Are You a Founder-Led, Champion-Led or an Egopreneur Brand?

I was recently introduced to a first-time Founder who was questioning how best to describe herself in her role as brand lead.

She had been star-struck by the “Founder’s Myth” - you know the one. Some scrappy, young, tech-whiz, college-dropout has a sudden “light bulb” moment. Makes billions before turning 30. The myth is so seductive it borders on religion.

Her fantasy was further fueled by a series of agencies pitching her business & promising to promote her as the face of the brand. After all, she was attractive, smart, ambitious. A mom. A definite play to her ego. What’s not to like!

But something felt off to her. Inauthentic.

By the time she made her way to Insurgents, she was totally conflicted. “This could be a great business. But who am I? What’s my RTB?” she worried.

We spoke about it. Candidly.

As a mentor to many soon-to-be graduates of university entrepreneurship programs & Brand Strategist & Sherpa to countless start-ups, I encounter earnest young people seeking fame & glory all the time. Many arrive with a highly distorted view of what it actually takes to launch something real.

Today, “entrepreneur” is one of those career titles people aspire toward. Far sexier than lawyer, CMO, or accountant. & given the dysfunction of corporate America & a wonky job market, the appeal is understandable.

For decades, Founders have been lured by the Founder’s Myth. The siren’s song of start-ups. Right up there with Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey.

Who wouldn’t want to cast themselves as that character? It makes the idea of simply building a solid business - or owning a great company - feel like settling. (Sidebar: If you haven’t seen Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey - do. You’ll discover The Hero’s Journey isn’t exactly a walk in the park.)

Truth be known, not everyone is cut from that cloth. Getting too caught up in the myth can derail a perfectly good new business.

There are three ways a Founder shows up. Each with very different challenges & responsibilities for the brand you build.

The Founder-Led Brand

Founder-Led brands are built on a genuine, irrefutable experience - lived from the inside out. The biography is the brand’s proof of concept.

Take Victoria Watts.

Shortly after launching her first beauty brand, she learned that her youngest child, Cyrus, was born blind due to a rare genetic eye disorder. She knew very little about blindness & was terrified. Beyond Cyrus’ disability, she feared the barriers that exist in society - barriers that limit the visually impaired from fully participating in & enjoying life.

Cyrus is one of millions of children worldwide affected by visual impairment. As Victoria watched him navigate his unsighted world, she became in awe of his ability to turn his other senses - especially touch - into superpowers.

Her AH-HA moment came one night while giving Cyrus a bath. Every product on the shelf was packaged in similarly shaped bottles. It dawned on her how challenging it must be for the blind to distinguish between products & the obstacles this presents to independence, enjoyment & safety.

As wonderful as Braille is, it is not packaging-friendly. So, Victoria created The CyR.U.S. System - the first & only modern tactile language composed of raised symbols & embossed QR codes that make it easy to identify products, learn about ingredients & understand usage. Right at your fingertips. Designed for the 2.2 billion people worldwide living with some degree of vision loss.

You can feel the difference between someone who has built something because it was truly needed & someone who built something because they spotted an opportunity. Both are valid. Only one is a Founder-Led brand.

Authenticity is structural, not performed. The credibility is biographical.

The vulnerability: a Founder-Led brand often lives or dies with the Founder. When they exit - or evolve - the thing that made it real can hollow out in a nanosecond. Because the POV was embodied, not codified. What remains is often a very polished version of nothing.

The authenticity test: Did you actually live this?

The Champion-Led Brand

(Culture-Driven — Which May or May Not Be Founder-Led)

Champion-Led brands are mission-driven. Built from an insight-out. Propelled forward by a passionate person - or group of people - with a shared belief that something in the world needs to change. Cult-like, perhaps. People feel they are part of something bigger than themselves. & they are building the very thing that will change it.

The brand ethos stands for something sharp enough that people choose it not just for what it does, but for what it believes.

POV isn’t the brand personality. It’s competitive strategy.

Origins was such a brand.

It was built entirely on the belief that what was missing from the beauty experience was as sense of Respect. Respect for the consumer. Their skin, their intelligence, their pocketbook. Respect for the earth. Every aspect of the brand reinforced this - from the products to the packaging to the purchasing experience. It was magical.

