Introduction

For early-stage startups, traction is often one of the first things investors look at. But numbers alone may not tell the complete story. Customer retention, repeat purchases, founder behaviour, brand strength and the ability to build lasting consumer relationships can reveal much more about the future potential of a business.

Ravpreet Ganesh, Chief Strategy Officer at ZIEL Network, brings nearly three decades of experience across advertising, brand strategy, marketing and venture capital. Her experience of working with brands and early-stage businesses has given her a close view of how consumer behaviour, brand building and business growth intersect.

In a recent conversation with Indian Startup Times, Ravpreet shared her perspective on what founders and investors should pay attention to when evaluating consumer businesses, why the first transaction does not necessarily mean product-market fit, how founder behaviour influences an early-stage investment, and why AI, regional aspirations and changing consumer discovery patterns are becoming important considerations for brands.

Beyond Initial Traction: What Happens After the First Purchase?

For an early-stage consumer business, getting the first customer is only the beginning.

Ravpreet believes investors need to look closely at what happens after that first purchase. Does the product earn a place in the customer’s life? Do consumers return at a frequency that makes sense for the category? Do they recommend it to others?

The answer will naturally vary across categories. A consumer brand may expect customers to purchase or refill every few weeks, while a consumer electronics business may have a much longer purchase cycle.

The important point, according to Ravpreet, is to understand whether the customer relationship is sustainable.

Early traction can come from several sources. It can be driven by curiosity around a new product, strong distribution, marketplace presence, physical retail or promotional spending.

But from an investor’s perspective, the more important question is which of those customers will stay and why.

“Building a lasting business is what requires understanding of which of those customers will stay, return and why,” Ravpreet said.

Customer Retention Can Tell Investors More Than Initial Sales

A startup can generate impressive early numbers without necessarily having built a durable consumer business.

For investors, Ravpreet believes customer behaviour provides important signals.

Repeat purchases, recommendations and the frequency at which customers return can help indicate whether the product has become part of a consumer’s routine rather than simply being something they tried once.

This is particularly relevant for consumer startups, where initial traction can sometimes be driven by marketing spends or curiosity.

The investor’s deeper question, therefore, is not simply how many customers the startup acquired, but what those customers do next.

If customers continue returning without the company having to continuously spend heavily to bring them back, it can provide a stronger indication of the relationship being built between the consumer and the brand.

Founder Behaviour Matters in Early-Stage Investing

At the early stage, investors are often making a significant bet on the founder because the product and business may still be relatively nascent.

Ravpreet believes founder behaviour is therefore an important part of the investment decision.

One quality she highlights is the ability to listen.

Founders need to be willing to receive market feedback, question their assumptions and improve the product based on what consumers are telling them.

At the same time, founders need discipline.

There can be a temptation to launch multiple products or enter adjacent categories as soon as the initial product starts gaining traction. But Ravpreet believes founders should establish their core proposition strongly before expanding too quickly.

For an investor, this ability to remain focused can be an important signal of how the founder thinks about sustainable growth.

“If your core is strong, then your growth will happen,” she said.

Brand Building Should Be Part of the Investment Conversation

Ravpreet believes founders often focus heavily on building products when preparing for growth and fundraising, while brand building can receive less attention.

For an early-stage company, she sees this as a balancing act.

Founders need to invest in the product and generate traction, but they also need to think about how the business can create long-term brand value.

For investors, this becomes relevant when evaluating a company’s go-to-market strategy.

The question is not simply how much a startup is spending on marketing, but what that spending is building.

Ravpreet makes a distinction between simply maintaining a social media presence and building a brand that creates genuine believers among consumers.

For a business seeking long-term value, the objective should be to create consumer relationships that extend beyond a single transaction.

What AI Means for Brand Building and Investment

AI is changing how companies create content, understand customers and engage with consumers. Ravpreet sees several practical applications for the technology, including organising customer feedback, exploring creative directions, adapting approved assets and handling service queries.

From an investor’s perspective, however, the bigger question is whether AI is actually improving the business.

Ravpreet believes technology should create more time for people to focus on work that requires human thinking and judgment.

She also cautions against confusing content volume with value.

If multiple brands use the same AI tools and accept similar outputs, their communication can become increasingly interchangeable.

