New Valley Labs

The Greenhouse of a Founder Revolution

New Valley Labs

Projects
Jake Lawall
Ella Choi
a small studio
By 
December 2, 2024

Where Founders Bloom

When Ally West and Laveréna "Réna" Wienclaw, co-founders of New Valley Labs, came to us, they had already been running their startup studio for a while and had several startups in their portfolio, but something felt out of place. They did not believe they had an identity that expressed and translated what they were genuinely building and how they wanted to impact and influence the Midwest tech ecosystem.

They painted a vivid picture: Founders in the Midwest take significantly longer to get their first investments than their East and West Coast counterparts. Underrepresented founders also take longer to be noticed, with their first checks being about three times smaller. In the last 12 months, only 5.9% of founders in the Midwest got funding, compared to 53.3% and 27.2% on the West and East Coasts, respectively—something needed to be done to disrupt this long-running narrative of exclusion.

Honestly, Ally and Réna could not have chosen a better partner. What they needed was and still is our specialty, bringing clarity to the identity of our partners; once we listened (well, John did most of the initial listening) to them, the chemistry was instant. Their brief was a cause for us, as well as the fact that they came across as fearless, punk rock as hell, and laser-focused on their mission: to uplift queer and underrepresented tech founders across the Midwest. Ally and Réna felt like a disruptive yet nurturing movement, and we knew their brand needed to scream that across touch points.

We kicked things off with our trademarked special sauce, Identity Architecture, through which we asked the hard questions of all stakeholders to establish a baseline of authenticity for why they were building what they set out to see in the world. Through conversations with their investors, leaders running startups in their portfolio, and the operating founders. After our extensive deep dive into why their startup studio should exist distinctively instead of just becoming one of many, we delivered an Identity Narrative to the team. This narrative revealed their positioning as the "greenhouse of a founder revolution," a space where founders bloom and the rules of entrepreneurship are rewritten to fit a more humane and impactful mold.

With an Identity Narrative that captured the brand's essence, we translated it into a Visual Identity that was even more resonant. Our creative direction was clear; this startup studio is the "force of nurture," and founders within will always flourish. Every bit of their identity was crafted to simultaneously exude emotions and feel alive, tactile, and fun. It had to have personality and an unapologetic need to stray from conformity. What we delivered was downright quirky and fearless!

A pairing of our verbal and visual identity felt like we were re-imagining the life of Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie. So, every color choice was bold, typography was loud and proud in the most sophisticated of ways, and the brand's identity was just Punk Rock as ****! (Pardon our much-needed expletive.) Illustrations were prioritized to capture personality and attitude, allowing an endless catalog of deliberate systems of expression for New Valley Labs.

We could not have been prouder of the end result of our collaboration with New Valley Labs. In our opinion, we built an identity that resonates deeply with the founders' ambitions while refusing to conform to the expectations of the venture capital or startup ecosystem.

New Valley Labs now has its own foundational creative operating system, which will authentically guide it to continue disrupting as one of none, which matters more than ever in the world we live in today.

Stay true. Stay you!

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Let’s talk strategy.

Schedule a call with our Identity Architect and see if it makes sense to work together.