The No-Fluff Guide for CMOs to Operationalize Founder-Generated Content
The CMO of a $40 million ARR software company told me: “It takes a village to extract 1 LinkedIn post from our founder.” I’m sharing the full story below:
3 months ago, I noticed that the founder of this company had no presence on LinkedIn and decided to send him a cold email.
I explained how the Founder-Generated Content system works. I told him that we can extract 1 month of LinkedIn content from a 1-hour recorded interview and help him build trust and brand awareness.
Two months later, the CMO emails me. It turns out that the founder forwarded that message directly to her. He told her to explore whether we could help.
So we had a call. The CMO told me they’ve been investing a lot of dollars in traditional marketing efforts, such as events and webinars, to ensure they meet their sales targets.
They’re strong on SEO. They have a full-time in-house content person who maintains the blog, creates lead magnets, and builds pillar content. They built a content engine that maps themes across personas and product capabilities.
But their founders have no online presence. To clarify, these individuals are highly successful and possess extensive business knowledge, as well as remarkable life stories. But they lack the time to create content and share their knowledge publicly.
Therefore, the company lacks brand awareness in this space. Sometimes, they are not even mentioned or part of the conversation during RFPs when buyers shortlist vendors, and analysts define the category.
They need to be visible when it matters the most, they need to be in the room when buyers are making decisions. Having founders with a strong personal brand, who are visible, vocal, and trusted in the market, can make the difference between being shortlisted and being completely overlooked.
The CMO told me they had tried multiple times to extract the founder’s knowledge and transform it into content, but it requires an army of people to do it, and the result is still not good enough.
Because when everyone is focused on demand generation, webinars, attribution models, and SEO workflows, that also means no one has the mental space to translate decades of a founder’s experience into content that feels real, human, and relatable.
And in a crowded category, where products sound the same and buyer trust is low, the founder’s voice might be the most underused growth asset they have.
In the end, it didn’t take a village to extract the founder’s knowledge and transform it into relevant content that builds trust and generates demand. It took a moment of clarity and the right system.
The Founder-Generated Content System
If I were the CMO of a B2B software company, and I had to make sure our founder becomes visible, trusted, and relevant on LinkedIn, here’s exactly what I’d do:
1. Each month, I’d record a 1-hour interview with the founder.
Then I’d use this interview to create authentic and relevant content. To build trust and brand awareness, I need to start with the founder’s brain, not AI prompts, because no one can explain the product to the market better than the founder.
The founder’s time is limited, so I would use it effectively. I don’t need them to write anything. I just need them to talk, I will record everything and use that as a source to extract 1 month’s worth of content:
– LinkedIn posts
– Short videos
– Blog articles
– Everything is 100% in the founder’s voice
2. I’d focus on two main content pillars: product-related content and the founder’s lessons from the trenches.
Product-related content:
– What specific problems does the product solve?
– I’d have the founder explain each one in their own words.
– No jargon, just: “Here’s the problem, how we solve it.”
That’s how we create demand.
I’d have the founder share their experiences learned from the trenches:
– Real stories, challenges, lessons, and ways of thinking.
– Discuss the genuine needs, priorities, and frustrations of our ICPs.
– I’d just take these honest insights from someone who’s actually done the work. These are infinitely more valuable than any made-up frameworks.
That’s how we build trust.
3. I’d organize the content in Google Drive and use the following system to publish and track everything:
– Each LinkedIn is paired with a short video and goes live 2x/a week on the founder’s profile.
– I’d track every ICP who engages (likes, comments, follows, views profile).
– Start warm conversations with each of these people.
– I’d publish the video content on the company’s YouTube channel.
– I’d publish the blog articles on the website every month.
4. The Pareto principle applies, so 20% of the content will most likely generate 80% of the results.
In the second month, I’d focus the interview with the founder on the winning 20% of topics. I’d continue to generate more content that speaks directly to our ICP’s needs and creates demand.
5. I would not stop at LinkedIn.
I’d use the best-performing content to update the website copy, sales decks, onboarding materials, email sequences, and even internal alignment.
Because once the message is clear and generates demand, the founder-generated content can scale across every communication channel.
If you need help implementing this system, book a free call with us, and we’ll guide you through all the steps.
Thanks for reading, and keep building!