Build your brand before your product, or launch first and reveal yourself later?
I've always been on the personal brand side. More and more founders are building it now (sometimes even before the product is ready – while it's still in development, before seed fundraising). The CEO builds their position so the product sells more easily at the official launch.
But I have experience with people who built the product, scaled it, and only then did we discover who was behind it.
Honestly, with the first approach, I'd be concerned that people invest more in me as a person than in the product. People would idealise the founder and overlook the product's flaws (which could hurt development and constructive feedback).
+ I noticed the most common mistake that many people who started building a personal brand first, connected their product to their personal accounts (emails, social media, etc.) and started having a problem selling these things, because they cannot "give someone keys" to their personal profiles.
Which opens the question:
Which approach brings more advantages in your opinion?
Replies
Both, at the same time, but kept separate. I started a build-in-public YouTube channel under my own name, and a separate brand account for the product. Same story, different stages.
The personal account is where I share the journey. The product account is where the product lives. If I ever hand off or sell, the keys are separable.
Still pre-launch, so I do not know yet which one actually drives conversion. But keeping them structurally separate felt like the right call from day one.
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@hellobzec which was easier to build? Your personal brand or the product brand? :) And how did you merge these two into one? (or didn't merge at all?) 🤔
@busmark_w_nika Kept them separate the whole way. The personal account is the story, the product account is the destination. Merging felt like it would dilute both.
Honestly, the personal brand was easier to build — the story writes itself. The product brand is harder because it has to stand alone without the context of why it exists.
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@hellobzec agree on that personal account stuff is easier to express :)
I definitely see value, and proof, of both
There are some great product builders out there, and their reputation precedes them. It definitely adds a halo effect. It might that they tend to have forward-thinking ideas, involved in the right circles that allows early execution (as in people follow them and help them build quickly), or they may be great designers.
And on the other hand 1) there are many successful products out there that don't reveal the founder(s) behind the scenes or 2) it's known, but it's only relevant in certain contexts (professionals from the industry, other product builders, investors.
I've also certainly seen evidence of a product with traction then having the founder start creating a personal brand, talking about the product, and that humanization often creates a (positive more often than not?) feedback loop. But that might be a parallel concept.
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@jitain Not gonna lie, in this era of AI is difficult to sell so you need to take advantage even from your social media personal account following :) Thos, I would enjoy more if I knew that my product is successful itself (and not only successful, but useful) :)
I don't have enough experience to answer which brings more advantages. But as a user, I know I enjoy seeing #1, but only in moderation in the sense of the founders focusing their content more on the product rather than themselves. For example, if the app is about finding recipes, I strongly prefer the content is generally about food and the founder's personal experiences with it, like their favorite recipes or recipes that are deeply sentimental to them, rather than the founder's entrepreneurial journey.
In other words, I guess I prefer content that's more educational with a touch of personal.
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@christina_m_nguyen I am also this kind of person, but maybe I am biased because I have been building my own personal brand :D
In my experience, founder-first can quietly distort everything. When people are sold on the person, early traction and feedback can look healthier than they actually are. It's the halo effect in action - users overlook real product gaps because they trust the founder. You end up optimizing for the wrong signals and realizing it way too late.
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@sourav_das29 Who knows, maybe I am doing the biggest mistake of my life to showing my face while building the product, we will see :D
If nobody knows who you are yet (i.e. my personal case), the brand-first approach is IMV mostly just self-promotion with nothing behind it. Shipping something real and useful (probably quite hard nowadays, hahaha) at least gives people a reason to care about the person who built it
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@sk_uxpin Yes. The brand position and useful product can redirect the attention from the product to the founder. But you said it – it is pretty difficult to create something useful :D
@busmark_w_nika I wish I was born 50 years ago (from that perspective alone though - I'm more than happy living in the current world :D)
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@sk_uxpin If I was born 50 years ago, I could finally afford a property :DD
@busmark_w_nika too good to be true :D
It's like Apple to Orange.
Completely subjective to each founder's journey. If it's the first product and the founder's career has started. Then product will come first. If the career has been going on for a while then personal brand will help launch the product.
Subsequently working on your personal brand throughout life is advised as jobs, products, companies might change but you are the constant in each..
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@mohit_gupta138 I haven't been thinking about that this way of "timing" but for sure, for me it has always been a personal brand because I didn't have any product, only services tied to me.
@busmark_w_nika Ok, if we were to pull on the time thread a bit. Then maybe think about the balance between launching the second service that was tied to you vs the last one. and the effort that you might have put in each (did it get easier with time and your compounding efforts on personal brand). would love to know
I’ve seen the personal brand first approach work well for distribution but it definitely risks getting biased feedback. People sometimes support you, not the product.
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@brandon_elliott1 This is my fear, that I will be praised instead of constructive feedback on the product!
I think the sweet spot is using a personal brand to attract attention, but keeping the product independent so it can stand on its own.
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@brian_douglas5 But in that case you need to build in stealth to have a proper feedback on product, or?
This really comes to what you optimize for speed vs signal .Personal brand gives speed, product-first gives cleaner signal.
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@bruce_warren but would you go with both at the same time?
I'm a brand strategist and I believe both ways work but then has to be done with caution. The only solid reason for building a personal brand behind a product is to help with anticipation towards launch and also help build trust...but then what happens if there's a controversy with the product after launch? It's definitely going to drag you down the drain too. I still believe personal branding works but then it's risky when tied to products. Your personal brand should be about you, your ideologies and all that. Anonymity works because it helps you see beyond the unnecessary hype. It helps you get the facts about your product in its raw form. It's very easy to hide behind hype and it's a dangerous place to be, because you become blind to your product flaws.
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@goodman_thebrandoracle This is the only reason (and fear) why I wouldn't like to link my face with a product. Because if the scandal appears (on one of the sides), everybody will lose.