In Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, founders tend to focus on what is immediate and measurable: building the product, achieving product–market fit, growing revenue and raising capital. All of these matter, of course. And so does brand.

Too often, brand is treated as an aesthetic exercise—a logo, colour system or tagline. These are outputs, not the brand itself. Brand is the perception that exists in the minds of customers, investors and partners about what your company represents and whether it deserves their attention, time and trust.

That perception directly influences whether investors fund you, partners work with you, and customers buy from you.

Brand is a balance sheet asset, not a marketing line

There is a common assumption that companies are valued on revenue and margins alone. That may apply to mature businesses, but not to startups, which often operate at a loss for years.

What drives valuation is belief—the belief that a company can build something dominant: a product, a network and critically, a brand that competitors cannot easily replicate.

A significant portion of enterprise value in high-growth companies is intangible.

A good example is Grab. The trust it has built across Southeast Asia represents an asset that extends far beyond infrastructure or technology. Its reported brand value of approximately US$1.1 billion reflects familiarity, reliability and category leadership developed over time. Compared to a broader market capitalisation fluctuating between US$12–15 billion, a substantial share of that value is driven by intangible assets.

If a buyer were to acquire Grab, much of the price would be attributed not just to physical assets, but to the perception it has built in the market. This aligns with broader research from Ocean Tomo, which shows that intangible assets now account for more than 80–90 per cent of the market value of S&P 500 companies.

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Venture capital operates on a similar logic. Investors are not only asking whether a company works today, but whether it can dominate its category tomorrow. Startups that clearly articulate the problem they solve, the scale of the opportunity and how they will win tend to attract capital more easily—and at higher valuations.

Reputation creates pricing power

Brand also shows up in pricing. Companies with stronger brand perception consistently command a premium over comparable competitors.

This is evident in Singapore Airlines. A report by CARMA found that Singapore Airlines achieved the highest share of positive news coverage sentiment among airlines studied, driven by narratives around financial performance and customer experience. Positive media coverage and a reputation for customer experience allow it to sustain premium pricing in one of the most competitive industries globally.

The relationship is direct: stronger brand perception leads to greater pricing resilience. For startups, this translates into clear commercial advantages—higher pricing power, stronger loyalty and greater insulation from competitors.

Communications builds the asset

How is this perception created? More often than founders expect, the answer is communications.

Brian Chesky described PR as “the top of the funnel” during an Airbnb post-IPO earnings call. The company generated over half a million articles in a year, building the brand at scale through earned media. Despite reducing marketing spend by 58 per cent, it retained 95 per cent of its traffic. This was possible because brand—built through sustained narrative and visibility—had become durable enough to reduce reliance on performance marketing.

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Brand is the architecture of growth

Brand should not be treated as a late-stage marketing exercise. It should be built deliberately from the outset. To make a brand contribute to growth, startups need to focus on a few fundamentals:

• Define what you want to be known for: Own a clear problem, category and outcome—not just features.
• Simplify your narrative: Make it easy to understand, explain and repeat.
• Align product, messaging and proof: Ensure claims match reality, backed by real outcomes.
• Build credibility, not noise: Prioritise insight, founder POV and targeted visibility.
• Stay consistent: Align messaging across product, marketing, sales and investor communication.
• Support the buying process: Reduce perceived risk and make decisions easier to justify.
• Commit and refine: Evolve positioning over time without constantly resetting it.

Startups that get this right scale more efficiently because the market understands what they are and what they are becoming. In a region where investors, partners and customers have more choice than ever, brand becomes a deciding factor.

It is the intangible asset that determines which companies lead their category—and which are forgotten.

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