Why most founders sleep on personal branding (until it hurts)
Your brand is being built right now — with or without you.
I’ve worked with dozens of founders across different stages. Early teams, Series A companies, scrappy bootstrapped teams, venture-backed startups.
And no matter how different their businesses looked on the outside, almost all of them made the same mistake. They left personal branding at the bottom of the list.
They did see the value, but it never felt urgent.
The product needed shipping.
The team needed hiring.
Investors needed updates.
Founder branding? That could wait.
Except it can’t. Not anymore.
The way people build conviction has changed. Today, your face shows up before your website does. Your voice carries more weight than your press kit. People buy into founders before they buy into companies.
It’s only recently that I started working with founders who understand this. They don’t treat personal branding as an afterthought. They treat it as a growth lever.
And you can feel the difference in every part of their business.
They hire better.
They build trust faster.
They attract more inbound.
They position themselves clearly in crowded markets.
This shift happened because they stopped underestimating the impact their presence could have on the business.
This post is a breakdown of what I’ve learned from both sides. From the founders who leaned in and built real leverage. And from the ones who stayed quiet and paid the price later.
Pain point #1
You’re always too busy until it’s too late.
Every founder I’ve worked with was under water with work. Product deadlines. Team fires. Fundraising sprints. Nonstop back-to-back calls.
So when personal branding came up, the answer was almost always the same:
“I’ll get to it once things settle.”
But things rarely settle.
And in the meantime, you’re losing control of your narrative.
What people think you stand for is getting shaped by default through old interviews, outdated bios, or whatever someone can find in a quick Google or LinkedIn scroll.
The irony is that the moments when you feel too busy for personal branding are exactly when it matters most.
When you’re in hiring mode, potential candidates are scanning your profile before they even look at your careers page.
When you’re raising a round, investors are quietly evaluating you before they ever take a meeting.
And at that point, you can’t just flip a switch and turn the brand on.
The founders I’ve seen win this game didn’t wait for things to slow down. They baked it into their workflow.
A quick voice note turned into a post, a comment thread became content, or a live convo got clipped and reused.
Pain point #2
You can’t give feedback… because you don’t know what you want
I’ve had founders tell me, “This doesn’t feel like me,” after five rounds of content. Just a gut rejection.
It’s not because they’re indecisive. But because they don’t have the clarity yet.
Most of the time, the issue isn’t the copy or the creative.
It’s the foundation.
They haven’t sat down to think about what they want to be known for. Not just the product, not the pitch…but them.
What’s your tone?
What’s your stance?
Are you showing up as the operator who’s seen the mess behind the curtain, or the category challenger who’s tired of the old playbook?
If you don’t know, no amount of content rounds will fix that.
The founders who move fast here are the ones who start with direction.
They’ve thought through their story. They know what they’re trying to say, even if someone else is helping them say it better.
And once that’s nailed, everything speeds up.
Pain point #3
You think branding is for later
Most founders treat branding like a luxury. It’s something you get to once the product’s stable, the team is hired, and there’s time to “do it right.”
And by the time it feels urgent, you’re already playing catch-up.
Your brand is being shaped every day by what you post, what you ignore, how you present yourself in meetings, how you respond to comments, or whether you show up at all.
I’ve seen it firsthand.
A founder who stayed invisible for years, then suddenly needed to hire a senior team fast. But there was no story, no signal, no sense of who they were as a leader.
Great candidates bailed because the founder was a blank slate.
You don’t need a 10-step funnel or a personal website right away. But you do need to show up early and consistently.
Pain point #4
You’re overpaying for band-aid solutions
I’ve lost count of how many founders have told me they spent five figures on branding, only to feel like they got generic fluff in return.
You realize you need to “get your name out there,” so you hire a fancy agency or a PR firm.
You drop $10K a month, hoping they’ll figure it out for you. But what you get back feels surface-level. Too polished. Off-brand. Like someone tried to write a story about you after spending five minutes on your LinkedIn.
Most of the time, you’re outsourcing the wrong thing. Because voice, positioning, and presence can’t be built by people who barely know you.
What really works?
Founders who invest a little time up front to clarify their point of view.
Those who treat their brand like a direct extension of how they think and lead.
Who use specialists to amplify their voice.
It doesn’t need to be expensive. But it needs to be intentional.
Pain point #5
You’re underestimating the compounding effect
Most founders think personal branding is about likes and impressions (the vanity metrics saga).
It’s not.
It’s about leverage, and that leverage builds quietly, until it doesn’t.
You publish one post about your hiring philosophy → it gets shared in a Slack group → a candidate you’ve never met reads it and applies.
You speak on one podcast → Six months later, an investor mentions they heard you on it, right before they write a check.
You share a behind-the-scenes product lesson → a future partner reaches out and says, “That post stuck with me.”
That’s how it works.
One touchpoint turns into trust. Trust turns into a conversation.
Conversations turn into deals, hires, coverage…whatever you’re trying to drive.
I’ve watched low-follower founders build momentum that money can’t buy.
Personal branding doesn’t pay off in the first week. But it compounds, just like product, culture, and reputation. The longer you wait, the longer it takes to build.
In my next post, I’ll share the exact playbook I use with my clients.
If you’re a founder, this will help you build trust, attract the right people, and finally take control of how the world sees you, without adding hours to your calendar.
If you’re a consultant or strategist reading this, you’ll get a process you can plug into your work.
P.S. 👀 I have one last slot open in May. If you are serious about building in public and want my help, feel free to book a call using the link below.
Compound effect - that's the kind of language that should appeal to any CEO?