating something that lasts, and is strong enough to weather the temporary storms of shifting market forces and consumer taste. But how can this differentiation function?

When Following the Pack = Lagging Behind

When we talk about differentiation, there’s a certain individual stereotype that comes to mind: the specter of the finance bro. He might not be six five with blue eyes, but the prototypical man in finance can be spotted in the wild by his Patagonia vest and new model Tesla, signifiers of class and net worth that unfortunately can also become a bit of a cliche.

For too long, branding in the finance world has been trapped within the same niche as the bros who built it. Because they bank on client trust, many firms spend too much time looking to their competitors for the sake of being in the category. They make the same promises, state the same values and even use the same soothing shades of blue or green to show you they’re a safe bet.? And the commonly aped trope of naming PE firms named after trees, rivers or Greek gods has reached its ultimate conclusion: all the gods have been taken, even those with suboptimal fates like Icarus who came crashing down to earth after flying too close to the sun – sound like any funds you know?

But when does following the pack become lagging behind it? We might look to our stereotypical finance bro to find the answer. Brands feel the need to match their peers’ every move to fit in, reassuring consumers of their normative abilities but doing very little to establish their exceptionalism.

Instead, brands need to find a way to be in category while still creating a space for differentiation. You must articulate a unique value proposition, and without the branding to back it up your unique offerings can easily become lost in the shuffle.?

Accelerate, Don’t Stagnate?

Your ability to provide higher than average risk return relationships is the secret sauce behind your ability to attract the high-value limited partnerships your brand needs to fuel your investments. In an ideal world those results would speak for themselves, but you first need to draw attention before you can prove your ability to deliver

This means that your brand needs to position itself to attract founders who believe that your money and strategic advice can help accelerate their growth. You need a plan — and the branding to match.

Blending the delicate tasks of fitting into the expected parameters of finance branding and standing out with your own value proposition and unique approach can be a delicate balancing act, and one that certainly is better approached with the assistance of branding professionals. But by centering your energy on building a brand that’s meaningfully distinct from a single individual and your competitors, you’ll establish your firm as a visionary force for growth, not stagnation, in a time when this kind of vision is needed more than ever before.