Breakfast on Gran Vía. How much does brand weigh in an M&A process?
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Some mornings feel too short. Last Friday, February 20th, we launched a new format at our office: breakfasts at Gran Vía. The idea was simple, but deliberate—bring together a group of professionals from different sectors, put good coffee on the table, and have an unhurried conversation about what obsesses us: how brand generates real, tangible value in companies.
In this first meeting, the central focus was the role of brand in M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) processes. We discussed what value positioning and organizational culture have when facing an acquisition or merger.
Here we share the conclusions and learnings that emerged from the conversation:
Brand as critical infrastructure
One of the big themes of the morning was how brand acts as a tangible asset in a negotiation. It's not an aesthetic question; it's a question of availability and readability. The case of RatedPower (renewable energy SaaS) and its acquisition by Enverus.
— 'What's interesting is that Enverus didn't just buy a product; it bought a positioning.' — Eva Cabanach of RatedPower
RatedPower's brand functioned as a negotiation asset. Enverus was able to position itself as a renewable energy leader because the brand already projected the trust needed to validate that new strategic move.
When a brand functions like a well-documented API, it allows the market to understand your value proposition immediately and without friction. A brand that "self-executes" reduces perceived risk and therefore protects the valuation multiple.
The challenge of combining structures
What happens the day after signing? Sometimes the big company buys the small one and the temptation is to erase everything to unify.
In M processes&A, the most productive approach is to apply lossless compression. It's not about simplifying the identity until it loses its essence, but about finding the right abstraction layer so both cultures coexist and add value. Preserving brand equity and ensuring emotional accompaniment is key to keeping talent engaged after the deal closes.
B2B: When trust stops being a "claim" and becomes a protocol
In B2B and deep tech companies, brand is not a secondary factor—it's the tool that builds trust and authority asynchronously. Decision makers research and rule out options long before the first meeting. If your brand isn't emitting clear, verifiable signals, you're invisible.
— 'Brand is what puts you top of mind and ensures a lead is quality. In a saturated environment, the difference isn't made by who shouts loudest, but by who has the most coherent and honest narrative'. — Jorge Cano de Velara
The danger of being "CEO-centric"
In the tech ecosystem, it's common for founders to be overidentified with their projects. This is a powerful survival tool at the start, but a structural risk down the line and even more so in an M&A.
A company whose identity depends too heavily on individual charisma creates uncertainty for the buyer. The challenge is to transfer the attributes that matter from personal brand to corporate brand, while keeping the personal brand as a channel for feeding and activating the corporate one.
How much weight does brand carry in an M&A?
Taking time to think about the value of the intangible is an act of strategic resistance. An M&A is nothing more than a maturity exam where what has been built with intention becomes value, and what has been neglected becomes friction.
Building a brand is, basically, doing things today to anticipate tomorrow's needs. At Soluble, we're happy to accompany teams on this journey of authenticity so that, when the moment of truth arrives, their real value shines through.
