Logos: When and How?

One of the first questions early-stage founders wrestle with: do we nail the logo before we build, or build first and design later?

Build first

The answer is almost always: build first. Your logo is not your product. In the earliest stages, what matters is whether people want what you're making — not how it looks. Pouring weeks into logo iterations before you have a single user is a form of procrastination dressed up as professionalism.

Don't aim for a 10/10 immediately

Logos are hard to get right, and great ones usually evolve over time. Early on, a 7–8/10 is good enough. It needs to be clean, recognisable, and not embarrassing — not perfect.

The Uber lesson

Uber's early design was famously bad. The product was so compelling that it didn't matter. Users downloaded the app because it solved a real problem elegantly — they weren't evaluating the aesthetics of the wordmark. The lesson isn't that design doesn't matter; it's that the right time to invest heavily in design is after you've validated the thing you're designing.

Spend a little, not a lot

Spend something on a logo early. A completely DIY job can signal that you're not taking the brand seriously. But keep it proportionate — hire a freelancer for a few hundred dollars, use a reputable tool, or tap your network. You'll likely redesign it anyway once you find product-market fit.