How not to be boring

PostHog argues that a startup’s brand is not superficial decoration. A generic site can signal weak execution and make people doubt the product, while a distinct and intentional brand can make a small team look credible.

The piece says PostHog narrowed its ideal customer to engineers and technical founders, then shaped the homepage, pricing, product, and UX around that audience. It also frames brand as part of the whole company, from hiring and shipping to pricing, support, and social media.

Reading notes

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• A templated or generic website can make people think the team is weak or the product may disappear soon.
• PostHog built a website and public handbook that explained what it was doing, why it was doing it, and how.
• The company created an ideal customer profile and chose to focus on engineers and technical founders.
• After that, the homepage included code examples and a section that calls out engineer frustrations with SaaS buying.
• PostHog adopted transparent, flexible pricing and focused on features like SQL access and a built-in data warehouse.
• The UX was redesigned for flexibility, higher information density, and dark mode, with the goal of looking like a dev tool.
• The company says it prefers being itself over being the most polished team.
• Brand choices reflect broader company choices, including hiring, product decisions, communication, pricing, and marketing.
• The article says strong brand work has increasing returns because standing out requires being different from average.
• PostHog’s merch store is used as an example of iterating on brand over time, from manual fulfillment to a built-in store and limited editions.
• The piece ends by saying a strong brand should appeal to best customers and put off the worst ones.