Branding work under NDA and unannounced technology
Why an NDA is the normal first step in deep tech, how launch is sequenced against a disclosure calendar, and what to ask a studio before sharing a roadmap.
- An NDA before the first working session is the normal starting point, not an unusual request. Most of what makes a deep tech company defensible is unannounced.
- The work is sequenced against your disclosure calendar, not ours: PR, tender announcements and funding dates decide what can appear when.
- Rendering hardware that has not been announced, or does not exist yet, is routine. It needs access to the engineer, not a finished part.
- Some work never becomes public, and a studio that cannot accept that will push you to disclose earlier than you should.
In most categories an NDA is a formality that slows down a first call. In deep tech it is the first working document, because the thing you need explained is usually the thing you cannot yet talk about.
Do you sign an NDA before the first call?
Yes, and it is the normal starting point rather than a special case.
Most of what makes a deep tech company defensible is unannounced: silicon that has not taped out, pilot results not yet published, a tender response in progress, a round that has not closed. Asking a studio to position a company while withholding all of that produces generic work, which is exactly the outcome you were trying to avoid.
So the sequence is the NDA, then the technology, then the argument. Not the other way round.
What is actually sensitive in deep tech?
Usually not the thing clients expect.
Founders often guard the pitch deck and hand over the roadmap without thinking. In practice the sensitive material tends to be pilot results and methodology, unannounced silicon and interface support, tender pricing and terms, and the timing of a round. The pitch deck is frequently the least sensitive item in the folder, because it has already been shown to thirty people.
Being specific about which of those is genuinely restricted, rather than blanketing everything, makes the work faster. A studio that knows one number is off limits can write around it. A studio told everything is confidential will write around all of it, and produce a page that says nothing.
How do you design for something you cannot show?
By modelling it rather than photographing it.
Rendering hardware that has not been announced, or does not yet physically exist, is routine. We model from mechanical drawings, from layout, or from a sketch and a conversation with the engineer designing it. What that needs is access to whoever knows the geometry, not a finished part and not a photo shoot.
That is often the only way to have launch assets ready on the day of announcement. A product photographed after it exists is a product marketed weeks late.
What is UPSI, and why does it change the process?
Unpublished price sensitive information: material that could move a valuation if it got out.
When a project touches it, the constraint stops being courtesy and becomes compliance. Who sees what, and when, is governed rather than agreed informally. Armory's website revamp launched under NDA and UPSI, sequenced with PR and armed-forces tender announcements, which is a good example of the shape: the creative work was finished well before anyone outside a small group could see any of it.
If your work involves a listed parent, a live tender or a round in progress, say so at the first call. It changes the sequencing, not the scope, and it is much cheaper to plan for than to retrofit.
How is a launch sequenced against a disclosure calendar?
Yours decides, not the studio's.
Defence, nuclear and pre-round work gets coordinated against your PR, tender and funding dates. That means the brand can be finished in week seven and stay in a drawer until week fourteen, because the announcement is tied to something outside the project.
It also means the order of public appearance is a deliberate decision. Sometimes the website goes live before the film. Sometimes the name appears in a tender document before it appears anywhere else. Sometimes a client site launches with a product page that does not name the customer, because that customer has not agreed to be named yet.
A studio that treats launch as the moment the work is finished will get this wrong. Launch is a date on your calendar that the work has to arrive before.
What happens to work that can never be published?
It stays unpublished, and that has to be genuinely acceptable to the studio.
Some of the work here is under NDA and is not listed anywhere. No case study, no portfolio entry, no conference talk. That is a real commercial cost to an agency, which is exactly why it is worth checking before you hire one: a studio whose growth depends on publishing its work has a quiet incentive to push you toward disclosure you are not ready for.
The related rule is about credit. We do not claim credit for a company's engineering or its round. Design removes friction between the two, and that is a smaller claim than most agencies make.
What should we ask a studio before sharing a roadmap?
Four questions, and the answers are more revealing than the NDA itself.
Ask what happens to the work if it can never be published. Ask who inside the studio will see the material, and whether that changes for the sensitive parts. Ask whether they have worked against a disclosure calendar before, and what happened when a date moved. And ask whether they will name you as a client, and when.
The last one catches more problems than people expect. Plenty of studios will sign an NDA about your technology and then treat your logo as theirs to display the day the site goes live.
Written by Mejo Kuriachan. More in the blog, the glossary and the FAQ.