Lime
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
INDUSTRY
Sustainability & Impact
ENGAGEMENT
Embedded fractional VP Marketing
TIMELINE
6 months
AI USED
Founder
SERVICES
Growth
Messaging
Web
Brand
Strategy
overview
The brand that launched a category — built from a blank canvas.
In early 2017, the founders of LimeBike approached Brandmates to lead the creation of the brand — along with the positioning, messaging, and marketing infrastructure needed to raise funds, launch the app, activate first markets, and hire the first employees.
This project was the inception of Brandmates itself, with a curated team of creatives coming together to shape the foundation of what would become one of the fastest-growing mobility companies in the world. Brandmates served as the de facto marketing team for the first six months — building everything from the logo to the local market activation playbook.
SCOPE
What we built.
01 — Brand identity
Logo and visual system built to launch a category, not just a company.
Evolved the brand from an initial pitch deck logo to a full visual identity system — logo, color,
typography, illustration style — that could anchor a global consumer brand and hold up through hypergrowth.
02 — Messaging & go-to-market
Positioning framework that drove fundraising, launch, and early growth.
Developed the core messaging framework — value prop, brand positioning, and in-app copy — that guided every investor conversation, press interview, and new market launch. Plus the first local market activation playbook used to scale city by city.
03 — PR & media
Earned coverage across major tech publications at launch.
Led PR strategy and execution at launch — managing reporter relationships and winning coverage across major tech publications. Also led media training for the founding leadership team ahead of their first press cycle.
RESULTS
30+
Countries · 100+ cities
$1.5B
Raised across 11 rounds
1M+
Rides in Year 1
How AI accelerated this engagement
Built from zero. Scaled to 30 countries. This is where it all started.
Lime was the project that proved the Brandmates model — a curated distributed team, embedded as the de facto marketing org, building everything from brand to playbook in the first six months. What we built for Lime became the blueprint for how we work with every founder since.
Brand to global in 6 months
From logo and messaging to 30+ country launches — all foundational marketing built and shipped in under six months.
Fundraising foundation
Brand and investor narrative that supported $1.5B raised across 11 rounds of funding.
Playbook transferred
Local market activation playbook handed to the internal team — used to scale every new city launch independently.
Brandmates helped Lime tremendously in our early stage. They defined the brand equity, developed product marketing, and launched our brand including PR, visual ID, social, and a local market acquisition playbook. Tough to find a better partner when you need someone to do it all.
Toby Sun
Co-Founder & CEO — Lime