Inside Thoroughpass’s Content Strategy: Why Long-Term Brand Building Matters in B2B

Most B2B startups prioritize immediate lead generation over brand building. But in a recent Category Visionaries episode, Thoroughpass founder Austin Ogilvie revealed how this common approach can become a strategic liability as companies scale.

The High Cost of Delayed Brand Investment

Looking back on Thoroughpass’s journey, Austin identifies brand building as a critical area where many B2B companies, including his own, underinvest early on. “In retrospect, our best converting inbound marketing resources are long tail content and long term brand related stuff. Awareness has been a huge thing for us in being discoverable by customers.”

This insight didn’t come easily. Like many startups, Thoroughpass initially focused on immediate growth metrics. But Austin now emphasizes that “there’s an important capital allocation question even very early that we should have taken seriously and that probably other B2B SaaS companies ought to take more seriously as well.”

The Painful Lesson of Rebranding

The true cost of inadequate brand investment became clear when Thoroughpass (originally called Leica) faced confusion with similarly-named competitors. The solution? “We did a wholesale rebrand, changed the name of the company, changed the name of all the email addresses and the website and the whole thing, all an entirely new messaging framework, totally different copy.”

The technical complexity was staggering: “We have whatever 100 or so SaaS products that we ourselves use. Our web application integrates with tons of different APIs. We have APIs that are consumed by other companies, all of that. Everything has to change.”

This ten-month ordeal led Austin to a clear conclusion for founders: “Get the name of the company right as early as possible and just buy the domain you’re going to want it and just pay the piper on getting both of those set correctly.”

Building a Differentiated Brand

Rather than getting lost in competitive noise, Thoroughpass focused on establishing a distinct market position. “We just ran our playbook, we just ran our game, and we’re very focused on serving our customers with the best experience for getting through it audits in a way that we ourselves would want.”

This focus on authentic differentiation proved crucial as the market evolved. By positioning themselves at the intersection of three growing markets (governance and risk compliance, IT auditing, and third-party vendor risk management), they created a unique brand identity that resonated with enterprise customers.

The Role of Storytelling in Enterprise Sales

For B2B companies targeting enterprise customers, effective storytelling becomes increasingly crucial. Austin emphasizes “the importance of storytelling, I think, is often overlooked, especially when you’re creating a new category or tying together categories that don’t seem to be connected in an obvious way.”

This was particularly important for Thoroughpass as they explained their vision of unifying previously separate compliance processes. As Austin notes, “going out of your way, to be clear, in your verbal messaging, your written messaging, things like original art and creative to describe concepts that are really important for people to get.”

Lessons for B2B Founders

Thoroughpass’s experience offers several crucial insights for B2B founders:

1. Brand building isn’t a luxury for later stages – it’s a fundamental investment that affects both customer acquisition and enterprise sales velocity.
2. Getting foundational elements right early (company name, domain, messaging framework) prevents costly corrections later.
3. Long-tail content and consistent brand building often deliver better returns than short-term marketing tactics.

Looking ahead, Thoroughpass continues to invest in brand building as they work toward their vision of becoming “this single pane of glass where all software companies come to manage their IT audits across any of these standards.” Their journey demonstrates that in B2B, brand isn’t just about awareness – it’s about creating the foundation for sustainable growth.