The road to entrepreneurship is paved with passion, ambition and a relentless pursuit of success. For founders, the journey is filled with exhilarating highs and daunting lows. In this ever-evolving business landscape, one key factor can make or break a founder’s venture: market credibility. Establishing a solid reputation and earning the trust of customers, investors and partners is paramount for long-term success.
First, let’s look at some facts:
There are more than 580 million entrepreneurs worldwide, of which more than 30 million entrepreneurs are in the U.S. alone.
More than 5 million new business applications were filed in 2022, and through July 2023, 3.12 million business applications have been submitted.
The good news: Entrepreneurship has been booming and continues on that trend. But with the good comes the challenges—how do entrepreneurs, especially first-time founders, stand out in a competitive market? It all boils down to effectively establishing business credibility.
Why do you need to build market credibility?
Based on my experience and having spoken with several investors throughout my career in the tech industry, I can safely say that investors invest in founders. You see, founders are expected to be good innovators and know how to build products. But can they elevate themselves from being product experts to business leaders? Can they scale the business and expand globally?
In short, if entrepreneurs are looking to fundraise, they will need to get investors to sit up, take notice and believe in their vision. They have to demonstrate why they are the entrepreneur who can take the business to a successful exit—fast—so that investors can achieve a return of more than 10 times their investment.
A founder’s brand also means getting personal. It’s one thing to follow the progress of the business, but it is a whole new level to see who is behind that progress.
When determining the steps to effectively build a founder’s brand and market credibility, each budding entrepreneur needs to ask themselves the following questions.
Why do I need to build a brand?
Building a brand is critical for scaling a business and maintaining a competitive edge. It’s also important to note that a founder’s brand should be portable. If the startup gets acquired or the founder decides to leave and launch a new company, they should be able to build on the expertise and existing reputation, as opposed to having to pivot or start from scratch.
Also, how one builds a brand depends on whether they are a novice or an experienced business owner and what the business goals are. For instance, is the entrepreneur seeking investor money? If so, the goal is proof—proving that they can scale a business, grow a team and understand the industry landscape. If one is looking to get acquired, the founder has to demonstrate to the potential acquirer that they can help scale the business and be a team player.
In other words, it isn’t enough to have the know-how, but entrepreneurs must also demonstrate they can get the job done. The founders have to be more than the product they have built.
How can I best reach my target audience?
One constant in building a brand is the human-to-human aspect. People buy from people. It is interaction—face-to-face or virtual networking—that is a critical piece of successfully building a brand.
So how do they reach that audience? A founder must have a digital footprint. This is the best way to be discovered by investors, customers and potential partners. An entrepreneur’s comfort zone should drive their approach to reaching an audience. Some may prefer writing blogs and articles, while others may prefer creating videos or podcasts as a means of disseminating information to help establish themselves as experts in their respective fields.
The point is, digital platforms allow entrepreneurs to demonstrate and amplify expertise and experience to their target audiences. Founders can share insights using visuals on Instagram or videos on TikTok if that’s where the consumers are.
Likewise, platforms like LinkedIn are great for connecting with industry professionals, prospects and potential investors. Whatever channel one chooses, the key is to be consistent, engaging and share insights regularly. Finally, measure results and tweak strategy as needed.
How much time must I commit?
When I started my consulting firm, I dedicated three to four hours a month to writing industry-focused articles. Instead of publishing on my site, I was fortunate that the stories were published in various media, which gave the content a wider reach. In turn, I could focus on building my business and delivering for my clients rather than spending time driving people to our site. Lesson learned: work smarter, not harder.
Making time to build market credibility must be a priority. But entrepreneurs should not have to spend a ton of time focusing on it. Plan to stay focused, build an editorial calendar and execute. But founders who find they are swamped can hire an expert they trust—someone who can build their strategy, execute on their behalf and make them a rock star in today’s digital ecosystem.
Put market credibility to work for you.
A founder’s ultimate goal is to get to a place where everyone knows their name. Like I said earlier, people buy from people and people invest in people. In other words, a successful brand is recognized by its founder’s name.
Take for example Rihanna, a successful entertainer and entrepreneur with a net worth of $1.7 billion. The success of Fenty Beauty can be attributed to her leveraging her personal brand—currently valued at more than $2.8 billion. The same could be said for other well-known entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, Oprah, Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bezos.
In short, a founder’s brand is about their personal identity and expertise. Effectively developing that identity helps founders launch and scale their business, entice customers to adopt their product and convince investors to invest in them.
Parna Sarkar-Basu is the founder of B&B Consulting and writes about entrepreneurship, business transformation, innovation & tech for good. Read Parna’s full executive profile here.
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