Talented invests in Early, a fractional marketing consultancy

Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya’s advertising agency Talented announced their ‘Grid of Companies’ in 2023 when they launched The New Thing.

On September 23, 2024, along with co-founder Meghana Bhat, the agency 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, it is on a mission ‘to help growing businesses turn marketing into a strategic, sustainable, sales-aligned, revenue-focussed component of the organisation’.

This new partnership was born out of the Talented founders’ friendship with Bhat, the former COO and head of strategy at Webchutney, and the latter’s desire to help start-ups think about marketing differently from the options they currently have with ad agencies.

Early will operate out of the 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 explains, “I’ve spoken to over 100 founders and marketers before we launched Early 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 - including the dozens of founders and early-stage leaders I’ve advised. This also means my colleagues and I at Early will be tuned to speak a language typical agencies do not."

"Start-up marketing simply isn’t the same as advertising services that the average agency currently offers. 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," she adds.

Founders, Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya say that the holding 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."

"We’ve been jokingly referring to Meg as the ‘start-up whisperer’ recently, but she 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 a media platform and further on as a brand & product marketer at SAAS startups over the next. At Early, she & her team will be accountable for leading marketing strategy through to measurable growth results. Combined with Talented & the rest of our Grid, Early’s services opens up a whole new category of clients for the group,” they add.

Early’s website opening line reads, Be bullish on marketing. Be bearish on bulls**t marketing.