Why is Founder Led Marketing is Non-Negotiable in 2025
It’s 2025, marketing has changed more in the past 2 years than in the previous 20. Sure, the principles remain the same but the application has changed.
Whether it’s for B2B or B2C. Founder led marketing is working for B2B startups with notable business leaders like Adam Robinson. And it’s working for B2C startups like the Instagram CEO.
And like many things in life: it’s economically driven.
Today the biggest trends are
- Using your founding members or c-suite to create personal brands and sales channels
- Free or low cost distribution thanks to social media platforms
This article is about: why this shift has happened, and how it benefits companies immensely from an economic point of view.
I’ll also share a few case studies of founders who have used this new model perfectly to generate millions in revenue.
First lets get down to the truth: this ain’t nothing new!
Founder led marketing strategy ain’t nothing new
Even 20-30+ years ago smart entrepreneurs were building founder led brands. In fact, getting free attention from the public was never a “bad idea”.
Some early pioneers of entrepreneurs who mastered the personal brand:
- Richard Branson understood it’s importance from the very beginning working on developing a larger than life character
- Steve Jobs succeeded in creating a whole cult around his products
- Gary Vaynerchuck, who pumps out more content than maybe all other founders combined
And to be frank: they did it because it worked. They became prominent business leaders which increased their exposure, sales and success.
Because these three entrepreneurs are focused on the bottomline. Their founder brands were built with that in mind: growing the bottomline.
Which can show you how profitable it has been for decades now. It’s not just within the B2B industry that we’ll find examples. In a lot of ways celebrity endorsement is a light version “founder led sales”.
Of course, when we see a new term pop up we think “ah this is new” but often it’s just a remix of something which has been working for a while.
Smart entrepreneurs have been using their personal brands to promote their products/services for centuries now.
And it becomes easier to understand why when we look into economics.
The economics of founder led marketing (why it works)
The big factor today is reduced cost of distribution. Social media platforms open up entire audiences which were previously expensive to access.
In the past it was legacy media or in person word of mouth. This meant it took more effort to get yourself into the public spotlight.
- In the 1840’s Barnum paid a man to lay bricks going around the block and through the museum - this led to a huge crowd and increase in visits.
- In the past creating events which got your brand or person into the news were the original public relations hack.
So what we’re seeing today is an extension of this. Founders and entrepreneurs were always trying to get “free” attention, it’s just today the freest attention is that on social media.
Which awoke this whole movement of “founder led marketing”.
Just be yourself - it works… sometimes
Kind of. If you’re someone interesting…
Founders are often people with unique experience, insight or the ability to take risks. Which makes their stories “not the average” and therefore interesting.
So it’s not just put someone on social media and reap the rewards. It’s combining three economic advantages
- Sharing unique experience/insights from an individual
- Using camera technology to capture them “cheap”
- Using social media to distribute the stories
You will see it time and time again: the biggest social media accounts belong to impressive people. Not influencers.
Professional athletes. Actors. Politicians. What is obvious is this: people with impressive credentials, achievements or lifetstyles find it easier to grow their personal brand.
So while “just by yourself” is amazing advice for day to day - it’s misleading for founder led sales or marketing. Where better advice would be “just do something amazing”.
It’s by doing the amazing that you have something of value to share.
And that can be the difference between an influencer and founder.
Influencer Marketing vs Personal Brand vs Founder Led Sales: what’s the difference?
Influencers by pass the traditional authority circles such as: academia, professional or expertise. In fact many influencers build audiences because they are charismatic.
Never before did people who are simply “good at speaking” have an easier time making use of their skill.
The difference is that founders are actual entrepreneurs who have struggled and come out on top. This gives them a monopoly on the really “amazing” stories.
And when you combine the personal struggle or story with charisma you get people such as Alex Hormozi. Where it’s not just his ability to talk, it’s his experience and achievements just as much.
So while influencer marketing was popular for a few years, and will continue to be, it’s about being able to “buy” your way into a niche by hiring the top voices.
Founder led marketing is actually about leveraging a hidden asset: the experiences, stories and thoughts of your team. It’s a type of content where style takes a backseat to substance.
So eventually your founders will become influencers but that’s not where their power will come from.
B2B Examples of Founder Led Marketing Winning
In the last few years LinkedIN marketers have taken the platform to another level. As many people are now amassing audiences of 100k+ it has changed the game of what's possible.
Today you can even find “Founder Led Marketing Agencies” popping up. Which is how you know a term has matured (it’s now monetizable!).
So many people have built entire communities and income streams just from posting on social media whether it’s LinkedIN, Instagram or TikTok.
I want to focus on LinkedIN founder led marketing strategies because that’s where the heart of B2B hangout. And we’re seeing the evolution of how people use the platform, to consume content, to sell and find opportunities.
Here’s a few individuals leading the charge:
Case Study #1: Adam Robinson from RB2B
In a world where it’s about “get to market” fast as possible, there’s a few advantages with the founder led approach
- You can build brand affinity without needing a product
- It allows you to engage your audience
- Get early feedback for pre-vetting ideas and potential
Adam Robinson from RB2B is one of the most outspoken founders about this. And claims that his success in building his latest B2B startup to 4 million in ARR comes mainly from founder led marketing.
He’s embraced the “build in public” approach. Showing the good, the bad, and the ugly. The net effect? His followers are growing fast. ARR increasing. Signups are following.
