Stef Ivanov runs a branding studio, but sometimes his advice to prospective clients is not to bother with a rebrand.
“Maybe we’re not the best partner for this,” he says.
As co-founder and creative director of London-based Pony, Ivanov regularly encounters startups that want a new identity before a funding round or conference. But sometimes a better website will do. Sometimes he recommends a freelancer instead. Turning away business might seem an unusual strategy for a branding studio, but Ivanov has first-hand experience of what happens when a company’s problems run deeper than its appearance.
His first startup, Hello Buster, connected dog owners with walking services. It was growing by around 25% a month, according to a 2019 interview, but the founders struggled to turn that growth into a sustainable business.
Then a heavily funded American competitor announced plans to expand into the UK.
“That was it,” he recalls. “Like, that’s it, done, finished.”
Hello Buster eventually closed. The experience changed how Ivanov thinks about building companies, and about what a good brand can and cannot accomplish.
When growth isn’t enough
Each walk booked through Hello Buster cost around £15, of which the company received only a small percentage. The growth figures looked promising, but each transaction brought in little money.
“The main mistake was, we were bootstrapping for too long,” Ivanov says. The founders spent roughly two years funding the business themselves, without outside investment. When they approached investors, one prospective backer wanted almost half the company. Ivanov found the terms unacceptable.
Then came news of the American competitor’s UK expansion.
“Now I really understand how important speed is,” he says. “Especially in the tech world.”
He still believes self-funding can work, but knows it was not right for Hello Buster. The bigger lesson was deciding when to move quickly and when taking more time was worthwhile.
The work before the logo
Ivanov worries that companies equate branding with logos and typography, which AI can produce cheaply. Pony instead spends time researching markets, understanding customers and deciding what genuinely distinguishes a business.
“We delay the design process a lot,” he says.
That preference for careful thinking extends to his working day. Ivanov no longer measures productivity by boxes ticked; too many fragmented meetings leave him dissatisfied.
“AI cannot go too deep,” he says. “So that’s our only advantage now. We need to go as deep as possible.”
Yet Ivanov is also discovering how much AI can accomplish. When a company supplying Pony’s invoicing and time-tracking software raised its subscription price roughly tenfold, he tried creating an alternative for internal use with an AI coding assistant.
“I built the same tool in two, three days internally, just with AI,” he says.
As of our interview, he hadn’t cancelled the original service yet, but the experiment left him wondering what customers will still pay software companies to do.
“I’m just chatting with an agent, and they’re building anything for me,” he says. “I just don’t touch any code or anything.” Hand in hand with his excitement, there’s unease.
“This is a huge opportunity, and at the same time, it’s quite concerning for many companies,” he says. “Because when anyone can build software, how do you make money from a software company?”
Ivanov sees some advantages that are harder to replicate, including data that competitors lack, products tied to physical devices and services that become more useful as more people adopt them. As a result he remains optimistic about the advantage of software companies and trusted brands. Clients can use AI instead, but they won’t get the same benefits or the same result.
“It’s the trust,” he says.
The AI shortlist
In an October essay about AI agents and branding, Ivanov explored how assistants could change buying decisions. Instead of browsing search results, customers may increasingly describe their needs and ask for recommendations.
“Positioning becomes much more important,” he says. As a result, Pony is testing how AI assistants recommend branding agencies, and that work is influencing its thinking about strategy. A company’s website and visual identity are no longer the whole story.
Ivanov points to its reputation, media coverage, search visibility and founder’s story as signals an assistant might use.
“The power of media is becoming bigger and bigger,” he says. “Before, the signal was mainly links. Now it’s much more contextual.” A clearer specialism could help businesses appear in increasingly specific recommendation.
“Specialisation becomes much more important,” he says, “because when you start this conversation, you usually go quite deep.”
For Pony, that means concentrating on emerging technology companies. But a recommendation is only the beginning.
“Once you get in, then it becomes the power of the actual brand,” Ivanov says. “Can you keep the promise?” Being easy to find means little if the customer experience disappoints.
Worth doing once
Ivanov’s enthusiasm for technology has survived Hello Buster’s failure, although his advice to his younger self is blunt: “Don’t waste your time.” He believes the market was too crowded and the possible returns too small. Still, he does not regret trying.
“Am I glad I did it?” he asks. “Yes, I am.”
Ivanov began as a designer, became a technology entrepreneur and returned to design, this time as a founder. He would not build that first startup again. But the experience taught him to recognise when a business needs more than a new look.
Stef Ivanov runs a branding studio, but sometimes his advice to prospective clients is not to bother with a rebrand.
"Maybe we're not the best partner for this," he says.
As co-founder and creative director of London-based Pony, Ivanov regularly encounters startups that want a new identity before a funding round or conference. But sometimes a better website will do. Sometimes he recommends a freelancer instead. Turning away business might seem an unusual strategy for a branding studio, but Ivanov has first-hand experience of what happens when a company's problems run deeper than its appearance.
