Nicola McClafferty & James Clark | All about rebranding: why should you do it?
Channel: Slush
Date: 2021-11-18

How does one rebrand? Should you even rebrand? We were joined by Nicola McClafferty and James Clark, from the establishment formerly known as Draper Esprit. That’s right, Draper Esprit did what many people often advise against and rebranded themselves, to Molten Ventures. In fact, it’s probably not great that I’ve written Draper Esprit more times than Molten Ventures. In this episode we will talk to James and Nicola about the reasons behind the rebranding, the operational checklist for rebranding, and how to choose a name for the new brand. 


Expect to learn:
Why James generally thinks rebranding is a bad idea
How the need for rebranding should be identified
What the creative and operational side of rebranding look like
Does the name matter?

00:44 Introductions to Nicola, James, and Molten Ventures 
04:00 Rebranding: what has changed, why did you choose to rebrand?
06:30 Rebranding in an increasingly competitive environment 
11:10 Checklist for rebranding
18:05 When is the right time for a startup to start thinking about a brand? 
23:30 Death of the artist in a brand 
26:00 Using external help in rebranding? 
28:00 Operational side of rebranding
34:45 Determining the name
36:30 Deliberate creative tension involved
37:45 What is ‘Make More Possible’ all about? 
40:00 Do you think competition among VCs will push more to consider rebranding?