An agency leader says investors now reward lean startups, so test ad messages cheaply and keep the brand story in human hands.
A marketing agency leader who has helped grow several unicorns (startups valued at $1 billion or more) says startups raising money in 2026 should spend less on ads and put more into a clear brand story. The advice, published in Entrepreneur, rests on one shift: investors have tightened up and want steady, efficient growth.
After a stretch of record-low returns for venture capital (money from firms that back young companies), few startups can afford to chase growth at any cost. The author says investors want companies that grow consistently without heavy spending on staff or capital. That holds whether a company is bootstrapped (self-funded) or at Series A (an early funding round). The rule of thumb is to do more with less, and not to spend early unless you can prove a positive return.
The author calls hiring someone to shape your story through branding, messaging and positioning the highest-value early investment. The warning is blunt: do not hand this work to AI tools. Companies that do tend to end up with bland websites and positioning that looks like everyone else's.
Founders should research who they are, who they serve and why those people care. Then they should map the customer journey. The author says to have your TAM (total addressable market, the size of your possible customer base) and that journey nailed down before talking to investors.
Before scaling ads, check that you can track, measure and nurture leads. The author says his agency often finds thousands of dollars wasted on stale or unqualified leads. Those companies also fail to feed data on good leads back to Google, Meta and LinkedIn, so the ad systems can find more valuable users.
Early ad money should go to testing. A few thousand dollars spent comparing messages, such as ease of setup versus price, shows what resonates. That also helps sales. The author adds that things that do not scale, like working your personal networks, should come first.
AI has a role in speeding up slow lead follow-up, basic support replies and out-of-date customer records. The author notes a brand risk in making customers talk at length with an AI agent, so keep it mostly behind the scenes.
This is an opinion piece, and the views are the contributor's own. It draws on the author's agency experience rather than published research, so treat the numbers and results as one practitioner's view.
Spend little on ads until a small test shows which message works, and keep your brand story in human hands rather than AI's.
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