Start-up Marketing Consultancy ‘Early’ Raises Capital from Talented

Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya’s Talented announced their ‘Grid of Companies’ last year when they launched The New Thing. Today, along with co-founder Meghana Bhat, they announced an investment in Early, a fractional marketing consultancy that helps start-ups on the early stages of their growth journey. 

According to the company, ‘the typical agency models for marketing & advertising don't always work for modern, early stage companies’ and that they’re on a mission ‘to help growing businesses turn marketing into a strategic, sustainable, sales-aligned, revenue-focused component of the organisation’. This new partnership was born out of the Talented founders’ friendship with Bhat, former COO & head of creative strategy at Webchutney, and her ambition to help start-ups think about marketing differently from the options they currently have with ad agencies. Early will operate out of the iconic Cobalt Building in Bengaluru’s Church Street alongside the rest of the Talented Grid and in the company’s shared offices in Mumbai’s BKC. 

On the new venture’s mission, co-founder, Meghana Bhat explained, “I’ve spoken to over a 100 founders and marketers over the last couple of years and it’s clear that there’s a need to change marketing’s reputation as the most misunderstood aspect of business. Early stage founders typically tend to dismantle it as ‘brand communication’ that doesn't need priority early on. It doesn’t help that there's a barrage of snake-oil trends and false choices floating around to battle. We know the power of approaching marketing strategy from a customer-centric perspective. I’ve seen it first-hand from every vantage point imaginable. Start-up marketing simply isn’t the same as advertising services that the

average agency currently offers. This also means my colleagues & I at Early will be tuned to speak a language typical agencies do not. 

At Early, we’ll work with founders who want to build and make strategic sense of the marketing landscape, rather than it feeling like unnecessary cognitive overload. Marketing is often ignored and treated as a cost centre instead of a revenue driving growth engine – its true potential is exponential, if unlocked right. But the fact remains that big, successful companies have literally turned their brands into moats through strategic, well-planned marketing. With Early, I wanted to be able to bring that advantage and thinking to startups in a way that doesn’t disrupt their unique energy.” 

With their ‘Grid’ model, Talented plans to back a broad range of agency and marketing start-ups. Founders, Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya say that the company’s strategy is to invest in entrepreneurs building businesses in advertising-adjacent opportunities over the next few years. 

“Our experience shows that the typical agency models for marketing & advertising don't always work for modern, early stage companies. These brands tend to struggle to figure the right moment and configuration to switch on marketing and bring agencies on. At the stage they are at, what they need is a certain nimbleness & agility that also requires a wider marketing-first approach, not an advertising one. Start-up marketing demands totally different skill sets and with Early, we’re building a company that’s home to the best start-up marketers for hire in India. Meg has had a full-stack marketing career that’s experienced marketing from all sides possible. First as a senior leader at the legendary Webchutney for a decade, then as head of strategy at Scoopwhoop and further on as a brand & product marketer at SAAS startups over the next. Combined with Talented, the rest of our Grid, Early opens up a whole new category of clients for the group.” 

Early’s website opening line reads, Be bullish on marketing. Be bearish on bullshit marketing.