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I’m an absolute fan of Warren Buffett.

What I’m going to tell you is based on hundreds of hours of research and analysis I made.

So let’s dive into one of the biggest investment and business secrets I discovered studying the greatest investor of all time.

What Warren Buffett’s $335B Cash Pile Tells Us

At the beginning of May 2025, Warren Buffett held his final shareholder meeting as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
But that wasn’t the only reason he made headlines.

He also revealed that he’s sitting on a staggering $335 billion in cash, the largest cash reserve he has ever held.

For a man who built his fortune by being almost fully invested in markets, this is a clear signal: hoarding this level of cash signals just one thing: he believes the market is overheated, overvalued, and due for a correction. He’s preparing for a market crash.

Buffett is famously known for one principle:

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

Right now, he’s not buying. He’s waiting.

To understand why, you only need to look at his track record. Buffett has lived through nearly every major economic crisis since the Great Depression. He doesn’t make moves based on hype or panic. He waits for moments when the market misprices value, and then he goes all in (he has almost a century (!!) of investment experience, let’s not forget that).

His strategy? Looking for undervalued companies that would undeniably take off.

That’s why when Buffett speaks, all founders and investors listen.

And when he signals caution, it’s worth asking:
What does he see that the rest of the market hasn’t accepted yet?

In this article, we’ll unpack one of the biggest secrets of Warren Buffett that are often overlooked in the startup world and helped him build a $335B portfolio:
The power of brand as a long-term moat.

Buffett’s Most Overlooked Advantage: Brand

If you want to understand what makes the world’s most successful companies thrive, it’s worth looking at the portfolio of the world’s most successful investor.

I spent a lot of time digging into the companies Buffett consistently invests in. Yes, they all have strong financials, solid cash flow, and proven fundamentals. But one pattern stood out more than anything else.

Every major company he invests in has a powerful brand.

Apple. IBM. Coca-Cola. American Express. They have all been ranked among the top 100 most valuable brands in the world.

That’s not a coincidence. It’s a strategy.

I have always been fascinated by the fact that on one side, the best investor of all time only gets to pick companies with great brand equity.

And on the other side, a big share of startup founders are still reluctant to invest in branding. They still treat branding like a ‘nice-to-have’. A logo. A few colors. A cool font. And that’s it.

Now it’s true that brand doesn’t show immediate returns. It’s not a “quick win” or a “hack”. It compounds over time.

But for that exact reason why the sooner it’s built, the sooner we get to kick off that compound interest curve.

And the only real question is this:
How much do you believe in your company’s future?

If you’re all in, if you know you’re building something worth remembering, then investing in brand shouldn’t feel like a risk. It should feel obvious.

What Happened When I Invested in Brand Early

One of the best decisions I’ve made for my company, Team&Tonic, is to invest in my brand early on. Even before having a marketing strategy. Once I had the vision and unshakable belief that what we’re building is going to succeed, I didn’t hesitate to invest in it.

Our marketing is not optimal yet. But we already see the results of branding:

• “I don’t remember how I landed on your website but once I saw it, I immediately realized that this is among the few design agencies that actually has a great brand”
• After mentioning they loved our website, they mention: “I’m impressed by your pricing, I thought it would be much more expensive”
• “The first time I saw your website instantly felt like: okay, these people get it.”

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We’ve even had past clients reach out long after exiting their companies to say things like:

• “I absolutely love the name of your company”
• “I love the visuals on your website they’re outstanding”
• “I love what you guys built”

That’s what brand does. It creates emotional memory. It signals quality before a single line of copy is read. It attracts. It reassures. And most importantly, it sticks.

In a world where attention is scarce and trust is rare, brand is the one thing that can’t be copied.

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If business is about serving more clients and making them happy, brand is what earns the chance to even start that relationship.

It’s not just how people find you. It’s how they feel about you and whether they remember you afterward. I have found that the best way to create that feeling is to create an outstanding brand.

People are attracted to brands because they’re one of the few external indicators that help us remember a company and signal that a company is trustworthy and that what they produce is great.

And the sooner you invest in that, the sooner the compounding begins.

Brand Doesn’t Just Drive Growth. It Reduces Risk.

As mentioned earlier, Warren Buffett announced a few weeks ago that was that he was sitting on $335 billion of cash, which is the highest amount he has ever held in his life.

It’s a clear sign that he doesn’t trust the current state of the economy. Instead of chasing returns, he’s waiting patiently for the next downturn so he can get back to the market and buy stocks for cheap.

Now you might be wondering, what does any of this have to do with your startup and your brand?

A lot more than you’d think. Warren Buffett’s prediction doesn’t mean that your company is about to collapse. But it means that you need to prepare to acquire customers at lower costs and keep the current ones loyal during difficult times.

That’s exactly where brand makes the difference.

I dive deeper into this in this article, where I explain how your brand can help you reduce CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), increase LTV (Lifetime Value), boost retention, loyalty, and make your company memorable. It also makes your marketing more efficient.

