Why the founder's profile carries more weight than the company page on LinkedIn
When a B2B startup decides to take LinkedIn seriously, the first thing it usually does is polish the company page. A new logo, a nice banner and posts with the news of the week. A few months later the page has few followers, almost all of them from the team, and the posts barely move.
Meanwhile, the founder's profile still reads like a CV. That is a shame, because at a startup that is exactly where most of the reach and the trust live. In this article I explain why, with data, and what role is left for the company page.
- 10x
- more connections, on average, in employees' networks than followers on their company page.
- Source: LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
- 2x
- the clicks for the same content when a person shares it rather than the company.
- Source: LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
- 73%
- of B2B buyers trust expert content more than marketing materials when judging a company.
- Source: Edelman and LinkedIn, 2024 (opens in a new tab)
- 75%
- of B2B decision-makers have looked into something they had not been considering after reading expert content.
- Source: Edelman and LinkedIn, 2024 (opens in a new tab)
What happens when only the company posts
A company page starts with zero followers and grows slowly. The first ones are usually the team itself, a client or two and a few friends. When it posts, a small part of that group sees it, and they already know the company.
The founder, on the other hand, has spent years building a network. Former colleagues, clients, investors, people in the industry. According to LinkedIn, employees' networks have on average about ten times as many connections as their company page has followers, and at a startup the founder is usually the largest and best-connected network of all.
Why a person carries more weight than a logo
The difference goes beyond reach. In B2B people buy from people they trust, and a company page has limits that a personal profile does not. This table sums them up.
| What matters | The company page | The founder's profile |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | It reaches its followers, who at a startup are few and mostly people you know. | It reaches a network built over years, with clients, colleagues and people in the industry. |
| Trust | A brand the other person doesn't know yet is doing the talking. | Someone with a name, a face and a track record that can be checked is doing the talking. |
| Conversation | It cannot invite someone to connect or start a conversation with the person who decides. | It can connect, comment and write to the right person. |
| Judgement | It usually shares company news. | It can give opinions, explain lessons learned and answer questions. |
The data points the same way. According to LinkedIn, the same content gets twice the clicks when a person shares it rather than the company. And in the 2024 Edelman and LinkedIn study, 73% of B2B buyers said they trust expert content more than marketing materials to judge what a company can do.
You still need the company page
None of this means abandoning the page. When someone reads the founder's posts and likes what they say, they go and look at the company, and there they need to find within seconds what you do, who for and some proof that it works. It is also where talent looks before joining you and where investors do their checks.
The page works as the shop window for the people the founder has attracted. What changes is the order. At a startup in the traction stage, the person comes first and the brand after.
What changes when the founder steps forward
When the founder's profile is well built and they post fairly regularly, the rest of the sales activity gets easier.
- Invitations get accepted sooner, because the person receiving them understands who you help.
- Messages do not arrive cold, because the other person has already read something of yours.
- First meetings start with more trust and fewer explanations.
- The company gains visibility without relying only on an advertising budget.
It is one of the seven ideas the LinkedIn SEED Method is built on, and the work of the Sherpa stage, the profile stage. When the founder's profile is looked after, the person who decides arrives at the first meeting already knowing who you are.