There was a time when founder-led marketing did incredibly well on social media.

We were tired of all these performative business coaches telling us what they’d accomplished, how much money they’d made, and what they’d done behind the scenes.

We wanted something different.

Then entrepreneurs and solopreneurs started building their businesses publicly, and we loved it.

The new strategy was simple: show, don’t tell.

Instead of telling us they were successful, founders showed us how they were building their businesses. We watched people go from having an idea to signing big deals, getting funding, hiring their first employees, and growing their companies.

It was encouraging. It made entrepreneurship feel more accessible, and it inspired a lot of people to start documenting their own journeys.

For a while, it was a brilliant marketing strategy.

But, as the internet always does, people eventually got tired.

And I think there are a few reasons why.

Why we got tired of founder-led marketing

• The Rise of the fake successful business owner

First, the imposters showed up.

People started making things up, exaggerating their progress, and presenting a version of entrepreneurship that wasn’t necessarily real.

What started as an opportunity to see the actual process of building a business slowly became another performance.

• E-Begging/Manufactured Vulnerability

We also started getting tired of the constant oversharing.

Some founders were turning every business problem into a social media post. And while I’m all for being honest about the challenges of running a business, there is a difference between sharing an experience and making your audience responsible for your business.

I particularly disliked the posts that went something like:

“We’re closing because we don’t have enough sales.”

“Please help me save my business.”

“Buy something because I don’t know how much longer we can keep going.”

Now, I understand that running a business is hard. I also understand that small businesses need customers to survive.

But I don’t think guilt-tripping people into buying from you is a sustainable marketing strategy.

Your audience can support your business, but they shouldn’t feel responsible for keeping it alive.

And there’s another side to this that I think we don’t talk about enough.

Founder-led marketing can be exhausting for the founder.

Imagine trying to build a business, manage customers, handle operations, figure out your finances, deliver your products or services, and still find time to document everything happening behind the scenes.

You’re essentially running two businesses: the actual business and the social media account documenting the business.

A lot of founders adopted this strategy because it worked for other people. But they didn’t necessarily enjoy being the face of their brand or documenting every difficult season.

And let’s be honest. The beginning of a business can be brutal. There are failed ideas, mistakes, slow months, and moments when you genuinely don’t know what you’re doing.

Who wants to break apart on camera every time something goes wrong?

Don’t get me wrong. Founder-led marketing has worked incredibly well for many entrepreneurs.

Some founders started with an existing audience and used that attention to build their businesses. Others built an audience by consistently sharing their ideas, experiences, and expertise.

Think about creators like Cassey Ho of Blogilates. Her personality, expertise, and connection with her audience have played a significant role in building her brand.

But I don’t think we should look at these examples and conclude that every business needs to be built around its founder.

So, who should actually use founder-led marketing?

Who should use founder-led marketing?

1. Founders who don’t have a marketing budget

If you’re running a business by yourself and don’t have much money to spend on marketing, this can be a good strategy.

You already have the knowledge, experience, and perspective. You can use those things to create content without needing a big production budget or an entire marketing team.

You can share what you’re learning, explain problems you’re solving, talk about your industry, and introduce people to what you’re building.

It takes time, but you don’t need a huge budget to get started.

2. People who sell personal services

If you sell coaching, consulting, or other personal services, founder-led marketing can be particularly useful.

People are often buying more than the service itself. They’re buying your experience, your approach, your judgment, and their confidence in working with you.

They want to know who you are, how you think, and whether they can trust you.

Showing up consistently and sharing your point of view can help build that trust.

3. Founders with a distinct point of view

Some people have a lot to say, and they have a very particular way of looking at things.

If you’re someone who enjoys speaking to people, sharing opinions, challenging common ideas, and discussing your industry, founder-led marketing could be a natural fit.

Your perspective becomes part of what makes your brand interesting.

You don’t have to manufacture a personality or copy what other founders are doing. You can build around what you already have to say.

Who shouldn’t use founder-led marketing?

1. You don’t want to be the face of your brand

This is probably the most obvious one.

If you want your brand to grow beyond you, and you don’t want it constantly associated with your face, you don’t have to use founder-led marketing.

There are plenty of ways to market a business without making the founder the main character.

You can build a brand around your products, customers, ideas, community, or the experience you offer.

You can also use a combination of different approaches.

You don’t need to be on camera 100% of the time to build a recognizable brand.

2. You don’t want to document the difficult parts of building a business

Founder-led marketing often comes with the expectation that you should share the journey.

But what happens when the journey isn’t particularly interesting?

What happens when you’re struggling to get customers, making mistakes, changing your offer, or trying to figure out how to keep the business going?

You don’t have to document every failure, every difficult decision, or every personal struggle.

And you certainly don’t have to turn your hardest moments into entertainment for other people.

If you prefer to work through those experiences privately and share the lessons when you’re ready, that’s perfectly fine.

3. You’re looking for a quick marketing hack

Founder-led marketing isn’t a shortcut.

Building an audience takes time. Developing trust takes time. And consistently creating content while running a business takes work.

You might spend months sharing your ideas before you see any meaningful business results.

And even when you build an audience, that doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have customers.

If you’re looking for a quick way to get sales, this probably isn’t the strategy to rely on.

4. You like keeping your personal life private

Being the face of your business doesn’t mean everyone needs access to your personal life.

But founder-led marketing can easily blur the lines between your business and your private life, especially when you feel pressured to share more to keep people interested.

You might start sharing your relationships, family, finances, struggles, daily routines, and personal decisions because you think that’s what people want to see.

But you can be personal without being completely accessible.

You can share your opinions, expertise, business decisions, and experiences without giving the internet access to every part of your life.

Your audience can know you without knowing everything about you.

So, is founder-led marketing still worth it?

Absolutely.

I don’t think the problem is founder-led marketing itself. I think we’ve turned it into something that every entrepreneur is expected to do.

If you’re good at communicating your ideas, enjoy creating content, and want to build a personal connection with your audience, there’s a lot of value in it.

But if you hate being on camera, don’t want to share your business journey, or simply want to build a brand that can exist without you constantly showing up, you have other options.

You can build a brand that people recognize because of its ideas, products, customer experience, community, or the quality of what it offers.

And perhaps that’s what we need to remember when choosing a marketing strategy.

Just because something works doesn’t mean it’s right for your business.

Marketing should help you build your business. It shouldn’t become another full-time job that takes you away from actually running it.