Give your frontier tech the reputation that wins users and funders.
Brand Lab is a 2-day in-person workshop for technical founders who are launching their product to market and want to attract first users and early funders.
One framework, a library of templates and
8+ hours of collaborative work.
▉ Cohort 1 ▉ San Francisco ▉ 9-10 Nov
▉ Cohort 2 ▉ San Francisco ▉ 11-12 Nov
Start shaping public opinion about your company from day one:
1. what potential users think,
2. what prospective investors tell others, and
3. what everyone remembers when they hear your company name.
Make your project easy to see, easy to remember, easy to tell about.
So adoption and fundraising get easier too.
* Regular price in 2027 will be $700. Read more about the Launch Cohort in the FAQ.
+ Money-back guarantee.
What your future users and funders think about your product influences whether they trust it, try it, invest in it and recommend it to others.
Brand Lab guides you through a three-layer framework for building a desirable company reputation. It combines
✓ essential positioning exercises,
✓ easy-to-use AI-ready user research tactics,
✓ proven storytelling formulas,
✓ website conversion secrets and
✓ human psychology insights
into 8+ hours of content and guided practice to help you create understanding, excitement and trust even before your product is fully available.
▇▇ who this workshop is for
developers-turned-founders who struggle with getting first users
researchers starting their lab-to-startup marathon
tech teams transitioning from bootstrapping to VC fundraising
product managers seeking growth with limited marketing funds
Important FYI note:
You will see results only after applying the framework to your product. Besides all the templates and resources and 8+ hours of collaborative work during the workshop, success will require time from you, plus some attention and input from your team and people who already care about what you do.
The framework was co-created and iterated with developers-turned-founders launching their first products.
With developers and researchers who never believed in marketing and were allergic to branding. They came out of curiosity. Or because their mentor told them so :)
Brand Lab changed their minds, gave them confidence and set them up for a successful launch.
▇▇ past participants came from
Metamask 
■ Protocol Labs ■ Holochain ■ Mask Network
Matter Labs 
■ Gain Forest ■ Safe ■ Fission
Canary ■ Cow Protocol ■ RelayFunder ■ Solid
Decentralized Identity Foundation ■ Golem Network
▇▇ this workshop was on agendas of
Devcon 7 & 6 ■ ETHDenver Camp BUIDL ■ Protocol Berg v2
IPFS Camp ■ DWeb Camp ■ Regens Unite ■ Web3Summit
Funding the Commons Builder Recidencies ■ ZuConnect at DevConnect
World Information Architecture Day ■ Codemotion
Post-workshop AMA session with the builders of the Funding the Commons Builder Residency 2025.
Photo belongs to Funding the Commons.
▇▇ after attending this workshop you will be able to
PRACTICE ——————— Homework resources.
PRACTICE ——————— We will do one exercise that can replace persona interviews when you are short on time and budget.
PRACTICE ——————— We will do an exercise that will give momentum to your product and help you craft a timeless identity at the same time.
PRACTICE ——————— We will go through a fast-track of the brand personality workshop.
PRACTICE ——————— We will do a CJM for a selected project. You will also explore the possible visual hearts for your product with the help of other attendees.
▇▇ agenda: day 1
start: 9:30 a.m.
total runtime: 4 hours
framework intro
brand positioning: how-to + practice + review
category & naming: how-to + review
audience personas: how-to + interview builder “LEGO”
from value proposition to message: how-to + practice + review
current perception analysis: how-to + sample questions
aesthetic realms: survey + review
brand personality: practice + group review
BONUS 7 signals of a trusted B2B brand
▇▇ agenda: day 2
start: 9:30 a.m.
total runtime: 4-5 hours
storytelling: customer as a hero and metaphors game
three “Yes!” on the customer journey: exercise
landing page conversion + LLMs: dirty secrets
multi-page website: audience segmeting exercise
how to present data and metrics
design taboo: how-to + group game
identity proof of concept: how-to
rollout plan: how-to + mapping plan + review
BONUS how to involve community & partners
▇▇ meet your guide
Ira Nezhynska is a designer and creative director in open-source and decentralized tech who helps developers-turned-founders accelerate their product mass adoption through the power of emotion-led visual experiences and brand strategy.
After years working for global brands and fintech giants like Deutsche Bank, ING Bank, Wirecard and DNB Bank, she joined Web3 in early 2018 and has since served as a Creative Director at companies big and small (from digital identity to early AI), helping founders win hearts and minds of early adopters and funders.
In her last in-house role, Ira led an internal brand studio at Protocol Labs, ensuring the brand excellence of companies born within Protocol Labs Network. These days she runs her own design practice, leads branding for the DWeb Camps, serves as a Design Partner at Funding the Commons and Holo Ventures, gives design talks and workshops and write the design repository of brand knowledge for bootstrapping tech projects.
A few success numbers:
★ Rebranding of a Series-A tech startup that, later, skipping series B was acquired by an 11-billion-dollar giant.
★ Rebranding of a Web3 tech startup that later became a trusted partner of the German government.
★ 360-degree brand visual experience for a multi-day tech event with 2000+ attendees in total so far.
★ Campaign branding that generated press coverage in more than 30 outlets worldwide.
▇▇ FAQs
In detail:
Nonprofits and commercial projects differ in their sales funnel and marketing, but the core framework of the 3-layer reputation stack is universal and works equally for both. However, all the examples we review come from the commercial world, so the illustrative content isn’t fully tailored to nonprofits yet.
If you want results now, go ahead and reserve your seat with a nonprofit discount: 50% of the ticket price.
In other words, you’ll meet peers building the tech outside it.
- Message me about it.
- I’ll send you a discount code with your name on it.
- Give the code to the person taking your place. They can use it to register for free.
- a nonprofit ticket can only go to another nonprofit
- a two-person-team pass goes to a two-person team
- startup ticket can’t go to an individual consultant.
If you struggle to answer those questions, or if your tech is at a very early stage, feel free to schedule a free preparation session with me using this link. Normally, such a session costs 150 USD. These days.
If you book your ticket too close to the event date, just arrive one hour before the workshop starts so we can talk about your project before the main work begins.
Founders who try the expanded format first form the Launch Cohort. Because this format hasn’t been tested at this length yet, you get it at a special beta price.
▇▇ work with Ira
Other matters: iryna at nezhynska.com
creative
ⓒ Ira Nezhysnka, 2025
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ⓒ Ira Nezhysnka, 2025