As I look back at the year that was, I can't help marvel at the rate of change in the marketing world. Over the last 6 years, we at Spring have touched more than 60 new age brands but I cannot shake off the feeling that we will start 2025 with a clean slate - not thinking that we know everything, not believing that we are the experts but realising that building a new age brand requires the humility and willingness to learn afresh.
The phenomenon that is Q-commerce (Q-comm) has completely altered the discovery dynamic - today most new D2C brands first get found on Q-comm. Everyday is a new day in the 10 min delivery world and the kind of products hopping onto the platform are defying our imagination. Add to this, the now 'profound' realisation - something we have been saying since Spring's inception - that the dy/dx on performance marketing will only decay over time - paying Google and Facebook is fine for initial customer adoption but will not help you build a sustainable brand. The consumer today is leading the marketer in this new age world - she is far more knowledgeable on products, much more aware of trends, more clued into global content, more demanding, more discerning.
What does all of this mean for new age brands? We need better and more imaginative product content, deeper yet smarter collaboration with creators, innovative and newer ways to build and engage communities, playbooks that are yet to be written on driving visibility and hence the much needed discovery on Q-comm. Phew.
Not easy. Yet at Spring, we are more excited and optimistic about building new age brands than ever before. We are learning everyday having the privilege of working with brands from INR 30 lakhs per month of revenue to INR 100 Cr per month of revenue. This is thanks to the width of our portfolio - from mature growth companies that we invest in from our Spring fund and partner with thru our consulting business & the fledgling, brave and imaginative early stage companies that we invest in from our Early Spring fund. We realise that we cannot remain static - we are adding new capabilities to our team - A 'Creator in Residence' to help our founders navigate the befuddling map of content creation, a platform specialist to decipher new age sales paradigms and a product studio to help brands stay ahead of the game.
If you are a founder building a brand of tomorrow across early and late stages, hit us up. We would love to partner with you through one of our verticals - Spring fund, Spring Consulting or Early Spring. We have an insatiable desire to learn and we promise to build along with you - as partners who believe in the long term potential of brands being built by Indian founders for Indian consumers.
