Andrew Dobbie
Founder and CEO, MadeBrave
I really want a timid brand.
Said nobody, ever.
And yet almost everybody ends up with one, because timid isn't usually a decision. Its what's left when nobody makes one.
If your competitor could put their name on your website and nothing would look wrong, you're already paying for it.
You get compared on price, because nobody can say what else you are. Your brand is a decision-making tool. It's how a customer decides whether to buy you, how your own people decide what to make, what to say, what to charge and what to turn down, and how the right people decide whether to join you.
It isn't your logo. And you already have one, whether you meant to or not. Brave doesn't mean loud either. It means being clear enough that some people walk away, which is the only thing that makes the rest choose you on purpose.
A brand nobody walks away from is a brand nobody picks either. At MadeBrave® we build brave brands worth believing in, from the inside-out, with the people who work in them. Because a brand only works when everyone inside the business believes the same thing, tells the same story and heads in the same direction.
Get that right and the outside starts to take care of itself.
How it started
I left my job and started MadeBrave with £1,000 in the bank and my two-week-old son, Fin, at home. Brave? Maybe. Naive? Probably. Luckily, it paid off.
Fourteen years later we've built brands with FirstGroup, Bank of Scotland, Pfizer, Nestlé, DXC, VELUX, Diageo, KPMG, Dentons and many more.
We've been named Marketing Society Star Awards Agency of the Year, one of the Best Companies Top 100 Small Companies to Work For, and a Campaign Best Places to Work winner.
And in 2026 I flew a traffic cone first class to Boston. It was covered by over 150 news outlets worldwide. Long story. Ask me when we meet.
Three ways to start → How brave is your brand? Fifteen questions, two minutes, free: buildabravebrand.com → Win a signed copy of my book, The Little Book of Brave: buildabravebrand.com/be-first → Our new website lands next week. Be first in: madebrave.com
This world belongs to the Brave.
