Setscale: Zero to One Fintech
Starting with zero, launching a new Fintech brand & B2B software in 4 months.
Strategy first, at startup speed
Setscale launched a new brand and software platform in four months. Product and design strategy is what made that pace possible: research before pixels, clear criteria for every big decision, and one holistic experience across the brand, the customer-facing product, and the tools to run the business.
The founders had lived the problem: their previous company couldn't fund production to fill its orders. Banks want years of financials, asset-based lenders don't treat purchase orders as assets, and purchase order financing had no digital-first product.
The business was still learning its market as we built, so the strategy had to flex with it. High ambiguity and tight timelines meant growing every part of design at once.
Setscale is a “Zero to One” Fintech startup funding demand in the $45 billion global trade finance space. We focused specifically on funding Purchase Order finance, a complex problem that had not been previously addressed. Building a brand focused on consumer package good (CPG) companies. Deploying a self-service funding application for B2B customers. And back-end tools to monitor risk and run the business. It was a tremendous amount of net-new design work, delivered quickly, and bridging every aspect of the customer experience.
In my role, I led design across the entire startup. Researching and guiding our team as we built out the brand. Running a product design process for our customer-facing B2B software. Leading workshops to solve complex problems while ensuring a holistic experience. Collaborating with internal experts as we build the backend tools to run the business. Being both strategic and hands-on in multiple aspects of software development and marketing.
Who we were designing for
Before the brand, we defined who it was for. Sales and research pointed to emerging consumer brands: under five years old, 20 or fewer products, short supply chains, and healthy margins.
We mapped customers by capital needs and business experience, which set the priorities for the first release: trust, a clear and concise message, speed, and ease of use.
A brand the company could own
Setscale started as Float Financial. The company pivoted to a brand with a more holistic, defensible identity, and we built it strategy first, while the software platform was being built at the same time.
We audited the fintech landscape and set criteria before sketching: fit the technology space, carry confidence, accessibility, and growth, and work in software, on apparel, and as a standalone icon. We named the hard parts up front: a wordmark that had to stay unified to trademark, two S's competing, and growth arrows everyone already uses.
Six marks went through team feedback and two rounds of preference testing, starting with 50 people. The final mark led round two with 35%.
A funding platform, designed with the brand
The brand and the software came together side by side, so the same strategy carried into the product: consumer-style onboarding for a B2B product. Sellers apply online with basic business information and their open purchase orders, then track funding requests and tasks in one dashboard. Behind it, internal tools help the team underwrite partners and judge each transaction.
Messaging, brand, and the pitch
The brand carried past the product into the company's story. The site, the demand generation, and the investor deck all spoke in one voice, from the problem to the market to the model.
The result
A new brand, website, and funding platform launched in four months, and the brand platform grew from zero to 2.2k monthly active users in its first four months. Demand generation followed: website traffic was doubling month over month, and digital ads launched in February 2023 were bringing in 20+ leads a week. That traction was part of the story as Setscale secured $9.5M in funding.