Sapling

When your brand and story aren’t keeping up with the business you are building

Founder-to-founder. Three layers. Built around your specific conditions.

Maybe you are preparing for a raise, or trying to get your first serious customers through the door. Maybe you’ve built something genuinely good but can’t work out why awareness isn’t growing. Or maybe you’ve got further than they expected, on the strength of the idea and the force of your belief, but things are starting to falter and they’re not sure why.

You need focused, experienced strategic attention. Direct work with people who’ve built brands from the inside of complex, innovative businesses, and know what it actually takes.

From £2,300

You’ve grown on belief and hard graft. Now you need a story that lands in the right places.

Most founders at this stage have achieved something real. They’ve validated an idea, attracted early customers, raised initial funding, or built a product that works. They’ve done it through force of conviction, and that conviction is real and worth protecting.

But conviction alone gets harder to sustain as the conversations get bigger. The investor who says “I don’t quite understand the positioning.” The customer who needs a clearer story before they’ll sign. The talented hire who asks what the company stands for and gets a different answer from every founder in the room.

These aren’t product problems. They’re brand problems. And brand problems don’t fix themselves by adding more features or another round of content. They fix when you stop and do the strategic root work that somehow got lost in the speed to reach the next product milestone.

Sapling is that root work. Done properly. With people who’ve been where you are.

Founder to founder.

Ruth and Richard Palmer built D3O, a material nobody had heard of, in a category that didn’t exist, into a globally recognised technology brand. They understand the specific pressures of building something genuinely new: the investor conversations that don’t land, the positioning that shifts with every pitch, the gap between how good the product is and how well the brand communicates that.

When you work with Palmer&Co at Sapling level, you’re not briefing a consultancy. The questions are different. The challenge is more direct. And the solutions are built around your specific conditions.

All clients start at layer 1.

Understand the core drivers of your customers
2 hour virtual workshop + shared Canva board
Before we build anything, we need to understand the landscape. You'll complete customer interviews and competitor analysis using the guide in the Canva board. This is the intelligence gathering that shapes everything that follows and you’re in control of how much or how little you do.
Strategic Positioning - Your unfair advantage that competitors can't copy.
Using the Ikigai framework, we'll uncover your brand's unique position, we'll discover that sweet spot where your skills, passion, human needs, and commercial viability intersect.
What you'll walk away with
- Your tribe of loyal customers clearly defined
- Your brand's unwavering promise to them
- A vision statement that acts as your business GPS
- Your "only-ness" - the unique mix only you can offer
- Your purpose - the reason you exist beyond making money
- A beautifully designed Canva deck summarising this all that you can easily share with your team and partners
The personality & story that turns prospects and partners into loyal advocates
2 hour virtual workshop in your Canva board
Every brand needs a character people can connect with and a story that people want to share. We'll define your brand archetype, values and voice plus your brand story based on the hero's journey model. We'll create a collaborative mood board that captures your visual style and you’ll learn to be your own creative director.
What you’ll walk away with
- A brand archetype that represents your personality, purpose and promise
- Brand values
- Visual style direction mood board
- Verbal style - tone of voice direction
- Your brand's story framework
Over to us: your personality brought to life
Strategy without execution is just good thinking. Once we've mapped your brand's DNA and defined your personality, we’ll translate those insights into something tangible - the visual and verbal identity and story that brings your brand to life.
You leave with a complete brand strategy, a design brief ready for any creative partner, and a clear sense of the ecosystem you’re going to grow within.
Your brand personality becomes your visual language. We’ll develop 3 versions of a style direction from your mood board, then we’ll jump into:

What you’ll walk away with
- Colour palette that works across all applications
- Your brand's fonts
- Brand assets and visual elements
- Tone of voice that represents your unique personality
- Simple brand guidelines in Canva - your blueprint for consistency
- Logo design available at additional cost

Investment

£5,240 for all three layers

Includes:

Direct strategic work with Ruth and Richard across every session
Personalised brand framework built around your specific conditions
Complete deliverables at each layer; strategy documents, brand guidelines, identity files
Monthly Fireside Chats, open to all Sapling+ clients
Seedling graduates get their fees refunded for Circle if they continue on to complete all 3 layers of Sapling.
Founding member access, Seed to Sequoia LinkedIn community

Not sure if Sapling is the right stage?

Book a 15-minute call with Ruth.

Get in touch

Who this is for.

