"The old startup model is dead. We're all in the fashion/show/brand business now."
That’s something John Rush recently said, and I believe it captures where we stand as founders today: in a market where you can’t just rely on a solid product, a scaled sales process, or paid ads alone.
Those tactics can still deliver results, but the landscape has shifted.
In 2024 and beyond, people want to see the human side of the companies they choose to buy from–especially in B2B SaaS
The #1 reason most SaaS startups struggle is a lack of founder-led content.
In other words, if your voice as a founder isn’t front and center—if you’re not building personal trust and emotional connection with your audience—then you’re playing an uphill game.
A New Role for the Founder: Face of the Brand
As a SaaS founder, your job isn’t just to create a product that’s 10x better than the competition.
Those technical details matter, but they won’t carry you over the finish line by themselves.
Today, your job is to become the face of your brand.
You need to be the person your customers think of when they hear your company’s name.
You need to own the narrative, on your LinkedIn, in your newsletter, and across UGC (User-Generated Content) platforms.
Your content—raw, honest, and personal—serves as a magnet for customers.
It doesn’t just attract them; it builds trust before they ever hop on a demo call.
It aligns the entire team’s efforts, making every ad click, every product release, and every sales conversation resonate more deeply with the people you’re trying to reach.
This is the fastest, most efficient way to grow a startup today.
Why Founder-Led Content Matters More Than Ever
- A Founder Who Hides Behind Ad Funnels: When you have funnels and campaigns running but the founder’s voice is nowhere to be found, prospects feel a disconnect.
They know they’re being marketed to, but they don’t know who stands behind the curtain.
Without you, the brand’s story is incomplete, and trust remains elusive.
- A Product Team Without Narrative: Your product might be packed with brilliant features, but if there’s no storyline weaving them into the larger narrative of why they matter, you lose your edge.
Features themselves aren’t memorable.
Stories are. Founder-led storytelling makes your product’s evolution something your audience can root for.
- A Marketing Leader Without a Human Face: Maxing out ad budgets without humanizing the brand leads to lukewarm results.
People don’t just buy solutions; they buy the promise and vision behind them.
When they see a founder putting their name, face, and reputation on the line, they know this isn’t just another startup looking for MRR—it’s a group of real people passionately solving a real problem.
The experienced founder knows that people connect with people, not companies.
The New B2B Landscape: The Pull Beats the Push
For years, the B2B game was about pushing out offers, scaling sales teams, and relying on a traditional funnel approach. But we’re entering a new era where inbound-led strategies, underpinned by authentic social presence, are what drive meaningful, lasting growth.
- The Salesforce Model Is Dead: No disrespect to Salesforce, but the old method of buying your way to market dominance is no longer the universal playbook. Audiences today demand authenticity, accessibility, and two-way interaction.
- Inbound-Led Outbound Flywheels: It’s not enough to push messaging out there; you need to pull your audience in. Founder-led content—regular posts, newsletters, LinkedIn updates, and open-source playbooks—invite people to come to you. Then, when you do outbound, it lands on fertile ground because your prospective customers already know who you are and what you stand for.
- Trust Before the Transaction: With every transparent update, behind-the-scenes story, or product roadmap reveal, you’re giving customers a reason to trust you before they ever see a paid ad or hop on a call with your sales team.
If a team is celebrating metrics but the brand doesn’t have legs, the market will soon give them a wake-up call.
How We’re Doing This at Helply
You might know me from my previous startup, Groove. In the mid-2010s, “Journey to $100k MRR” and the “Imperfect Startup” blog were literally the ONLY marketing activities I did. That was it. And believe it or not, those consistent, authentic stories built serious SEO momentum and word-of-mouth growth.
- Scaling Groove to $5M ARR: With transparency and storytelling as my primary marketing engine, I grew Groove to $5M ARR and built an email list of 140,000 subscribers. We accomplished this with a tiny team of just five people. That’s the power of founder-led, content-first growth.
But today’s world of B2B SaaS has changed.
- The Game Has Changed: Now it’s about leveraging UGC platforms and nurturing an engaged email audience. Customers crave genuine interaction, quick communication, and authentic insight into the minds of the founders and operators behind a product.
- My Helply Mission: I’m aiming to grow Helply from 0 to $10M ARR in three years. Is it ambitious? Absolutely. Will we get there? Time will tell. But one thing is certain: I’ll be documenting every single step.
Transparency as a Growth Strategy
I’m committing to sharing the Helply journey in real-time through LinkedIn and this newsletter, 365 days a year.
My goal is to show and share what works and what doesn’t, and I’m not holding anything back.
These playbooks—our outreach templates, our product decisions, our ups and downs—will be open sourced for other founders and operators to use, adapt, and learn from.
- Seeing It in Action: Want to watch a founder figured this all out in real-time? Follow me on LinkedIn.
Check the Featured Section on my profile and you’ll find our “Our Journey” page. It’s a living document of everything we’re doing—from strategic pivots to growth hacks, from hiring decisions to product roadmap debates.
- Why This Matters to You: If you’re a founder, marketer, product leader, or even a curious observer, this level of transparency provides a front-row seat to the inner workings of a modern SaaS startup’s growth strategy. You’ll see what a relentless focus on founder-led content, community building, and trust cultivation can do for a young brand.
If you’re a SaaS founder, now’s the time to step into the spotlight.
- Tell your story.
- Show your face.
- Share your playbook.
By doing this, you create a brand that people genuinely want to follow, buy from, and champion.
That’s the true key to growth in this new landscape.
Let’s rewrite the playbook for SaaS growth—together.
See you on LinkedIn, and see you at the forefront of this new era 👋