If you’re a founder, you don’t need to become an influencer. But if you’re not telling your story, someone else is. And they’re probably getting it wrong.
Most people think of brand as something extra. Something nice to have. Something to come back to after the product ships and the pipeline is full. But for founders, brand is critical infrastructure. Not pretty flourishes. It’s what earns trust before you walk into the room. It’s what gets your pitch read before they look at the price tag. It’s what makes people feel something about your business before they even understand what you sell.
In today’s performance-obsessed landscape, that kind of trust isn’t fluff. It’s survival.
After the next round.
After we fix the website.
After growth “stabilizes.”
You might think you’re saving time by staying focused on pipeline and performance, but every day you delay telling your story, you lose ground.
You miss the chance to build believability. You miss the opportunity to differentiate. You lose emotional trust you’ll never make up for with a retargeting ad or a pricing incentive.
Because here’s what your competitors can do. They can build similar features. They can undercut your pricing. They can reverse-engineer your funnel. But they cannot replicate your story. Not if it’s rooted in what only you have lived.
Storytelling isn’t soft. It’s strategic. I’ve worked with dozens of founders across SaaS, services, venture-backed startups, and bootstrapped businesses. The ones who break through and achieve long-term success aren’t the loudest or the most polished. Not the ones who have the best AI prompts or implement playbooks best. They’re the ones who can tell their compelling and relevant story clearly, consistently, authentically (yes, I know that word is overused, but it’s the right one here) and in a way that actually resonates with the intended audience.
Not because they’re chasing virality. But because they understand that storytelling builds belief. Belief is what aligns teams. It’s what opens investor doors. It’s what pulls in the right customers. And maybe most importantly, it’s how you get your own voice back when the noise starts to drown you out.
Many founders are told that leadership needs to look a certain way. Analytical. Data-driven. Buttoned-up. Quiet because you’ve got your head down as you hustle and grind alone in your cave 24/7. Unfortunately, this makes them internalize the idea that being visible is being self-indulgent.
I felt this firsthand as a first-time founder. I leaned into what I knew were my strengths: storytelling, vision, connection, and being the public face of the brand. I asked for help with the operational side of the business. I went to my board and said, “Let me lead the way I lead best. Let me be out front.” But instead of support, I got pushback. I was told that a good CEO should be able to do it all. That I needed to become more operational and earn the ability to also get out and be public. That I should fix my weaknesses rather than build around my strengths.
I look back now and realize how bad that advice really was. Not because I couldn’t learn those things, but because trying to become someone I wasn’t nearly cost me everything that actually made me an effective leader.
Storytelling isn’t self-promotion - at least it doesn’t have to be. It’s self-definition.
If you don’t define who you are, what you believe, and why your business exists, someone else will. Your team will make assumptions. Your competitors will fill in the blanks. The market will make up its own version. And you’ll wonder why no one understands what you’re actually building.
You don’t have to become a thought leader. You don’t need to publish every day. You don’t need a personal content machine.
But you do need a founder story that connects the dots. You need a clear articulation of your vision and values. You need language that feels like you, not like a muted-down corporate voice stripped of personality.
Because people don’t just buy your product. They buy your energy. Your clarity. Your why.