You’ve raised angel investment or early funding and need to sort out your brand and story before the next, harder conversation
You have a product that works but positioning that keeps shifting, and you’re not sure which version of your story is actually true
You’re getting meetings but not closing them, and you suspect the issue is how you’re telling the story
You’ve built something genuinely new and struggle to explain why it matters, not just what it does
You want to do this work with founders who’ve built from the same position

Who this isn’t for.

You’re Pre-revenue and still exploring your idea, Seed or Seedling will serve you better and cost significantly less
You’re looking for a quick rebrand without strategic foundations, design without strategy is expensive decoration; we won’t do it

Why Ruth & Richard?

Ruth and Richard Palmer built D3O, a material nobody had heard of, in a category that didn’t exist, into a globally recognised technology brand. They didn’t do it with advertising. They did it with belief, story, and a clear understanding of the ecosystem they were building within.

Since then, Palmer&Co has helped founders at every stage of growth find the same clarity, from first-time solopreneurs to funded startups navigating their first serious scale.

Find out more about Ruth, Richard and Palmer&Co →

Kind words from our ecosystem

Simon Devonshire OBE, Entrepreneur, Investor, Non-Exec Director, Chair

“Richard is an inspiration to anyone with a dream, and the drive to realise it.”
Damian Milkins, CEO & Founder, Earn It

"When we came to Palmer&Co we knew what we were building, but we were struggling to communicate why it mattered.
Ruth and Richard helped us find the story that had been there all along, the one about what's broken in the world of work, and what becomes possible when you fix it. The brand strategy process gave us the clarity to articulate our vision in a way that resonated with everyone we spoke to, investors, potential clients, and the employees we're ultimately trying to help.
The identity, website, animations and pitch deck they created gave us something we're genuinely proud of. For the first time, the outside of the business matched the ambition on the inside. Ruth is simply the best marketer I've ever worked with, and I've worked with a lot."
"Richard's mastery of product and communication drove a wave of publicity that we could never have dreamed possible. Richard's technical ability is only surpassed by his understanding of marketing. I have never seen anyone possess such acumen in both realms before. This is a potent combination. As an entrepreneur, it is lethal (to the competition)!"

Phil Shettig
VP Product + Marketing, Vertical Supply Group (previously GM / Business unit Director Spyder Active Sports)
Tim Brown Director and COO Rheon Labs (previously COO, D3O)

"Ruth was wholey responsible for creating D3O's brand strategy and executing the formation, communication and embodiment of the brand. It is difficult to find the most appropriate level of praise for her work and attitude; "Utter brilliance" is the closest I can get."
Janinie Boyer, Director, Beancount

"By the end of the workshop I had a clear vision about what my business brand statement is, what values and processes underlie it and how I can make it work for me. It was great to have such a creative and supportive space in which to really focus on my own branding as it's all too easy to overlook its strategic importance when you're busy!"
Kevin Nicholas Executive Partner BMNT

In my trade I come across many people who claim to be 'innovators', 'disruptors', 'design thinkers' and the like. A precious few of them are the real thing, and Richard is one of them. He is also great to work with and an all around good guy. I'd work with him again any time!
Michael Kleinwort Founder & CEO Kora Outdoor

“Ruth is a tireless self motivator whose experience, commitment, creativity and positivity helped kora come to life. She supported us through our startup phase, wearing multiple hats throughout - project management, copy-writing, web design, research, spreadsheet crunching, financial analysis, email marketing campaigns... She is painstaking in her approach to each task, and her dedication to ensuring that the task is completed on time and to the required quality is exemplary. Do not overlook her design skills either, as these are fantastic. She created kora’s logo - which is a thing of beauty and brains.”
Cindi Bussenhart Founder & CEO, MERGE4 B-CORP

During my time at Sessions. Rich Palmer was a driving force in D3O's product innovation and leadership. His visionary guidance fostered a culture of excellence, pushing boundaries and inspiring teams to achieve their best.
Amaya Albisu - Vice President Communications, Branding & Marketing, Dormer Pramet

"It was a pleasure to work with Richard and Ruth on this important project for Dormer Pramet. This was a challenging Global project with multiple considerations and stakeholders to manage. Their ability to create a strong brand strategy, and align the visual identity, tone of voice and our brand behaviours left us feeling we were in safe hands.

Richard and Ruth were very keen to equip the team internally with the ability to tell stories and encourage behaviours that would continue to bring the brand to life. The global launch internally and externally at the trade-show was very well received and the supporting videos helping to bring this together were superb.

There was a huge amount of work involved from copywriting to video, website redevelopment and design during this project, which the Palmer&Co team delivered on time and to a high quality. The President, Senior management and our parent company Sandvik were all very happy with the work."