Talented Launches ‘Early’ to Redefine Start-Up Marketing Strategy

Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya’s advertising agency Talented announced their ‘Grid of Companies’ in 2023 when they launched The New Thing.

Co-founder Meghana Bhat represented the agency announcing an investment in Early, a fractional marketing consultancy that helps start-ups on the early stages of their growth journey, on 23 September, 2024.

We are on a mission to help growing businesses turn marketing into a strategic, sustainable, sales-aligned, revenue-focussed component of the organization,’ the company says.

This new partnership came alive because of Talented founders’ friendship with Bhat, ex-COO and head of strategy at Webchutney and the latter’s desire to help start-ups think about marketing in a different way than the options they currently have with ad agencies.

Early will be headquartered out of Cobalt Building in Bengaluru’s Church Street with the rest of the Talented Grid and in the company’s shared offices in BKC, Mumbai.

On the mission of the new venture, co-founder, Meghana Bhat explains, “I have spoken to over 100 founders and marketers before we launched Early and it’s clear that there is a need to change marketing’s reputation as the most misunderstood aspect of business.”. So, early-stage founders tend generally to strip away as ‘brand communication,’ something which doesn’t have to take priority early on. Of course not helpful that there is all this complete BS trendwork and pseudo-options floating around to grapple with. We know the power of approaching marketing strategy from a customer-centric angle. I’ve seen it firsthand from every vantage imaginable – including the dozens of founders and early-stage leaders I’ve advised. This, in turn, makes my colleagues and me at Early tuned to speaking a language with which typical agencies do not.

“Start-up marketing simply is not the same as an advertising service that the average agency currently offers. At Early, we’ll work with founders who wish to build and make strategic sense of the marketing landscape instead of it feeling like unnecessary cognitive overload. Marketing is often ignored and treated as a cost centre rather than a revenue-driving growth engine-this is exponentially true potential if unlocked right. But the truth remains that huge, successful companies have literally made their brands moats through strategic, well-planned marketing. Bringing that advantage and thinking to start-ups in a way that doesn’t disrupt their unique energy was what Early would be all about for me,” she adds.

Founders Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya say that the idea of their holding company is to invest in entrepreneurs who build businesses in advertising adjacent opportunities over the next few years.

“Our experience shows that typical agency models for marketing & advertising don’t always work for modern, early-stage companies. Those brands tend to struggle figuring the right moment and configuration to switch on marketing and bring agencies on.”. At that stage, they need a certain nimbleness and agility which also requires a wider marketing-first approach rather than an advertising one. The kind of demand start-up marketing entails is totally different and with Early, we’re building a company that houses the very best start-up marketers for hire in India.

The ‘start-up whisperer’, we have been playfully referring to Meg lately but she has had a full-stack marketing career seeing marketing from all sides possible. She began as a senior leader at the legendary Webchutney for ten years followed by being the head of strategy at a media platform and then a brand & product marketer at SAAS startups subsequently. At Early, she & her team will be responsible for driving marketing strategy all the way to measurable growth results. Along with Talented & the rest of our Grid, Early’s services opens up a whole new category of clients for the group, they add.

The opening line on Early’s website reads: Be bullish on marketing. Be bearish on bulls**t marketing.