Alongside with his co-founder their posts regularly get huge impressions, engagement and response on the platform. Whether it’s tactics, insights or a bit of drama. Highly suggested for studying the full potential of founder based marketing.
Case Study #2: Chris Walker from Refine Labs
Chris Walker is known for being an avant-garde visionary for marketing. So it’s not a surprise he’s spent the last few years building out his personal brand.
In fact he regularly amasses millions of views a month. Which turns into direct opportunities for his demand gen agency, and a lot of content marketing and thought leadership. You could say Chris lives “rent free” in the minds of many people for very cheap.
It’s being behind podcasts, thought leadership, and posting controversial opinions about the future of marketing which gets him the most exposure. At this point it’s impossible to scroll down my LinkedIN feed without seeing Chris at least a few times.
What do you think the effect of sharing his expertise so freely is?
Answer: a lot of customers and headspace he wouldn’t be able to monopolize otherwise.
Case Study #3: Dave Gerdardt from ExitFive
Next on our list is Dave Gerdardt who built an entire community of marketers after his success as CMO at a few B2B brands.
And what does he do? Spends a lot of time building out his podcast audiences, posting on LinkedIN and in general using his name to spread the message behind him.
And note, Dave had the achievements to be impressive from day 1.
Thanks to an amazing career
- helping to get Drift to a 1 billion dollar valuation
- and working at Privy at CMO when acquired for 100 million
This is to say: the guy knows what he’s talking about, and drives serious value.
This makes a huge difference. He’s not just “another guy” saying whatever comes to mind. Even if he says the same old boring stuff it’s got a unique twist: of his success intertwined into it.
All of these content creators are founders, are entrepreneurs, and are killing it by posting content under their own name. That’s the power of founder led marketing.
Of course you have to have something to post about. Another qualifying criteria which all of them share is: they have interesting and remarkable things to say plus the track record to back it up.
Founder led marketing isn’t “fake it till you make it”
For a lot of people the internet has become a way to fake knowledge. Just start putting up videos on a topic until you become an expert. It may not be obvious but this is actually the “hard way” of succeeding.
And it goes contrary to what a lot of founder led marketers actually do. Which is first gain the experience, insights through doing the hard work of succeeding (i.e failing a lot). And then using their credibility from achievement or success to build brands.
This is why founder-led brands from actors have done particularly well in the last few years. People such as The Rock Johnson or Ryan Reynolds took the time to warm up audiences over decades before starting to use their name/brand/image to promote products.
- For Ryan this led to a 610 million dollar sale of his gin company
- For Johnson, sales of 900,000 plus cases per year of his tequila
Just reminder: they spent decades building up their personal brands before “monetizing”.
This is the hard part for a lot of people. It’s realizing the longer you build up the goodwill, the more you can ask for (later).
And judging by their success, or someone like Kendall Jenner, you can really see that “trust is the new currency”. And it can be extremely, and I mean extremely profitable, when used right.
So how does one use trust as a currency?
Trust is whats being sold today.
By building up decades worth of goodwill and reputation, they were able to cash in on it.
It’s a combination of high trust and human connection. The social media approach has allowed people to develop trust at scales not previously possible. Before, a lot of trust was done through academic, media or professional networks.
Social media flipped that. You could become trustworthy by being an interesting or charismatic character. It wasn’t about how much you knew, it was about how you held yourself, said it.
This completely changed the systems of “trust” which have solidified over the last 100 years. And in some ways for worse. Since it becomes a lot easier to fake it than ever before.
Talk is cheap, but it works
When you have someone who's interesting, successful and charismatic talk about their experiences it’s kind of the perfect storm.
This can work so well because talk is cheap. Instead of having to create a whole campaign or series of ads to promote something - why not just let them talk?
Founder led sales and marketing has proven that this is your economically most viable option.
And it’s the icing on the cake - the fact it takes so little effort for so much result. Basically everything your founder knows, and can say, is a cheap way of grabbing attention, possibly one of the cheapest.
Because people want to know what successful people: do, think, and their plans for the future. This alone creates so much suspense, curiosity and potential value to work from.
With professional quality video cameras and microphones basically in everyones pocket, it was only natural that founder led marketing would come to dominate our modern world.
20 years ago, it wasn’t clear if the internet was a profitable endeavor for most celebrities. The early mover advantage was to risk takers and early adopters.
Today however: big brands, big names, and the like are all moving on. And finding huge success with it. So it’s only normal what worked well with legacy media (big success/achievements) will continue to work with cheaper modern distribution (social media).
Founder Led Marketing is High ROI (possibly highest)
There’s few companies where this won’t be true.
Today being able to distill marketing messages through the founder is a cheap and high impact way to get results. In the past it would cost big budgets to film or get distribution but today it just takes a smart hook and social media account.
Companies that are seeing this trend already ride it.
Companies that aren’t, will be trying it soon.
The difference is the quality of content which comes down to the difference in quality of founders.
The opportunity to develop a cost effective sales or marketing channel is there. Will it work for everyone? No of course not, there’s still ideas, execution and “who you are” at play here.
But, will we see more and more companies pushing marketing budgets, effort and time towards promoting heavy hitters within their org.
Yes, undoubtedly. Because the economics behind it are too good to ignore.
