I didn't take LinkedIn seriously until an employee opened my eyes to it.
Back when I was running Taanga Studios, I'd scroll past the "post something" prompt, thinking personal branding was for influencers and people with too much time. I had a company to build. Customers to serve. Code to ship.
Then one of my team members asked a simple question: "Why do we have 200 followers on our company page, but you have 800 connections who actually know who we are?"
That landed.
The company page was a ghost town. Employees following because they had to. Job seekers auto-following through LinkedIn's application flow. Random bots. But my personal network? Those were real people. Clients I'd worked with. Founders I'd met at events. Industry contacts who actually knew my face.
That's when I realized: as an early-stage founder, your personal brand IS your company's marketing engine.
Why Company Pages Don't Work (And Your Profile Does)
Here's the uncomfortable math most founders ignore:
| Channel | Typical Reach | Quality of Connections |
|---|---|---|
| Company Page | 2-5% of followers | Low (job seekers, employees) |
| Personal Profile | 8-15% of connections | High (real relationships) |
LinkedIn's algorithm actively suppresses company content. Makes sense from their perspective: people come to LinkedIn to connect with people, not brands.
But there's a deeper problem.
Your company page followers don't know you. They clicked a button. Maybe they applied for a job. Maybe LinkedIn auto-suggested it. These aren't relationships. They're vanity metrics.
Your personal connections? Those are people who shook your hand at a conference. Former clients who remember that project you saved. College friends who went on to run companies. Every single one of them is a potential warm intro to their entire network.
When I started my second company, something interesting happened. People already knew me. Not because of brilliant marketing campaigns. Because I'd spent years just... connecting with people. Nothing fancy. Met someone at an event, sent a connection request. Worked with a client, stayed connected. Simple.
Those connections became the foundation for everything that followed.
The ROI Nobody Talks About: Small Following, Big Results
Here's what growth gurus won't tell you: follower count is the wrong metric.
At Taanga Studios, I had roughly 1,200 LinkedIn connections. That's nothing by influencer standards. The personal branding crowd would call it pathetic.
But those 1,200 people? They were the right 1,200 people.
Over a couple of years, I closed 2-3 solid deals purely through organic LinkedIn activity. No ads. No cold outreach. Just posting consistently and staying visible to people who already knew me.
The math on that is insane when you think about it:
- Zero customer acquisition cost
- Deals from people who already trusted me
- Referrals that came because I was "top of mind"
Now multiply this effect: when we started posting regularly and combined it with proper SEO, our inbound inquiries exploded. Small LinkedIn presence + consistent posting + other channels = compound growth.
This is the part most founders miss. LinkedIn isn't meant to be your only channel. It's the relationship layer that makes everything else work better. Your content marketing gets shared by people who know you. Your cold emails get opened because they've seen your name. Your sales calls start warmer because they've watched you build in public.
The 5 Principles of Founder Personal Branding
After building two companies and watching dozens of founders succeed (and fail) at personal branding, I've distilled it down to five principles.
Principle 1: Your Story IS the Brand
People don't connect with companies. They connect with people.
Your journey, your mistakes, your wins, your weird path to founding a company—that's content. Every founder I know has a story that would resonate with their target audience. The problem is they're too busy trying to sound "professional."
I started in 3D product visualization. Pivoted to AI automation. That story—the transformation, the reasoning, the lessons—is more interesting than any feature list we could publish.
Your story isn't a distraction from marketing. It IS the marketing.
Principle 2: Connect at Events, Nurture on LinkedIn
Here's the networking hack that actually works:
- Meet someone at an event, conference, or through work
- Send a LinkedIn connection request within 24 hours
- Keep showing up in their feed through consistent posting
That's it. No complicated follow-up sequences. No aggressive DMs. Just stay visible.
Every client relationship I built started with a simple connection. Over time, my posts kept me in their peripheral vision. When they needed what I offered, I was the first person they thought of.
LinkedIn is where relationships go to compound.
Principle 3: Post About Building, Not Selling
The founders who fail at LinkedIn make the same mistake: they treat it like an advertising channel.
"Excited to announce our new feature!" "We just hit 10,000 users!" "Check out our latest blog post!"
