Transforming Branding for Entrepreneurs: Tidy-B and Partner-B’s Global Vision

In a recent interview featured in the Korea newspaper on Dec.17th.2024, IT Dongah, the CEO of Tidy-B and Partner-B shared his visionary approach to revolutionizing branding for entrepreneurs. They discussed how Tidy-B, a cloud-based branding platform, and Partner-B, a consultancy service, work together to simplify and enhance the branding journey for businesses. With a mission to expand globally and bring positive impacts to entrepreneurs in Korea and beyond, the CEO outlined their ambitious plans to make branding more accessible, impactful, and efficient. Below is the full translation of this insightful interview.

[The Seoul National University of Science and Technology            X IT Dongah ]

Startup Support Group serves as the lead organization for the 2024 Startup Foundation, supporting the growth and development of early-stage companies. Together with IT Donga, the Startup Support Group explores the promising and dynamic aspects of emerging and growing startups.

Tidy-B provides a comprehensive branding software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution powered by generative AI. By answering a few straightforward questions, Tidy-B helps identify a brand's purpose, vision, and core values. From this information, it generates customized brand guidelines, including logos, color palettes, and typography that align with the company's identity. Furthermore, Tidy-B offers design templates for business cards, envelopes, document formats, and marketing materials. This enables entrepreneurs to effortlessly define their company's values while ensuring consistent branding across all elements.

Tidy-B launched its beta service in August 2023 and plans to release the official version in the first half of next year. The service has already secured a significant customer base and is experiencing rapid growth, driven by its affordable pricing and easy-to-use branding solutions. In addition, Tidy-B is preparing to enter the global market, starting with expansion into Asian countries with alphabet-based languages, including India, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

 We had the opportunity to meet Jonghwa Jang, CEO of Tidy-B, who is dedicated to fostering a proper startup culture through Tidy-B solutions, which offer practical support to entrepreneurs. During the discussion, we explored his all-in-one branding solution and its vision for empowering businesses.

Established to Tackle Corporate Branding Issues

IT Dongah: Nice to meet you, Mr. Jang, can you please briefly introduce yourself and your service?

Mr. Jang: Nice to meet you, I am the founder and CEO of Tidy-B. With a decade of experience in branding, design, and web and app development, I utilized the skills and insights I gained to found Tidy-B in June 2021.

I started my first business in my 20s. At that time, the Apple iPhone 3GS had just launched in Korea, and we developed an app that offered smartphone wallpapers by partnering with about 2,000 domestic and international illustrators. We also provided services to print and ship custom designs on smartphone cases and T-shirts. This project won the grand prize in seven entrepreneurship contests and received support from major corporations. However, due to a lack of experience, we had to discontinue the service after about a year.

Following this, I launched a digital agency with the development and design teams I had worked with and spent the next 10 years focusing on branding and design projects for various clients, ranging from startups to large corporations. Building on this experience, I founded Tidy-B to address the challenges faced by early-stage startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs struggling with branding.

IT Dongah: What was your initial reason to establish Tidy-B?

Mr.Jang: Branding is about creating a company’s identity to establish a meaningful connection with customers. It involves building a value system that defines the core beliefs of the brand and developing brand guidelines to visually communicate those values. By ensuring consistency across brand assets like websites, packaging, promotional materials, and business cards, you can effectively build and maintain customer trust, which is crucial for long-term success.

However, for early-stage startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, limited resources and funds often make it challenging to hire a dedicated branding expert or seek help from external professionals. This can lead to inconsistent branding, especially when key personnel leave the company. Additionally, some businesses are unaware of the importance of branding altogether. In fact, many companies request the development of a website or app without having established their brand philosophy, logo, or even a name, highlighting a serious gap in foundational branding.

To address this challenge, I decided to create a solution that simplifies the branding process for entrepreneurs. By combining the branding experience, expertise, and methodologies I had developed over the past 10 years with AI technology, I founded Tidy-B to make effective branding more accessible and manageable for people in business.

 

AI Based All-in-One Branding Solution, Tidy-B

 IT Dongah: Can you briefly tell us about Tidy-B and Partner-B?

Mr. Jang: We offer an AI-powered all-in-one branding solution, Tidy-B that empowers entrepreneurs to build their own brands, along with Partner-B. In addition, we offer Partner-B, a service dedicated to ensuring high-quality design and creating a strong branding foundation with a personal touch. While our initial focus was exclusively on Tidy-B, we recognized that some customers faced challenges in navigating AI and SaaS solutions. To better support our clients, we launched Partner-B last November, with the goal of bridging this gap and improving the overall service experience.  

The name Tidy-B is a thoughtful combination of the English word "tidy," meaning neat and well-organized, and the letter "B," representing our focus on branding. Together, the name convey our mission to organize every aspect of a brand systematically and make it flawless. This name was crafted with intention, reflecting our commitment to delivering streamlined and perfectly tailored branding solutions.  

