August 28, 2025
Here's the thing nobody tells you about building a tech company: your product isn't your biggest differentiator anymore.
In the past 11 months since I went all-in on my tech idea, I've talked to exited founders, investors, and people who've built massive followings. And there's one piece of advice that comes up in literally every single conversation. It's not about finding product-market fit (though that matters). It's not about raising money (though that helps). It's about something most technical founders completely ignore until it's almost too late.
Every expert I've spoken with - multi-exited founders, successful investors, advisors who've seen it all - keeps hammering the same point: if you're not building your personal brand, you're making your life exponentially harder.
Here's what you'll learn in this post:
Let's start with some uncomfortable truth-telling.
With AI tools and no-code platforms, the technical barriers to building software have basically disappeared. That revolutionary app idea you've been working on for months? Someone else probably built a version of it last weekend using ChatGPT and Bubble.
This isn't meant to discourage you - it's meant to wake you up to the new reality. Technical execution used to be a massive competitive advantage. Now it's table stakes.
Here's what's genuinely hard to replicate:
Andy Walsh, a multi-exited founder and investor I recently spoke with, put it perfectly: "Anyone can build what you're building. What's hard is creating a brand and personal connection."
The founders who understand this are the ones who end up winning.
Most founders think marketing means paid ads, SEO, or cold outreach. But there's a marketing channel that's completely free, scales infinitely, and builds genuine relationships with your future customers.
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I know what you're thinking: "Social media is for influencers and lifestyle brands, not B2B SaaS companies." Wrong. Dead wrong.
Social media - when done right - gives you:
Here's the beautiful thing about building in public: every post, every insight, every piece of your journey that you share builds on itself. Today's casual LinkedIn post becomes next month's inbound lead. This week's Twitter thread becomes next quarter's speaking opportunity.
It compounds in ways that paid advertising never can.
Let me guess - you're probably thinking "This sounds great in theory, but I'm a technical founder, not a content creator." I get it. The internet can feel like a scary place.
Don't try to be everywhere at once. Pick one platform where your audience actually hangs out:
Commit to posting consistently on that one platform for at least 90 days.
Stop leading with features and start leading with purpose. Instead of "We built an AI tool that analyzes data," try "Here's why I spent six months obsessing over a problem that everyone said wasn't worth solving."
People connect with stories and motivations, not product specs.
You don't need to become a content guru overnight. Just document what you're already doing:
This isn't about creating content - it's about sharing your existing journey.
Here are the top takeaways you can implement right now:
The internet is simultaneously a scary place and a beautiful opportunity for free marketing. The choice is yours: you can keep building in isolation, hoping your amazing product will somehow market itself. Or you can start building the personal brand that will become your startup's most valuable asset.
Your move: Pick your platform today. Write your first post about why you're building what you're building. Hit publish before you can talk yourself out of it.
The experts who've already won this game are trying to tell you something. The question is: are you listening?
Ready to stop being afraid of the internet and start using it as your growth engine? Your future customers are waiting to hear from you.
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