So on a tight KubeCon deadline, we rebuilt it together. 31 new pages. 512 CMS items migrated. 718 redirects. A product design system alongside it.
The point was never a fresh coat of paint. It was to let the brand carry the full weight of the technology, so every surface read like the institution Solo already was, one you would trust in production. Today Solo holds the majority share of the service mesh market, serves companies like BMW and Domino's Pizza, and has raised $135M at a $1B valuation.
The gap that holds companies back
By the time a company comes to us, the product usually works. The demos land. The pilots convert. The numbers are real.
What holds it back is harder to see. It still looks like a startup, and everyone sizing it up reads that as risk.
That is the job brand does at this stage. Not decoration, but the trust a careful person needs before they commit. It does not invent substance. It removes the doubt that the substance is real.
Three people are deciding at once
When a company scales, three audiences size it up. They want different things. They are all asking whether the company will still be standing in five years.
A customer is choosing a vendor. In enterprise, no single person makes the call. A group forms its impression from your website and brand long before they meet your team. Pick the wrong vendor and their own credibility is on the line, so they lean toward whatever looks safe. A scrappy brand does not read as ambitious. It reads as a bet they might regret.
An investor is buying the trajectory, not the product. Brand is the fastest read on whether a company carries itself like one that will matter, or stays one option among many.
A senior hire is putting years of their career behind you. The people you want most have the most options, and brand is the first evidence they get, before the offer, that those years are worth it.
Different rooms. Same question.
Everything but the brand
Cortex had everything a category leader needs. Founders out of Uber and Twilio. Backing from Sequoia and Y Combinator. A product with real depth. The brand was the piece ready to catch up.
We brought brand and product up together. A sharper identity. A website that carried the full depth of the product. Every surface as credible as the thing it was selling.
Cortex went on to raise a $60M Series C.
Why we are the ones to do it
Zypsy is a design and investment firm. We rebuild brand and product as companies scale, so a company finally looks as solid as it already is.
The work runs across brand, product, and engineering. And because we invest in some of the founders we work with, we are tied to whether the company wins, not just to whether the work ships.
When the product works but customers hesitate, rounds drag, and the best people pass, the problem is rarely the product. It is belief. The substance was always going to be there. Brand is how everyone else believes it first.
