Founder-led ads need more than just your face

Advertise to 40,773 E-Commerce Businesses

Promote your tool, service or upcoming event - Reach Founders

Good morning!

In today’s newsletter,

This issue takes 2 minutes to read.

Check out our DTC tool stack here

Let’s dive into it👇

When people talk about founder-led marketing, the advice usually stops at "be on camera more."

Shizu Okusa, founder of the wellness brand Apothekary, does something more specific, and it's the reason her ads work.

Apothekary's best-performing organic content is its most controversial.

One example: a post on cultural appropriation versus cultural appreciation in matcha. Okusa argued there's no such thing as "ceremonial grade" or "culinary grade" matcha in Japan, that the distinction is marketing invented in the US, and that what's sold as ceremonial grade is often just regular matcha.

That claim only carries weight because she's Japanese and grew up with the actual heritage behind the product. The same line from an anonymous brand account would read as a hot take. From her, it reads as inside knowledge.

That's the difference between "founder on camera" and a personal history angle. Anyone can film themselves talking about their product. Far fewer can make a claim that only they're positioned to make, backed by something specific in their own background: where they're from, what they did before this business, what they noticed that other people in the category missed.

To find yours, look for a claim about your product or category that you can make more credibly than a generic brand voice could.

Action Summary:

Credit: Dara Denney

Building something? Here are a few ways we can help:

The Founder Community
We’re building an exclusive paid community for like-minded founders, operators, and builders to connect, help each other, bounce ideas, share learnings, and grow together. The first 50 people on the waitlist will get to join for free as founding members and help shape what the community becomes.
CTA: Join the Founder Waitlist

Agency Partner Match
Need help with design, development, marketing, content, paid ads, growth, branding, or something else? Our community of 41,201 founders, operators, and builders gives us access to a strong network of trusted service providers across all budgets. Tell us what you need, and we’ll try to connect you with the right agency or freelancer.
CTA: Get Matched With an Agency

Founder Tech Stack
Explore our curated list of useful tools, software, and offers to help founders save time, launch faster, and grow smarter.
CTA: Explore the Founder Tech Stack

Your follower count doesn't matter much if nobody's online when you hit publish.

So you need to find when your audience is active.

Open TikTok Studio from your profile.

Tap the Analytics card, then View all, then the Followers tab.

Scroll to Most active times and you'll see exactly when your followers were on the app over the past week.

That number matters more than it looks.

TikTok doesn't push your video to everyone at once.

It shows it to a small test group first, watches how long they stick around, how many like it and share it, and uses that early reaction to decide whether to push it further onto the For You Page.

If your followers aren't online when you post, that test group is smaller and slower to react, and the algorithm has less to work with.

Action Summary:

Credit: Buffer

Ask AI to write a marketing email and you'll usually get something vague and oddly boring.

The real issue: AI doesn't know who it's writing for.

What works is a customer codex: a document mapping your audience's fears, desires, and goals at each stage of their relationship with you, from first finding you to becoming a repeat buyer.

The difference shows up in the output.

"Write me an email about email marketing" gives AI nothing to work with, so it defaults to filler.

"Using my customer codex for an overwhelmed business owner, outline an email about email marketing with subject line options and a personal story angle, speaking to their fears without sounding salesy" gives it an actual person to write for.

To build your codex:

Write out your audience's fears, desires, and goals separately for three stages:

Save it as a document to pair with any copy prompt.

Action Summary:

Credit: Alex Cattoni

Starmer's measures target TikTok and Instagram. Brands marketing to teens lose a channel, and the tween influencer economy gets cut off at the source.

via Business of Fashion • Read more

The footwear brand's first bond sale in five years would refinance existing debt and fund buybacks, the post-IPO move of borrowing cheap to retire equity.

via Business of Fashion • Read more

Rebel, fresh off a $25M Series B, opened a snacks section with MadeGood, Chomps and Annie's at 12-70% off. A new liquidation channel for CPG overstock.

via Modern Retail • Read more

Discover how you can leverage ChatGPT to boost efficiency, streamline tasks, and stay ahead in your industry. Supercharge your productivity with HubSpot's comprehensive guide.

What does it take to turn a small startup into an industry-leading company?

In this inspiring member story, Dan Rootenberg shares how he transformed Spear Physical Therapy from a single treatment room into New York’s leading physical therapy brand.

Along the way, he learned that sustainable growth requires more than hard work. It requires the right structure, culture and leadership.

Discover how Vistage peer advisory helped Dan navigate pivotal business decisions, lead through uncertainty and build a company that achieved 50x growth while staying true to its values. His journey offers valuable lessons for CEOs looking to scale their business, strengthen their leadership and create lasting success.