Howdy Partners: From an Unmemorable Acronym to a Value-Based Brand
“Having gone through the process and having done the work, I can say for the first time in 8 years I am fully confident and proud in owning our identity.”
—Cory Finney, Owner, Managing Partner, Howdy Partners
THE CHALLENGE
An outdated brand and lack of name recognition was blocking big opportunity
Way back when, the founders of a new VC firm needed a name for an event, so they quickly chose a few words that led to the unmemorable acronym “GCVF.”
Fast forward eight years and their model of investing in rural entrepreneurs and overlooked locations was resulting in success, but zero name recognition or brand recall. The constant need to reintroduce themselves was draining, and they had big goals for the future, which led them to Peppered Labs.
Our project together was to launch a completely new brand that would appeal to their many important audiences in time for a busy pitch season.
Main Deliverables:
New company name and logo
Fully built website including design and copy
Strategic messaging playbook for target audiences
Key Pain Points to Solve:
Confusing or scattered messaging and unclear positioning
Struggles to stand out in a crowded market
Frustration with traditional agency models (cost, retainers, slow results)
Misalignment between business goals and marketing execution
To uncover opportunities and solve problems, we run every project through our SPICE framework.
Strategy
The team came in with a name they’d been kicking around and come to be attached to—Howdy Partners. To pressure test this with key audiences, Peppered Labs interviewed the many important stakeholders including multiple co-Founders, investors, and people from funded companies to establish the parameters that would come to define the brand.
This interview process also allowed us to identify the main challenges and obstacles in the way of the Founders’ goals to find and fund new successful companies, and to craft a project best designed to solve those challenges.
Positioning
Analyzing company goals in light of stakeholder feedback, it was clear that the new brand needed to strike a fine balance. The Founders combined a progressive approach to business with an old-school “handshake” mentality. They were open to investment in a broad range of companies, but they’d also had a lot of success with entrepreneurs in rural areas, especially in western Colorado. Plus, each co-Founder had different opinions. We had to get everything just right.
Getting that right also meant some balancing between the opinions of investors and those of company Founders who needed VC funding. Aligning messaging with strategy, always one of Peppered Labs’ main areas of focus, was especially nuanced on this project.
Identity
The brand’s personality had to bring to life the one very memorable thing about the company—the founders themselves. It also couldn’t veer too far into the western theme that it stopped appealing to all types of innovative companies.
An excellent example of striking that balance is the new company logo, which evokes a cowboy hat, a mountain range, an elevation chart, and a line graph, all while introducing the company with a friendly personal greeting.
The entire website, where visitors are immediately greeted by the smiling faces of the company Founders, is an example of the messaging playbook brought to life. Plus, we chose a really smart URL, howdy.vc, to completely clarify the brand identity.
Clarity
The Howdy Playbook empowered the team with the messaging best positioned to engage with their perfect clients, ensuring that all of their effort going forward would be aligned with the new foundation they’d be building on.
With renewed enthusiasm, the proud Founders hit their busy pitch season eager to be remembered, and early reports are extremely positive.
Execution
Creating a brand within all of the stakeholder parameters, and doing it on a sprint schedule to hit the target of busy season required direct, honest, tell-it-like it is communication (a specialty of Peppered Labs). It also required a senior brand strategist coordinating efforts, wearing multiple hats, and delivering high-level work, which was clearly appreciated by the founders.
“The Howdy Partners rebrand with Natalie was seamless. She is a total pro and runs an efficient and effective process that leveled up our own clarity along the way making it far more than just a rebrand. So grateful for a partner like her, and I would recommend her to anyone able to work at startup speed!”
—Marc Nager, Founder, Managing Partner, Howdy Partners
“We operate at a fast pace and frankly do not like to do this type of work. Natalie matched our pace and was so effective at managing us through the process, which is exactly what we needed.”
—Cory Finney, Owner, Managing Partner, Howdy Partners
