Post by Tommy Clark

2-3 years ago, “founder-led” content was a fringe strategy in B2B marketing. There were plenty of consumer influencers. But a B2B SaaS founder trying to build a personal brand? Only a few were taking it seriously. Adam Robinson at RB2B, Austin Hughes at Unify, Marty Kausas at Pylon, to name a few. Because of the low supply (most founders didn’t want to put the time into writing content), the bar for LinkedIn content was quite low compared to platforms like Instagram. There was an arbitrage to be exploited. If you had one founder (usually the CEO) posting 3-5x per week, you would grow, and grow fast. Those days are gone. Long, long gone. Now, in the year of our Lord, 2026, everyone is pushing founder-led content. One of the first hires tech founders make after raising a Series A is a ghostwriting agency or an in-house content marketer. Or, now, a mediocre AI agent to mass-produce ‘passable’ posts for them. As the adage goes, “Marketers ruin everything.” Anyway. The takeaway is: Competition is at an all-time high. LinkedIn as a platform is also facing (self-imposed) headwinds. They are pushing users to pay for Thought Leader Ads; lowering organic reach. They are trying (unsuccessfully) to mimic the interest graph that makes TikTok and Instagram Reels so compelling. It is a mess, and while it is—and will likely remain—the default for B2B marketing, I would not bet on it alone. How the hell do you win in this environment? I propose two paths forward in today's article. You can also subscribe to my newsletter to get these pieces in your inbox every week: https://lnkd.in/eXCuVmGt