For investors evaluating consumer businesses, this raises another question: does the company have a distinct point of view and a meaningful understanding of its consumer, or is it simply producing more content with new technology?

Ravpreet believes human judgment will remain important in interpreting culture, choosing a point of view and responding to consumer behaviour.

She suggests evaluating AI tools based on whether they improve usefulness, quality or customer experience, rather than simply measuring how much content they can produce.

Startups Need a Reason to Exist Beyond Copying Established Brands

Another area investors need to examine is differentiation.

Ravpreet does not believe copying an established brand provides a meaningful shortcut for startups.

Legacy brands have spent years building recognition, distribution, consumer trust and experience. A startup attempting to replicate that model is still competing against all of those accumulated advantages.

Instead, founders need to establish why their brand exists and what unique purpose it serves.

From an investment perspective, this becomes a question of whether the startup is creating a genuine reason for consumers to change their existing preferences.

A new brand needs more than a familiar-looking product or communication strategy. It needs something that can make consumers reconsider what they already buy.

As Ravpreet puts it, founders need to find a unique purpose for their brand and understand why consumers would choose it.

Understanding Consumer Trade-Offs Is Becoming More Important

Ravpreet believes investors and founders should closely watch how consumers make trade-offs.

The same consumer may be willing to pay a premium for one category while looking for the lowest possible price in another.

Understanding where a product can earn a premium and where it cannot is therefore important when evaluating the strength of a business model.

For investors, this also connects directly to the question of durable demand.

Is the consumer willing to continue paying for the product? Is the preference strong enough to survive changing economic conditions? Can the business continue delivering the experience it promises?

These are questions that go beyond initial sales numbers and get closer to the sustainability of the business.

Consumer Discovery Is Changing

Another trend Ravpreet is closely watching is the way consumers discover brands.

Discovery is increasingly taking place across creators, commerce platforms and AI assistants.

This shift could have implications for how brands become visible, how their claims are verified and who controls the relationship with the customer.

For investors, changes in discovery can also affect how a startup acquires customers and how dependent it becomes on particular platforms or channels.

As the path between discovery and purchase changes, startups may need to rethink not only their marketing strategies but also how they build direct relationships with consumers.

Regional Aspirations Could Shape the Next Wave of Consumer Brands

India’s consumer market cannot always be understood through a single national lens.

Ravpreet believes regional languages and local aspirations deserve deeper attention from brands and investors.

Different markets can have different definitions of value, aspiration and convenience. Understanding these differences can help founders identify opportunities that may not be visible through a purely national consumer profile.

For investors, this also creates another area to examine: whether a startup genuinely understands the consumer segment it is targeting or is simply applying a broad national strategy.

ZIEL Network’s Next Phase: Connecting Strategy With Growth

As Chief Strategy Officer at ZIEL Network, Ravpreet is focused on bringing together specialist and founder-led agencies within the network.

Her strategic focus includes creating stronger collaboration across the network and developing a clearer understanding of each client’s business challenge.

The objective is to connect strategic thinking, creative execution and commercial outcomes so that teams working with clients have a shared understanding of what growth requires.

Ravpreet is also focused on developing talent and capabilities for changing client needs, including how AI can be used thoughtfully and responsibly.

For her, the intersection of communication, startups, strategy and technology provides an opportunity to build a network that combines specialist expertise with entrepreneurial energy.

What Investors Need to Look Beyond

Ravpreet’s perspective points towards a broader way of evaluating early-stage consumer businesses.

Initial traction can show that consumers are willing to try a product. But repeat purchases, recommendations and long-term customer behaviour can reveal whether that initial interest can turn into durable demand.

Similarly, a strong founder is not simply someone who moves quickly. The ability to listen, respond to market feedback, stay focused and build the core proposition before expanding can become equally important.

And while AI can make marketing and content operations faster, technology alone does not create a differentiated brand.

For investors and founders, the larger opportunity lies in understanding what makes consumers stay, what makes them believe in a brand and whether the business can consistently deliver the experience it promises.

As India’s consumer landscape continues to evolve, these signals may become increasingly important in separating short-term traction from businesses capable of building lasting value.

-By Aakriti Jaiswal