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
@busmark_w_nika Launched first, then started showing up personally, and honestly the personal story drove more signups than the product page ever did. People buy into the problem you lived before they buy into the solution you built.
The "can't hand over the keys" point is real though. Keeping founder brand and product brand separate from day one saves a lot of pain later.
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@vishal7017 Maybe I should reconsider my approach, because what if my tool is sh!tty and I will present it from my personal account lol :D
@busmark_w_nika Exactly this. The personal story gets people through the door, the product keeps them inside. Learned that the hard way too.
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@vishal7017 But learned and that counts too! :)
I think it depends on the stage.
When the product is still early, the founder story helps a lot because people don’t trust the product yet. They trust the person and the reason behind it.
But I agree with your point. If everything is connected to the founder personally, it can become messy later.
For me the balance is:
use the founder story to get attention and explain the problem, but don’t make the product fully dependent on the founder.
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@mohamed_glall I would really like to use the both to balance it (complement each other) :)
I think the dangerous part is when founders can no longer tell whether people are attracted to the product or attracted to the founder.
A strong personal brand can accelerate distribution, but it can also create false validation signals:
likes without intent
compliments without urgency
audience growth without actual demand
On the other hand, launching anonymously can make it harder to get initial trust and feedback loops.
Feels like the real challenge is separating “people support me” from “people would genuinely miss this product if it disappeared.”
That distinction probably becomes very important early on.
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@anushka_singh34 I am now trying 2 things – building a personal brand on LinkedIn, but sharing the building public journey of the product on X (but the product is intended for LinkedIn) – so my primary audience on LinkedIn and possible users may not know about my activity.
@busmark_w_nika That actually sounds like a smart split honestly.
LinkedIn probably gives you access to the actual buyers, while X gives you faster feedback loops during the messy building phase.
What’s interesting though is that the two platforms often reward completely different behavior.
X tends to reward:
- transparency
- iteration
- thinking publicly
LinkedIn often rewards authority, certainty, polished positioning
So founders can end up getting very different signals depending on where the conversation is happening.
Feels like one hidden challenge is making sure “build in public engagement” doesn’t accidentally become a substitute for real user urgency.
I think it depends on the product, the industry, and the founder.
If we're only talking about PH, I believe it's better to build your personal brand long before you launch.
We've analyzed more than 6000 launches and the most common among top launches are because the founders arleady had a solid PH profile with engagements.
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@heyitsirenechan did you find out anything interesting about their social media presence?
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@founder92 I think it can work both ways, but with a personal brand, you can have an advantage with distribution :)
Feels like it’s not brand vs product but what you’re actually building trust in. If people follow you for opinions, they’ll show up early but they’ll also leave fast if the product doesn’t hold up. If they discover you through the product, trust builds slower but tends to stick longer. Been noticing this while building…the ideal seems somewhere in between
where the thinking attracts people and the product keeps them.
Have you seen cases where strong personal brands actually delayed honest product feedback?
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@kabirsalunkhe Not maybe delayed, but people falsely praised the product because they glorified the influencer. :D and I can see this pattern also in the politics (but this is not the direction I want to lead this convo) :D
@busmark_w_nika Interesting way to frame it. False positives might actually do more damage than delays. You think you’re getting validation but it’s not real signal and you start optimizing in the wrong direction. Especially early on when you’re still figuring out what matters. Strong personal brands can blur that line it’s not just about timing, it’s about the quality of feedback. Maybe the harder part is creating an environment where people feel okay being honest even if they like or respect the builder.
So I don't think it's about building a brand. I don't think the focus should be on the brand personally. I think the question should be about the problem you're solving. If you solve a problem that people are actually dying to solve, no one would really care about your personal brand as a person; they would care more about the business.
So this tool is helping me solve this problem. When they now find the person, they fall in love with the person. I don't think it should be either/or. I just feel like the main focus should not be on the person building the product, but on what you're really able to offer people with the product that you're building.
In essence, the founder's personal brand is not as imprtant as what the product delivers and how it delivers it. I do not know who is PH but I use it a lot. And so with other products.
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@janefrances_christopher Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve seen many influencers with large followings launch products that didn’t solve any meaningful problem. A good example is Naval, who launched AirChat (a new social media app built around using your voice and transcribing it into text messages).
People loved it, the first week was a sensation, and now nobody even remembers it. So yes, it’s about solving a problem, but I feel like many personal brands launch something (anything) that solves absolutely nothing, and it ends up flopping.
@busmark_w_nika Oh perfect example. Yes, it might go viral at first, but building a successful product is about making it last. What happens after launch (50 days and 1 year later) - that's what matters the most
I built first and would have benefit if I started building the brand earlier on. It feels like time wasted, especially when you are building in an experience you have no prior experience and you need to build a lot of trust.
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@norteapp at least, I am prepared now for building something and then only to push it through my personal brand :D
@busmark_w_nika You are in a great spot! You'll kill it.
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@norteapp hahaha, Thank you! :)
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) :)