DEFERRED BRANDING AND CREDIBILITY-LED TRUST FORMATION IN EARLY-STAGE IT STARTUPS
Keywords:
brand building; trust; credibility; early-stage startups; founder signalling.Abstract
Conventional accounts treat branding as central to building a sustainable venture. Drawing on twelve interviews with founders and investors in Uzbekistan’s IT sector, this thesis shows that early-stage ventures commonly defer branding as premature and instead form trust through product performance, founder credibility, and market validation. Credibility, not brand, is the operative early resource; brand emerges later as its accumulated outcome. The finding reframes branding as an outcome of integrated product and resource decisions rather than an early communication activity.
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