& it worked brilliantly. For many years.

Because it had an unwavering champion. Someone inside the brand who held the line. A pied piper of sorts.

That Champion was Daria Myers.

Daria said: no, that’s not what this brand believes. She resisted constant corporate pressure to play by the industry’s rules. To turn Origins into just another skincare brand.

She rallied a band of believers & set standards so inspirational that no one ever said “I use Origins.” They said: “I love Origins.”

Joe Gubernick created one-of-a-kind products. Many of us on the team, including myself as the voice of the brand, committed so strongly to the brand ethos, we voluntarily adjusted our personal behavior. Giving up meat. Ditching leather & fur. It was an unspoken culture. People knew it. Felt it. Lived it.

When the Champion(s) left & the corporate types took the reins, the philosophy didn’t get attacked. It got managed. They insisted on playing by the industry rules - percentages, traditional product formulas, mass-market logic & tactics.

Slowly drained of everything that made it worth choosing, Origins became a ghost of itself. The brand exists today - technically. But the conviction that built it is long gone. & long forgotten.

That’s the specific vulnerability of a Champion-Led brand. Philosophies need diehard defenders. & when the defender leaves, the optimizers move in. Quietly. Efficiently. & the brand becomes another product on a shelf that once meant something.

The authenticity test: Do you actually believe this?

The Egopreneur

(Yes, I made the word up. But the ‘tude is real.)

Look, being a Founder requires a hefty dose of ego. The start-up world is chock full of them. In fact, ego is often a requisite to success. After all, you’re creating something out of nothing.

Ego is the source of resilience that overcomes repeated failure & rejection. & you need a strong sense of self to convince investors, partners, team members - not to mention customers - that your idea is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

That said, a Founder’s ego is a double-edged sword. In the beginning it acts as rocket fuel giving leaders the confidence to ignore conventional wisdom & push through the grueling early days.

But…

When an oversized ego blinds the Founder to market realities or simply becomes a validation of their vision, every small win becomes a gold star for their sense of worth. They chase visibility over value. Swap substance for the spotlight.

The traps:

1. Creating an amazing story with them at the center. Then presenting a so-so product. The personal narrative becomes the strategy. The Founder winds up building something that makes them feel important rather than something that truly is important.

2. Falling so deeply in love with their idea the Founder fails to recognize actual customer needs. When market data or user feedback contradicts their assumptions, the ego-driven response is almost always to double down rather than admit they were wrong & pivot.

3. Ego masquerading as quality control. Believing her or she is the only one who can do things right, the Founder micromanages every process, email & hire. This behavior substitutes “I think” with “I know,” closing the door to every valuable perspective but their own.

Remember, to achieve a deep connection with your audience takes great empathy, humility & humanity for those you hope to serve.

One more thing worth naming. A POV brand needs more than a philosophy. It needs a world. A fully realized aesthetic universe that makes the conviction legible - sensory, specific, recognizable, unmistakable. The world you build is the embodiment of the belief. You can’t grant permission you don’t inhabit.

The Test

Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of start-ups & crossed paths with all three of these archetypes.

I’ve witnessed the most passionate entrepreneurs crash & burn because they couldn’t keep their egos in check.

I’ve watched strong ideas miss the market because they are too late - or too early.

I’ve seen value props that were nice-to-haves - but not must-haves.

& I’ve seen start-ups that simply ran out of steam.

So, what role did my Founder finally choose?

Champion.

Authenticity trumps ego every time.

If you’re a Founder trying to figure out what type of brand you’re building, here’s the test.

Founder-Led: Did you actually live this? Is your biography the proof? Does your story make the brand’s existence make sense in a way that no one else’s story could?

Champion-Led: Do you actually believe this? Is there a category you look at & feel is fundamentally wrong? Do you have a conviction - not a positioning statement, a conviction - that you’d defend in a room full of people who disagree with you?

Egopreneur: Has your personal narrative become the strategy. Are you building something that makes you feel important rather than something that truly is important. If what you are selling is you vs. the problem you are solving for them, you have work to do.

Know which one you are. Build accordingly. Don’t perform the wrong archetype.

Don’t know which one you are? Happy to help. That’s exactly what Insurgents is built for.

Best, Robin