Investors & Early-Adopters Bet on the Jockey, Not the Horse.
As a Startup Founder, Your Personal Brand Can Be a Driver of Your Success
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Founders, you’re making a critical mistake, especially in the early days of your business. Far too many of you expect investors, prospects, and candidates to have the same level of excitement you do for this business you’re building. You launched this startup because you had an idea, a big one, one you think could change the world, or change the lives of a significant number of people.
While some people will absolutely be intrigued by your idea, no one will be as thrilled by the company you’re building as you and your co-founders are — at least not in the early days. There is something else, however, that they can get excited about: You.
You’ve probably heard the old investment adage: “bet on the jockey, not the horse.” It’s not the idea that excites us; it’s the person who is on a mission to drive it forward. To transform it from idea to reality.
We rally behind a leader who inspires us to have faith in a future that we can only imagine.
This is one of the reasons why, in the early days of your company — and by early, I mean at least the first few years — your personal brand has much more power and influence than your company brand.
As time goes on and your business grows increasingly successful and influential, the relative power of these two brands may swap in order, but to start out, you as a person will have significantly more impact than your company. The impact you have as an individual relies on your ability to build your authority as a thought leader in your space. If this is something you are working to cultivate or want some insight on, I have a Free Personal Branding Guide you are more than welcome to download and integrate into your growth as a founder.
Why a Founder’s Personal Brand Has Such Power
In the first few years of your company, much of the value your company provides is still theoretical. You’ve got a great idea, yes. Maybe you even have a product, but it’s likely a shell of what it will be in the future and you probably don’t have wildly impressive numbers to prove its effectiveness. Your company itself doesn’t have the track record in place to build significant amounts of trust in the audience you’re trying to reach, be they investors, would-be customers, or even job candidates.
Anyone who has decided to do business with your company is basing that decision on their level of trust in you and your team.
Early Investors Care More About the Team than the Product
When an investor decides to fund an early-stage company, they are making a bet. Pure and simple. This means they’re going to seek any advantage they can find to reduce the risk of the bets they make. We commonly refer to this as doing their due diligence and it undoubtedly includes checking the financials and verifying any claims the founders have made in their pitch.
But, it also means ensuring they trust the founders.
One of the first early-stage startups I worked for hired me as their head of marketing right after raising their seed round. This was the CEO’s second company. He was CTO of the first, which got acquired after a few years, earning the early founders and investors a nice little profit. One of the first things we did as a team was to attend a party their lead investor threw to celebrate the raise. While I was having a drink with my new colleagues and several of the investors, I asked one of them why he decided to invest.
“Well, I don’t really understand the product they’re trying to build, but I like the founder. He’s a good guy and I trust him.”
This founder's personal brand secured him $3m.
Yes, he had the advantage of prior experience and success, but still, it was his reputation, his personal brand.
Your personal brand has the ability to drive someone closer to trusting you, working with you, investing in you, or, on the contrary, driving them further away.
Investors care deeply about the market potential of your product, the originality of the idea, the feasibility of the technology, but, especially in the early days, they will also be evaluating if they trust that you can succeed. How might they evaluate this?
Are you coachable?
Are you a leader who can build a high-performing team?
Are you dedicated to solving this problem for this audience?
Will you be in it for the long haul?
They answer these questions based on their perception of you. Anyone’s perception of you is your personal brand.
Buyers Don’t Care About Company Brands the Way They Used to
Almost a decade ago, we followed companies on social media. We subscribed to their email newsletters and read their blogs. If we were a decision-maker or even an influencer at a company, we voraciously consumed the content of the SaaS companies and vendors that were leading their space. Consuming their content was how we got better at our jobs, found new technology and methods to try, and discovered the latest trends shaping our industry.
But these days, we are inundated with content and largely prefer to consume content created by individuals. Just look at the rise of Substack and Clubhouse in the last few years. This trend of preferring personal brands over company brands has fueled the rise of the influencer, and in turn, the rise of the influencer has fueled this trend.
I’m not saying you all need to strive to become the next viral TikTok star. Hell, even many of the brands investing heavily in influencer marketing are now choosing to focus on micro and even nano influencers. Buyers are sick of being sold to. They are fed up with content that doesn’t feel genuine or authentic. If it seems manufactured, they will simply tune it out.
In B2C, consumers learn about new products from their TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, when people they follow -- be their friends or influencers -- share their experience with a product. In B2B, buyers learn about new products from LinkedIn when thought leaders they respect and admire talk about how they’re using it, or when one of those thought leaders happens to be a founder, executive, or even employee of that company.
We learn from people, not companies. This means you have the ability to leverage your personal brand and those of your team to build serious awareness about your company and mission.
Your Early Product is Aspirational
In the early days of your company, your product is a shell of what it hopefully will become over time. Your early customers know this, and while they may hope this early iteration of your product can solve their problem, they know that it may be a bandage in place of surgery.
Your early adopters are buying into your longer vision for what you’re building. They are trusting you and your ability to turn that vision into reality. While he doesn’t talk about personal brand or reputation, Geoffrey Moore describes this relationship in his seminal work, Crossing the Chasm, when he explains that your early adopters are accepting your product’s limitations largely because they believe in the long-term vision you’re painting for them.
And yes, those early-adopters are going to care about how you position your product, but the way you explain your passion for solving this problem of theirs, your dedication to pushing this idea forward, and your expertise in creating a new solution to what is likely an old problem are all going to be bolstered by your perceived authority in their industry.
If you are viewed as someone with influence for your expertise and interest in this sticky challenge they’re facing, they will be more likely to take the leap, become your early adopter and join you on your ride to build this company.
Startup Talent Cares About the Vision
When you’re an early-stage startup and you’re trying to hire talent that will help transform your vision into reality, candidates are going to care more about leadership than they do about the product. In the beginning, the product is merely an idea and whether we trust the idea or not, it all depends on who is leading the mission of turning it into a reality.
Do we believe this leader has what it takes to provide us with stable employment for the foreseeable future? Heck, do we believe they’ll make us rich because we’ll be on the ride to creating the next unicorn?
Employees also want to feel as though they are part of something bigger than themselves. Are they working on a problem that can change lives? Do they feel connected with and driven by your “why?”
Whether a job candidate takes that job with you depends more on their trust in you as a leader than nearly anything else. Candidates know the dangers of working at an early-stage startup and the likelihood of failure. They’ll be watching for signs this is a sinking ship and they should find work elsewhere. Those signs start with you.
Do you speak with conviction about this vision for what you’re building?
Are you well-connected and showing an ever-increasing influence in your industry?
Do you inspire those around you with your passion for this problem you’re solving?
Again, your ability to hire top talent rests on your reputation, your influence, and your personal brand. Putting intention into how you make those around you feel can give you an edge in their decision to join you or pass you by.
Your personal brand is your reputation. It’s how others see you. Some founders have the ability to craft a powerful brand easily, effortlessly. Others need to work at it. Learning skills of communication and persuasion that don’t come naturally to them. Either way, know that in the early days of your startup, your brand is your strongest currency. Cultivate it.