For Startup Founders, Thought Leadership is a Competitive Advantage

So why aren’t more founders tapping into the power of storytelling?

Every founder starts with a reason to build something new and a vision for what’s possible. In the earliest days of your company, that’s all you have.

It’s a scrappy, stressful time. But it’s also a magical one, filled with so much potential of what your story and vision could become.

You feel constantly under pressure and underwater. But you’re ready for the fight. That fierce dedication to making your vision a reality helps secure a few early wins, draws people in and makes them want to take a chance on you.

Founding team members. Beta testers. Early investors. Maybe even a cofounder.

Eventually, through endless days, balancing acts, challenges and development sprints, it all starts to click.

You begin to feel like you have a real company with a real solution, employees and customers.

Your story and vision are still there, but it’s taken a back seat to sales cycles, product updates and user experience improvements.

Your existing customers are happy. You’ve built an amazing team. Early investors know you’re onto something big.

But every founder reaches a point where they need to grow again. Acquire new customers. Recruit new team members. Get that next round of funding.

You need great product-market fit to get to that next level. You need tangible results. But you also need to give people a killer reason to be a part of this stage of your company’s journey — of your journey (because let’s face it, the two are deeply connected when you’re a startup founder).

But how?

Re-engage with your story. Your vision. That spark. The reason you started. The reason you keep going, even when it feels impossible. The reason you’ve gotten this far. That vision has the power to get you to the next level.

And there’s no better person to dust it off and share it with the world than you. There’s no better person to give people a reason to believe in what you can do. What your company can do.

Thought leadership scales your story and your spark. It helps you move the market after you’ve made it through the trials of being an early stage founder. And it boosts visibility among investors, competitors, industry leaders, developers and (potential) users as you achieve milestone after milestone.

Your story has immense power to draw the right people in and show them why you started, where you’re going, and what makes your company (and you as a founder) different. But you need to tap into it.