As you’ll see, branding is not only the response to scale, but it’s also the response in times of scarcity because it helps you reduce costs.

So if you’re worried about Warren Buffett’s prediction, the best time to invest is before a crisis happens. Which is right now.
Investing in branding has been by far my best return on investment.
It makes our marketing more effective, helps us stand out, brings more leads, and creates enthusiasm both inside and outside the company.

Imagine something you invest in for 1 to 4 months and get ROI during your company’s lifetime. If you could get a 100x, even 10,000x return on an investment, would you do it?

If you want to know what that 100x or even 10,000x return on investment actually looks like, in this article, I break it down. I reveal how the best startups scale by combining brand and marketing, and why that approach makes me genuinely excited about the future of my company.

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Why Brand Is the Most Important Moat

If you’re still not convinced and prefer to focus on speed, growth hacks, or worrying about copycats, here’s something Buffett mentioned:

"Brands are moats. A strong brand is really potent stuff.”

Think about this:
‍Speed can be matched. Products can be copied. Prices can be undercut.But a brand is the fingerprint of a company.

Once earned, it cannot be copied. And if competitors ever try to copy it, they’ll just end up expanding your own brand and will be seen as ridiculous.

And once a brand is earned, it sticks. Brand is the emotional moat that competitors can’t replicate.

It’s the reason:

• Why customers stay loyal
• Why they forgive mistakes
• Why they pay more
• Why they come back

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It’s why people still buy Coca-Cola when Pepsi tastes better in blind tests.

It’s why Apple dominates even when competitors catch up in features.
It’s why Nike still leads, even when others spend more on ads.

If you want to build a long-lasting company:
Brand isn’t a “nice-to-have.” It’s your only moat.

Everything else decays. But brand compounds.

Conclusion: 3 Wins With One Move

We’ve looked at branding from three angles: growth, cost reduction, and competitive advantage. The conclusion is clear:

1. From a growth angle: branding makes your startup stand out, builds an emotional connection, attracts better clients, and drives word-of-mouth. It boosts conversions and makes your marketing 10x more effective.
2. From a cost angle: branding reduces your CAC, increases your LTV, and improves retention. You need fewer touchpoints to convert, spend less to acquire, and keep customers longer.
3. From a competitive angle: brand is your moat. It’s the one thing copycats can’t replicate. When products get commoditized and growth hacks fade, brand is what keeps you on top.

So whether you want to grow faster, spend smarter, or protect your business. Brand is the answer.
It’s not fluff. It’s not “design”. It’s the compound interest of trust.

Invest early and it’ll work for you FOREVER.

Let’s Build Momentum Right Now

Let’s look at improvements you can implement right away.

If you have a brand

Let’s test it now:

1. Can your team describe your positioning in one sentence?
2. Do your customers feel like you “get them”? Do they remember your brand long after they started working with you?
3. Has your sales team noticed potential clients remember the brand, compliment it, or feel it reflects them?
4. Can people recognize your brand without the logo?

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If you struggled to confidently answer yes to any of these, it might be time to bring in an expert.

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At Team&Tonic, we help startups build unforgettable brands by connecting them with the best 0.8% of freelance designers and marketers.

You’ll get access to elite designers, like Creative Directors, Brand Designers, Graphic Designers, Illustrators… and more.

We’ve vetted over 120,000 candidates and review hundreds more daily. Why? Because finding someone who truly gets your company and can create a visual and verbal identity is hard.

That’s why we decided to make it easy.

Whether you’re building your brand from scratch, need additional brand assets, or want to bring your freelancer in-house, we’ve got you covered.

Just tell us what you need, and we’ll match you with the right designer within 72 hours. (For reference: hiring this quality level on your own would take ~2 months and a full recruiting team. We cut that down to 3 days.)

If you don’t have a brand

Now’s the time to build one.

The sooner you start, the better, because a brand compounds over time. It makes people notice you, trust you faster, and honestly, it makes your whole team’s job easier when it comes to any marketing activities and design.

Let’s start here:

1. Define your customer profile. Who are you talking to? What do they want most? What do they fear?
2. Clarify your positioning. What’s your one-liner and why are you different?
3. Choose your brand values. These will guide how you speak, design, and act. Write 2–3 short paragraphs that resonate with your team and audience.
4. Craft a simple visual system. Just enough to look intentional: colors, fonts, imagery style. Don’t overthink it.
5. Write your story. One paragraph: Why you exist, what problem you solve, and how you’re different.

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To get clarity on these questions, you may want to be advised by an expert.

You can get early access to the Startup Mentor Matching at Team&Tonic.

You get direct access to incredible startup CMOs and Creative Directors for just $50/month (only during beta!).

They’ll audit your actions, bring clarity, and help you design a growth system that actually works.

That price is a total steal to get access to incredibly talented people who have helped startups day in, day out.

So there’s no excuse not to get clarity on your brand.