Founder ads: get to the point before the customer scrolls.

In live episode 100, Jacob Wibom Westerberg and I discuss founder ads and the people behind brands. I want a founder story to begin where the customer recognises a problem. Jacob has an example of his own that challenges that order. We also discuss what the content needs to explain and what a successful ad demands of cash flow and the team.

Give me a reason to care before you introduce yourself.

A founder ad can begin with a name, company name and the year it was founded. We have learnt something about the speaker. We still do not know why it matters to us. In the episode, I say many start there when they should get to the point.

Start with the problem, situation or need that makes the product relevant. Then the founder can explain why the company exists and show how the solution works. Give me a reason to listen to your story.

That does not mean every ad must follow an identical script. Jacob describes an early Juniper ad that did begin with an introduction and worked very well for them. Before the next production, I still want to answer this: what in the opening seconds makes the right person want to hear the rest?

Listen at this point · 45:16

A real reason to exist beats a story stuck on afterwards.

I use Twistboxes as an example. The story starts with a specific problem: the founder had nowhere to store his roof box. That is easier to understand than an abstract ambition to change an industry. Anyone short of storage space may recognise the problem immediately.

The product then needs to show how the solution works. How do you store it? What does that mean in everyday life? Why is it designed that way? The founder’s experience can hold the explanation together, but there still needs to be something real to demonstrate and discuss.

We also discuss transparency around development and testing. I describe the intention to be open even if a test showed that something needed improving. That asks more than publishing the polished moments. A story intended to build trust needs to let reality show.

Listen at this point · 34:38

A new audience needs more than a new colour on the same ad.

I describe how the work has shifted from many small iterations towards bigger creative approaches around different people and situations. It is more demanding. We need to understand what makes the offer relevant to someone who has not responded to what we already show.

Changing a colour or a phrase tests a small difference. Here I want to try another reason to buy: what does the person recognise, and in which situation does the product become interesting? That needs to be in the brief.

Jacob describes this as more enjoyable creative problem-solving, and I agree. It also requires better direction for the people making the material. If the brief does not explain who the ad is for and why they should care, it is hard to judge what we are trying to learn from the test.

Listen at this point · 22:28

Content should have different jobs.

Jacob presents his way of categorising content: interrupt, explain, overcome and push. It is his framework, which I ask him to share after the conversation. I like the point: one piece may need to catch attention, another explain the product and a third address hesitation.

Someone wondering how the product works needs something different from someone who understands it but does not yet trust the company. If everything says buy now, we leave much of that work for the customer to do alone.

Jacob also says the team needs to classify content consistently for the analysis to be useful. If you and I mean different things by a category, it becomes hard to draw shared conclusions. Start by describing the job clearly. That makes it easier to create the next ad and understand what is missing.

Listen at this point · 50:19

An ad can work before the business is ready.

Jacob says an early founder ad helped Juniper get sales moving. He also explains that growth created cash-flow problems when payment terms with the factory were poor. That is his experience, and an important part of the story.

We can become very occupied with generating demand. The company then needs to buy, pay for and deliver the products too. When that connection is missing, a positive marketing result can become an operational problem.

Before increasing advertising, someone needs to calculate the next purchase and payment to the factory. Jacob’s example shows what happens when demand moves faster than cash can support. That question belongs in the growth plan.

Listen at this point · 42:38

Behind the founder, people need to do the work.

Towards the end, I also describe a venture that did not go as I hoped. The potential on paper was not enough. That deserves space when we discuss brand journeys. Otherwise success can easily start to sound like a recipe without risks.

I also credit the team. In the conversation, I say that much of my work is strategic while others run the operations. Their expertise, responsibilities and working conditions matter enormously. It would be unreasonable to tell the entire story through whoever happens to sit in front of the microphone.

The founder can make the story personal. The product and team then need to deliver what the film promises. I want those people to be visible in the story too.

Listen at this point · 1:19:20

This article is based on the conversation and adapted for reading.