Branding for startups and companies in Waterloo
Lima Brands is a strategy-first branding studio with more than 100 projects delivered and clients in six countries, Canada included, and experience with technology companies. Kitchener-Waterloo produces brilliant products every year, and a clear brand is often what helps the market understand them.
Selected work
Waterloo is a region of founders, engineers and fast-growing tech companies, so we show an AI software consultancy, a growth tech business, a mastermind and education company and a performance marketing agency.
Waterloo builds world-class technology. Explaining it is the hard part
Waterloo is the heart of one of Canada's best-known technology regions. The University of Waterloo, famous for engineering, computer science and its co-op programme, sends students into companies around the world, and many of them start their own. The city is also the birthplace of the BlackBerry, which put the region on the global map.
In Kitchener, the Communitech hub supports hundreds of startups and scale-ups, and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics brings researchers from around the world. Founders here are usually strong on the product and short on time for the brand. The result is often a technical name, a quick logo and a homepage only engineers fully understand.
The region is also home to long-established insurance and manufacturing employers, a Mennonite farming heritage around St. Jacobs and one of North America's largest Oktoberfest celebrations. We work with companies in Canada already and run projects for Waterloo teams remotely, with workshops and reviews by video call and files delivered digitally.
Your brand is much more than a logo. It's how your business is remembered.
Studies show that investing in differentiating and promoting your brand can increase a company's total revenue by up to 23%. Have you ever wondered how much your brand stands out in the market today?
Source: YouGov (2021)Waterloo sectors where the brand has to explain the product
Software and SaaS
B2B software companies need a brand that makes complex products easy to understand and buy.
Deep tech and research spin-outs
Quantum, AI and hardware startups need a brand that credibly bridges the lab and the market.
Insurance and financial services
Established firms in the region need a modern brand that keeps the trust they have built.
Advanced manufacturing
Manufacturers selling across North America need a brand that looks as precise as their products.
How we help companies in Waterloo
Brand strategy
We turn a complex product into a simple story for customers and investors, without losing the substance.
Naming
Product and company names that are easy to say, remember and search, checked for available domains.
Visual identity
An identity system for the product interface, pitch deck, recruiting and conference booth, consistent from seed stage onwards.
Website
A site that explains what your technology does in plain language and turns visitors into demo requests.
Rebranding
For scale-ups whose first brand was improvised and no longer fits the company they have become.
What our clients say
“On behalf of the RD Farma team, I want to express our gratitude for your excellent work. Your commitment, technical skill and creativity were essential to the project's success.”— Tiago Menezes, Innovation & Technology Manager · RD Farma
“Excellent! He conveyed exactly what I wanted for the brand's new identity. I recommend Bruno without hesitation for any brand design project.”— Maria Julia Bertholino, Co-owner
How the project works for companies in Waterloo
We work by video call, on Eastern Time. Kitchener-Waterloo is two hours behind Brasília in winter and one hour behind in summer, so our business days overlap almost entirely and feedback moves fast.
Immersion
Discovery
Synthesis
Ideation
Prototyping
Delivery
I'm Bruno Lima. I create strategic brands for businesses that want to be remembered.
Questions from companies in Waterloo
Which branding and visual identity agency works with companies in Waterloo?
Lima Brands, a strategic branding studio founded by Bruno Lima, works remotely with companies in Waterloo on brand strategy, visual identity, rebranding, naming and websites. It has delivered more than 100 projects for clients in six countries. Every project gets a fixed proposal after a free discovery call.
Can you brand a deep-tech startup before it raises money?
Yes. We define positioning and messaging first, then the name, identity and pitch materials, so investors understand the opportunity as clearly as the technology.
We are engineers, not marketers. How involved do we need to be?
A few focused sessions are enough. We lead the diagnosis and workshops, present clear options and ask for decisions at the right moments, so the project does not slow down your product roadmap.
What does branding cost for a startup in Waterloo?
We do not use packages or price lists. After a free discovery call you receive a fixed proposal in Canadian dollars, USD or EUR, sized to your stage and scope.
We also work with
Europe: London · Paris · Amsterdam · Dublin · Zurich · Geneva · Luxembourg · Munich · Copenhagen · Stockholm · Oslo
United States: New York · Miami · Orlando · Boston · Los Angeles · San Francisco · Austin · Chicago · Washington, D.C. · Dallas · Houston · Seattle · Atlanta · Philadelphia · Denver · Minneapolis · Phoenix · Charlotte · Raleigh · Nashville · Tampa · Fort Lauderdale · San Diego · San Jose · Salt Lake City · Portland · Las Vegas · New Jersey · Baltimore · Pittsburgh · Detroit · Columbus · Indianapolis · Kansas City · St. Louis
Canada: Toronto · Vancouver · Montreal · Calgary · Ottawa · Edmonton
Australia: Sydney · Melbourne · Brisbane · Perth · Adelaide
New Zealand: Auckland · Wellington
Middle East: Kuwait
Photos: Aerial view of downtown Kitchener in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, by Quintin Soloviev (CC BY 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons; University of Waterloo campus in Waterloo, Ontario, by JFVoll (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.