Building a Premium Webflow Website for Israel-Based Defense Tech VC, Protego Ventures
Introduction
When CAPRI approached us to develop the Protego Ventures website, I immediately Googled the name—it turns out it’s the shield charm from Harry Potter. As a VC firm investing in defence technology, the name was perfect. We were up to the challenge of translating the Visual Identity created by CAPRI into an online expression of the Protego brand.
Challenge
This wasn’t just another financial website. Defense technology venture capital operates in a world where discretion and authority are everything. Over our first Zoom call (which they insisted we do on a secure platform), we identified some unique hurdles:
- They needed to look elite and established even though they were relatively new
- Their message had to resonate with both cutting-edge startups AND traditional military institutions (talk about a balancing act)
- Every design element needed to convey absolute trustworthiness—these folks are handling millions in defense investments
- They operated in a space where being too flashy would undermine credibility, but being boring would fail to attract innovative startups
- Their team kept using the phrase “sophisticated but not showy,” which had us scratching our heads until we really understood their world
“This isn’t just about looking good,” Josh from Capri explained, “It’s about looking right to a particular group of people.” That distinction would guide our entire process.
Approach
After several deep conversations and one particularly intense whiteboarding session, we developed a strategy that would thread this particularly tricky needle:
Sophisticated Visual Identity
We spent three weeks just on color exploration. The beige we landed on wasn’t just beige—it was the exact shade used in certain military environments. That wasn’t accidental. The orange accents? They popped without looking frivolous.
For photography, we curated monochromatic images of defense technology that conveyed seriousness without looking like a military recruitment site. Finding these images was like hunting for unicorns.
Our navigation went through seven iterations to achieve that perfect balance of simplicity and function. “Like a well-designed weapon,” our designer David commented, before realizing how that sounded in a team meeting.
Strategic Positioning Through Content
We conducted interviews with their founding team to extract the genuine differentiators. When they mentioned their “unparalleled access,” we pushed for specifics until we understood exactly what made their network special.
Our content team created a glossary of defense technology terms that we all studied to ensure we weren’t making basic mistakes in the copy.
We had a former defense contractor review our content for accuracy and appropriate tone. Her feedback changed about 30% of our initial draft.
Purpose-Built Information Architecture
We mapped out the decision-making process of both startup founders and institutional investors, looking for the overlap in what they needed to see first.
The “Israel-Centric Positioning” section was particularly delicate—it needed to highlight strengths without stepping into geopolitical sensitivities. We rewrote it four times.
Every page was designed with a clear purpose and conversion path. No dead ends, no confusion about next steps.
Technical Excellence in Webflow
Our Webflow developer Pelumi became slightly obsessed with creating a custom vertical indicator that would match the precision of everything else. “If we’re building for defense tech, our code should be military-grade too,” he insisted.
Performance testing turned into a friendly competition on our team, with each person trying to shave off milliseconds from load time. (Nerd alert, I know, but we take this stuff seriously.)
We built the CMS with extra attention to content relationships so that their portfolio companies could be filtered and displayed in multiple contexts—something Protego specifically needed for different audiences.
Design Elements That Differentiate
The magic was in the details:
- The typography we used for the brand identity was perfect for the site.
- For the imagery, we avoided standard stock photos like the plague. Instead, we sourced specific defense technology images that insiders would recognize as legitimate.
- The white space wasn’t just aesthetic—it was calculated to draw attention to specific sections in a controlled way, guiding the visitor’s journey.
- The drone, micro-animations and indicators took three days longer than planned, but they created an experience that felt more like using sophisticated equipment than browsing a website.
Client Feedback
“Working with BrandingLab was like finding a partner who could read our minds. They understood that in our world, subtlety and precision matter more than flash. The website they created communicates authority and expertise in exactly the way we need to approach defense technology founders and investors. It’s become a crucial tool in establishing our credibility in a highly competitive space.” — Protego Ventures Leadership Team
