You can absolutely know what your brand is before PMF.
Brand is the understanding of what the company is, what it stands for, the quality standards, who you hire, what we do, how we do it, and why. Consistency is crucial for a brand; it's like the soul or personality of your company. Then external brand will follow.
Brand is probably the cheapest thing you can do in startup. It’s literally you knowing what it is and sharing with others.
@linear has spent total in $35k in marketing, but we have built a brand from the actions we do.
The trap here is that many “product hackers” just try to brute force their way in to PMF/companies and never stop to think why they are doing what they are doing.
No sense investing heavily in brand before Product/Market Fit.
FIRST you have to make something people want.
THEN you can build attention, awareness, and affinity for that thing.
(Before PMF, you don’t even know what you brand should be!)