2.3×
Pipeline velocity lift
Average across 87 SaaS, FinTech, and HealthTech clients measured two quarters after rebrand launch.
S Design Unit, LLC · Est. 2018
Strategic brand systems for B2B.
Built once. Compounding forever.
A senior-only studio engineering brand systems that accelerate enterprise sales for venture-backed B2B companies — delivered in a fixed 8-week sprint by ex-Pentagram and ex-IDEO practitioners.
$1,200 · 60 minutes · credited toward any engagement.
A manifesto for the post-fundraise CMO
A brand is not a logo. It is the cheapest customer-acquisition tool you will ever underinvest in.
You have just closed a $30M round. The board wants pipeline. The sales team wants leads. The product wants a redesign. And somewhere in the backlog, an executive has scheduled a brand refresh.
We believe that conversation is being framed wrong. A brand system is not a cosmetic line item. It is the infrastructure beneath every conversion event on your path to enterprise revenue — the narrative your AE uses to open a cold call, the type system that survives a 40-tab buyer-committee evaluation, the positioning statement that survives the procurement memo. Done well, it compounds like an asset on your balance sheet. Done as a logo refresh, it depreciates by the end of the quarter.
S Design Unit exists for the founder who has already internalized this — who treats brand as a strategic instrument, not a deliverable. We do not sell mood boards. We build brand-to-ARR engines, validated across 140+ engagements, measured by the only metric that matters to a board: pipeline velocity two quarters after launch.
If you already raised — or are about to — this is the work.
— The Partners, S Design Unit
Intellectual Property
The Brand-to-ARR Conversion Framework.
Five chapters. Validated across 140+ B2B engagements. The only brand methodology in the industry that maps each design decision to a measurable revenue event downstream.
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01
The 47-Point Diagnostic
Before a single pixel is drawn, we audit your positioning, narrative, visual system, and sales-enablement alignment against 47 proprietary criteria. The output is a one-page prospectus: what is working, what is leaking pipeline, and what to fix first.
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02
Positioning & Category Design
We reverse-engineer the buyer's mental shelf. A Series B FinTech cannot win the same shelf as Stripe; a devtools startup cannot out-position a Datadog alumni-founded incumbent by sounding like one. We define the category, the wedge, and the line of attack.
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03
Narrative Architecture
Strategy is what you do. Narrative is why a 40-tab buyer committee remembers you on tab 39. We write the founder's voice, the sales narrative, the customer story, and the investor-facing positioning — in one workshop, in one voice, by in-house conversion copywriters.
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04
Identity System & Design Language
Wordmark, type system, color, motion, grid, illustration, photography, and the 60-page brand book your marketing team will actually use. Built to survive an enterprise sales cycle, a reorg, and a 10-market international rollout — not just a homepage reveal.
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05
Sales Enablement & ARR Activation
The chapter most agencies skip. We package the brand system for the actual moments that generate revenue: deck templates, AE one-pagers, conference booth system, lifecycle email language, and the post-launch measurement plan to track pipeline lift over two quarters.
By the numbers
Measured across 87 client engagements, 2022–2024.
Cohort-level averages. No cherry-picked anecdotes. The proof set we present to every diagnostic booker before they write the check.
8wks
Fixed delivery sprint
Or 40% of the fee refunded. Used by 41 SaaS companies since 2021.
47pt
Brand Audit instrument
Proprietary diagnostic covering positioning, narrative, visual system, and sales alignment.
78NPS
Net Promoter, 2023 cohort
Industry agency benchmark: 42. We were named to DesignRush Top 10 in 2023 and 2024.
| Metric | S Design Unit | Industry benchmark | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. project value | $148,000 (2024) | $96,000 (2021) | Internal cohort |
| Clutch client rating | 4.97 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 | 63 verified reviews |
| Engagements since 2018 | 240+ | — | Internal cohort |
| Pipeline lift, 2 quarters post-launch | 2.3× | ~1.1× | 87 engagements, 2022–2024 |
| Podcast downloads | 410,000 | — | 52 episodes, since 2022 |
Forbes Agency Council
DesignRush Top 10 — 2023
DesignRush Top 10 — 2024
The Drum · Brands to Watch 2024
6× Awwwards Site of the Day
Selected engagements
Three engagements. Three category leaders.
Names redacted by category. Each project shipped in 8 weeks and was measured for pipeline impact at the two-quarter mark.
DevToolsSeries B
Observability platform, Datadog alumni–founded.
Repositioned an open-source observability startup from "another Datadog for SMB" into the category-defining platform for cloud-native platform engineering teams. New narrative, new identity system, new sales opener.
- Pipeline lift (Q+2)
- 2.7×
- Cycle time change
- −18 days
- Win rate (enterprise)
- +11 pts
FinTechSeries B
Cross-border payments infrastructure for SMBs.
Built a brand system for a cross-border payments company entering the US market — narrative architected around CFO buyer committees, identity engineered for compliance review.
- Pipeline lift (Q+2)
- 2.1×
- Sales-led SQLs
- +58%
HealthTechSeries C
Telehealth platform, G2 Best Software 2024.
Repositioned a HIPAA-native telehealth platform from clinician-facing to enterprise-buyer-facing, opening a $40M+ ACV market segment within two quarters of launch.
- Pipeline lift (Q+2)
- 2.4×
- Enterprise ACV
- +$112k
The Pod Model
A pod is a strategist, a designer, and a conversion copywriter. No juniors. No offshore. No handoffs.
Every engagement is led by a partner-level strategist from brief to launch. The pod that scopes your project is the pod that ships it. You will not be handed to a junior team after the contract is signed.
Partner-Level Strategist
Ex-Pentagram, ex-IDEO, or ex-McKinsey Strategy & Design. Owns positioning, narrative architecture, and the line between strategy and design. On every project from kickoff to launch.
Senior Brand Designer
Minimum 8 years of post-leadership experience at a category-respected studio. Owns the visual system, type, motion, and the 60-page brand book your marketing team will actually use.
In-House Conversion Copywriter
Not bolted on after design. Sits inside the pod from day one so the narrative, the sales opener, and the lifecycle copy are written alongside the visual system — in one voice, by one team.
Next step
Book a 60-minute Brand Diagnostic.
$1,200 · credited in full toward any 8-week engagement. You leave with a one-page prospectus on what is working, what is leaking pipeline, and what to fix first. We leave with a clear sense of whether we are the right studio for you.