IT Dongah: Can you tell me little more details about Tidy-B and Partner-B?

Mr.Jang: Allow me to provide you with a brief overview of how Tidy-B operates. Upon launching Tidy-B, you will be prompted to answer a few straightforward questions. This process helps to reveal your brand's purpose, vision, and core values. Utilizing this information, our AI then generates detailed brand guidelines that encompass logo design, color palettes, graphics, and typography, all customized to reflect your brand's identity. From these guidelines, design templates for various materials, including business cards, envelopes, document forms, banners, card news, and promotional items are created. All design assets are conveniently stored in the cloud, facilitating smooth collaboration among team members and easy sharing with partners.

 With Tidy-B, entrepreneurs can establish brand guidelines and manage design assets consistently, without the need for an internal branding manager, designer, or external experts. This ensures the delivery of cohesive messages to customers, enabling more effective brand awareness and value building.

 We utilize a variety of generative AI technologies to enhance Tidy-B, featuring a unique model that is specifically tailored for branding purposes. This model empowers users to design and modify logos, images, promotional text, and additional materials, facilitating the creation of cohesive brand-specific design assets. Our commitment to consistency and branding accuracy distinguishes us from other AI-driven logo and image creation services available in the market.

As mentioned earlier, Partner-B is designed for customers who may not be familiar with online platforms, AI, or SaaS services. This solution offers a comprehensive, hands-on branding experience by handling the entire process on behalf of the client. Since its launch last November, Partner-B has received an excellent response, attracting over 100 satisfied customers.

IT Dongah: Please tell us about the current progress of the business.

Mr.Jang: Tidy-B introduced its beta service in August 2023, and we are thrilled to see a swift rise in our customer base. Our primary clients are early-stage companies with fewer than 10 employees, and we take pride in the high level of satisfaction they express. They appreciate our ability to provide high-quality brand assets at a more affordable price and with greater ease compared to traditional branding methods. This positive experience often leads our customers to recommend us to their peers. Additionally, our service is utilized by venture capital firms and accelerators, particularly when branding support is required during startup development programs.

Tidy-B is excited to announce that we plan to launch the official version in the first half of next year. We are actively gathering feedback from our customers to enhance our offerings, which includes introducing new features and refining the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Additionally, we successfully secured seed investment from Sopoong Ventures and ES Investor in 2023, and we are proud to have been selected for the Seoul-type private investment-led Technology Startup Support (TIPS) program.

IT Dongah: Currently, you are receiving support from Cho Chang-pae of Seoul National University of Science and Technology. What kind of support did you receive?

Mr.Jang: We greatly benefited from their support we received in growing our business. Regularly hosting mentoring, networking, and IR competitions helped us a lot in promoting our company and brand. Commercialization funding was also useful.

Preparing to Enter the Global Market

IT Dongah: Please tell us about the future plans and goals.

Mr. Jang: We are currently prioritizing the enhancement of Tidy-B and Partner-B through continuous research and development efforts. A major initiative is the introduction of new features, such as the Editor function.

The Editor function will allow users to easily create custom designs or modify AI-generated design assets with greater flexibility and precision. While modification capabilities existed previously, this update significantly enhanced the tool’s functionality and the overall quality of outputs.

We are excited to announce that the Editor is set to launch within this December, marking another step forward in improving our services and providing our users with user-friendly design tools.

We are actively preparing to enter the global market, driven by the belief that entrepreneurs' branding concerns are universal. This is especially evident in regions like Southeast Asia, where branding is often undervalued, presenting an opportunity for significant impact.

For example, Tidy-B was successfully utilized for branding a restaurant in Bohol, Philippines. The service created a cohesive tone and manner across the restaurant's signboard, business cards, menu, and interior design. This consistent branding approach received an overwhelmingly positive local response, helping the business establish itself quickly in the market.

Success stories like this have reinforced our confidence in Tidy-B's potential to address global branding challenges and deliver tangible results for businesses worldwide.

Our initial focus for global expansion is on Asian markets that predominantly use alphabetic characters, such as Vietnam, India, and the Philippines. In Vietnam, we have already completed market research this year and are engaged in in-depth discussions with local partners to establish a strong presence.

We are actively testing a global payment service to support this expansion, ensuring seamless transactions for our international customers. These efforts are paving the way for a smooth entry into these key markets and a broader global rollout in the near future.

 We hope to see early-stage startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs across the country continue to grow and thrive. This requires effective branding to deliver a consistent message that resonates with customers and builds a loyal fan base.

Tidy-B and Partner-B are committed to being a practical solution that empowers entrepreneurs to establish their brand identity with ease and confidence. Beyond offering tools, we aim to contribute to shaping a healthy and sustainable startup culture. We will continue striving to support the growth of businesses and the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole.