Founder branding

For startups and scaleups, people often aren’t just buying a product or service. They’re buying into the founder. Their vision, leadership and credibility all play a role in whether investors back you, candidates join you and customers trust you. 

In the early stages especially, the product or service often can’t carry the story alone. Until it has scale or brand equity, the founder fills that gap.

They’re similar, but personal branding is focused on the individual. Founder branding is about strategically using a founder’s profile for maximum business impact.

If you want to avoid playing catch-up later, you have to make the time to build your brand as a founder. Treat it like any other business priority but bear in mind that you don’t need to be active all of the time. Consistency matters more than frequency. Focus on the platforms that matter most.

Most founders feel this way, often because they’re scared of saying the wrong thing or because they feel that everything they share needs to be weighty and profound. But perfection is often the enemy of progress. It can be enough to share a short LinkedIn post, give a brief quote or piece of insight for an article, or even just pass on what lessons were learned from attending an event.