Startup marketing is all about early sales to innovators and first adopters, period. Thus all marketing must be lined up to meet that end.
You do not need to worry about “brand.” If you think you need branding at this stage, you are quite mistaken.
Marketing positioning is all about finding the customer looking for you. You need to focus 100% on that early adopter, in granular detail with precise messaging. That means web site, collateral, everything.
One of the best exercises for a startup is to build a “storyboard” telling your story. Take an apocryphal customer, build out the problem they are having and apply your solution. Position yourself with stories—-the oldest and simplest way to deliver complex messages.
Everyone remembers a story.
The story is a narrative, lasting about 30 seconds tops, that explains your product, the need, in a live example for a real or hypothetical customer.
But the end game is a fundamental understanding even the Uber driver (who is not an MIT grad doing evening work) can understand.
If your prospect cannot get your story, they surely are not going to get your branding or sales collateral message.