The Complete Guide to Founder-Led Content CPG Founders
How do you build a CPG brand in public without accidentally becoming an influencer?
Founder-led content has become one of the most powerful growth tools for emerging CPG brands.
It’s free.
Easy to execute.
Organic content.
Attracts retailers.
Investors love it.
But there's always a downside.
A lot of founders start documenting their journey building a CPG brand and slowly drift elsewhere entirely: into influencer content.
Instead of actually building demand for their product, they start building an audience around themselves.
Suddenly their content attracts:
Other founders seeking advice.
Marketing bros on Twitter. yuck.
LinkedIn thought leaders. yuck 2x.
Aspiring entrepreneurs.
.. basically anyone but an actual customer.
Founder-led content works best when the founder is the storyteller, not the product.
Most emerging founders get this wrong.
This guide will help you use founder content to grow your brand without accidentally becoming an influencer.
What A Founder-Led Brand Actually Means
Founder-led content means the founder is the brand's visible voice.
The complete opposite of what Beyonce is doing with Cecred.
You post content like:
Why did you start the company?
Behind-the-scenes decisions.
Product development process.
Customer stories.
Industry insights.
Everything is going wrong and right with your brand.
But the goal isn’t to become a personality brand.
The goal is to make the brand more relatable, transparent, and human.
Think of it like this:
Founder-led content = brand storytelling.
Influencer content = personal brand building.
Those two strategies produce very different audiences, but are easy to mix up.
How To Avoid Becoming an Influencer Founder
The easiest way to accidentally become an influencer is to make your content about your life instead of your product.
Once your content becomes:
Daily routines.
Vacation vlogs.
Productivity advice.
Restaurant reviews.
Motivational posts.
Entrepreneurship tips.
Your audience shifts from customers to aspiring founders.
There is nothing wrong with this, but you want sales.
And aspiring founders are not your buyer.
Here’s an easy rule to follow:
Your content should answer the following:
How is this product being built?
Why does this product exist?
How are customers using this product?
What makes this category interesting?
If the content could exist without your product, it probably doesn’t belong in your founder content strategy.
How To Avoid Attracting Other Founders Instead of Customers
This is one of the biggest issues with founder-led content.
They start posting content like:
How I raised my pre-seed round.
How to structure your pitch deck.
My founder's morning routine.
5 lessons from building a CPG brand.
Now I can almost guarantee these ideas will get you a lot of views… from aspiring founders.
Your customers gain nothing from knowing how much money you received from a VC firm.
They care about what your product does for them.
Here’s other content you should focus on posting:
Customer behavior.
Product design decisions.
Cultural conversations around your category.
How people use your product in real life.
Example:
Instead of:
5 lessons from my first retail partnership.
Or
How I sent the wrong product to my suppliers.
Try this instead
What I learned from negative customer reviews and how I used them to improve my products.
Not only does this attract views, but it also increases sales.
How?
There is nothing more amazing than a brand founder expressing how much they value their customers and feedback.
Responding positively to negative feedback is one of the best tools to acquire and re-acquire customers.
How To Avoid Turning Off Your Audience as the Face of The Brand
Some founders of CPG brands worry that being visible will make their brand feel too DIY or personality-driven. I actually interviewed the founder of Strip Jerky, and we talked about this exact topic.
And she and the other founders are correct to be cautious of this.
But there is a correct way to execute this.
Customers want brands to feel bigger than one person.
The key is to make yourself the guide, not the talk-show host.
Here’s what I mean:
Don’t: look at me, I'm building a company.
Do: here's the story of what I’m building for you.
Not too different, but it will give two different results.
Remember to focus on what customers need to know, what they want to buy from you, and why they want to be part of your community.
They aren’t founders, they’re consumers.
How To Avoid Spending All Your Time Making Content And Not On Your Business
Founder content is powerful, but it can easily become a distraction.
Some founders spend hours curating and creating the best content, only to forget they have to actually grow their business.
That’s not building a business.
That's running a content channel.
Your job is still to:
Build product.
Develop distribution.
Manage Operations.
Grow Revenue.
Content should be in the background.
Document your work; don’t replace content with it.
Keep it simple.
Shoot a lot of b-roll
Stick to voice-overs.
Occasional sit-down and reflections.
More customer stories.
How To Avoid Pissing Off Investors
Some CPG founders worry that being too public can annoy investors or ruin their relationship.
Both are fair concerns.
Because sometimes these things do happen.
Especially if your content looks like you're building a personal brand or giving too many details.
Here's what investors really want to see in their founder-led brands:
Focus on the North Star.
Milestones and other progress.
Category insight.
Strategic thinking.
Customer understanding.
They do not want to see
Confidential information.
Too many motivational posts.
Endless start-up advice.
These signal your lack of focus on building the brand.
Make sure the content builds their confidence in their investment.
It shows you understand your market deeply.
Let's recap.
The best founder-led brands do the following:
Brand storytelling
Customer insight
Category commentary
The worst founder-led brands do the following:
Personal branding
Entrepreneur education
Lifestyle influencing
Dora:
Founder-led brands can cut marketing costs, build better relationships with their community, and make investors happy.
Remember that customers love knowing there’s a real person, a soul behind the product.
The goal is to make the brand feel human, transparent af, and worth paying attention to.
Ok, now you know how to build a founder-led brand, but now you need to come up with content ideas?
I’m already ahead of you. Here are a few ideas, plus examples from CPG brands.
How to avoid attracting other founders instead of customers.
