Brand First. Build Second. The Nick Telson Way.
Lessons from Nick Telson, co-founder of Trumpet & Horseplay Ventures
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Brand First. Build Second. The Nick Telson Way.
Lessons from Nick Telson, co-founder of Trumpet and Horseplay Ventures
Most founders treat brand as a nice-to-have. Something to sort out after product-market fit. Nick Telson, who built and sold Design My Night, launched Trumpet, and angel invests through Horseplay Ventures, thinks that's exactly backwards.
Brand isn't a phase. It's the foundation.
Your Product Looks Like a Series B. Or It Doesn't Get In the Door.
Nick spent an extra three or four months polishing Trumpet before showing it to anyone. Most founders would have shipped it and iterated.
The result? When Sky's VP of Sales saw it, his words were: "This looks like a Series B product, not a pre-seed product."
That polish opened the door. The relationship closed the deal. But the brand got them the meeting.
Takeaway: If your product looks scrappy, big logos won't take the risk. Invest in how it looks before you go upmarket.
B2B Brands Are Still Talking to Humans
Most B2B SaaS tools are light blue, white, and full of jargon. Trumpet deliberately went the other way: loud colours, direct language, a tone borrowed from B2C.
Nick calls it "a B2B brand with a B2C flare." The logic is simple: B2B buyers are still people. They respond to the same psychological hooks. Good copy, strong brand, a personality they can relate to, it all works just as well when you're selling to a VP of Sales as when you're selling trainers.
Takeaway: Look at your competitors' branding. If they all look the same, that's your opportunity, not your benchmark.
SEO Is Still the Lowest Hanging Fruit. Most B2B Companies Ignore It.
Design My Night hit 8 million monthly uniques. 65% came from organic search.
The approach wasn't complicated. Go after the long-tail keywords first, rank quickly, build domain authority, then go after the bigger terms. HubSpot built their entire funnel this way. Most B2B SaaS companies still aren't doing it.
Takeaway: Stop overthinking SEO. Write relevant content, go after specific keywords your buyers are actually searching for, and be consistent. It compounds.
Personal Brand Built the Trumpet Wait List
When Nick exited Design My Night, he didn't know what he'd build next. So he invested in something that would pay off regardless: his LinkedIn presence.
By the time Trumpet launched, 80% of the initial wait list came through his personal following. No ad spend. Just consistency, authenticity, and occasionally a spelling mistake to prove it was actually him writing it.
His rule: every post should contain at least one actionable tip. No inspirational quotes. No ghost-written thought leadership. Just honest, useful, raw.
Takeaway: Start building your personal brand before you need it. When you do need it, it's too late to start.
The Best Ideas Come When You Stop Thinking About Ideas
Nick's framework for staying sharp isn't another productivity system. It's simpler: turn off every notification except WhatsApp, go for an aimless walk, and read fiction.
The fiction part is deliberate. It activates the creative brain. It's where narrative instincts develop, and narrative is what brand and marketing are built on.
His practical tools: box breathing when overwhelmed, no Slack notifications ever, and 45-minute walks with a book in his ears and his phone in his pocket.
Takeaway: Your best marketing thinking won't happen at your desk. Build the habits that let your brain breathe.
Nick Telson- Sillett: Linkedin
Sabrina Juul: Linkedin
Suds Singh B2B Video Content Specialist London for Interesting Content, LinkedIn.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/BLEt8Tilzzg?si=g5t55sSh6Zr5KW9P
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7zjeFgCivnKHGsjuw2ODSa?si=udRsBCUqR86vFpfxwo63lA