Nobody cares. Or rather, nobody cares enough to engage.
The posts that work? They're about the journey:
- "Here's a mistake I made last month and what I learned"
- "We debated X vs Y for two weeks. Here's why we chose Y"
- "A customer asked me something I'd never considered. It changed how I think about..."
You're not selling. You're sharing the experience of building. The sales happen as a side effect.
Principle 4: Piggyback Company Content on Personal Profile
When you do need to share company news, don't post it from the company page and pray.
Post from YOUR profile. Add your personal take. Explain why it matters to you.
A company announcement from a faceless brand: 12 impressions. The same announcement from a founder with context: 500+ impressions.
In the early stages especially, your company's reach is YOUR reach. Use it.
Principle 5: Treat LinkedIn Like SEO
I made this mistake for years: treating LinkedIn as something I'd get to "when I have time."
That's like saying you'll work on SEO when you have time. It doesn't work that way.
SEO compounds over time. So does LinkedIn presence. Every post you skip is compound growth you're leaving on the table. Every connection you don't make is a relationship that won't compound.
The founders winning on LinkedIn treat it with the same seriousness as their other marketing channels. Consistent posting schedule. Content calendar. Tracking what works. Not because they have more time, but because they understand the math.
The Mistakes That Kill Founder Brands
Let me save you some pain. These are the traps I fell into (and watched others fall into):
Mistake 1: Waiting Until You Have "Enough" Followers
There's no threshold that suddenly makes posting worthwhile. Your first 100 connections are more valuable than a stranger's 10,000 followers.
Start now. Post to 50 people who know you. That's 50 people who might share, comment, or remember you when they need what you offer.
Mistake 2: Being "Professional" Instead of Human
The posts that feel risky are usually the ones that perform best. Admitting you don't have it figured out. Sharing a genuine struggle. Having an opinion that might be wrong.
"Professional" content is forgettable. Human content builds connection.
Mistake 3: Posting Company Updates Without Personal Context
"We just launched Feature X" = nobody cares.
"I've been obsessing over this problem for six months. Here's why Feature X exists and what I learned building it" = actual engagement.
Same announcement. Completely different results.
Mistake 4: Thinking You Need to Go Viral
Viral posts are lottery tickets. Fun when they hit. Terrible strategy.
The founders building real businesses through LinkedIn don't need viral moments. They need consistent visibility with the right people. That's a much more boring (and effective) approach.
The Compound Effect in Action
Here's what happens when you commit to founder personal branding:
Month 1-3: Feels pointless. Low engagement. Wondering why you bother.
Month 4-6: Start noticing patterns. Some posts work better. Comments become conversations. Old connections re-engage.
Month 7-12: Inbound starts happening. "I've been following your posts..." becomes a common phrase in sales calls. Referrals increase because you're top of mind.
Year 2+: Your personal brand becomes a genuine business asset. Recruitment gets easier (candidates know who you are). Partnerships come inbound. The compound effect is undeniable.
I'm still in the middle of this journey. My following isn't huge. But the ROI per connection is something most "influencers" would envy.
Practical Starting Points
If you're convinced but not sure where to begin:
Week 1: Audit your connections. Are they the right people? Send connection requests to 20 people you actually know but haven't connected with.
Week 2: Post something real. A lesson learned. A question you're wrestling with. A behind-the-scenes moment from building your company.
Week 3: Engage on others' posts. Comment thoughtfully on 5 posts per day from people in your network. Not "great post!" but actual thoughts.
Week 4: Establish a rhythm. Decide when you'll post and stick to it. Two to three times per week is enough to start.
The hardest part isn't knowing what to do. It's actually doing it consistently when you have a thousand other priorities screaming for attention.
That's exactly why we built Triorama's LinkedIn automation—to handle the consistency part so founders can focus on the authenticity part. But that's a story for another post.
The Bottom Line
Your company page won't save you. Paid ads won't give you relationships. Cold outreach won't build trust.
Your personal brand is the marketing channel that compounds.
Every founder I know who's built something meaningful regrets not starting earlier. The connections, the content, the visibility—it all takes time to accumulate.
The best time to start was five years ago. The second best time is this week.
Start small. Stay consistent. Let it compound.
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