It's often difficult for marketers to communicate the ethos of a brand just through typical ads. This is where a founder's story comes in handy. A founder's story stands out by sharing the ideas, challenges, and passion behind a business and inviting the audience to join the journey.
Here are some tips to help yours stand out.
Key Takeaways
- Keep it short and personal: A concise, relatable founder’s story connects emotionally and is easier for audiences to remember and share. Avoid long or overly polished narratives.
- Lead with honesty and gratitude: Share real challenges, emotions, and appreciation for the people who helped along the way. Authenticity builds trust and humanizes your brand.
- Stay focused on what matters: Keep the story relevant to your brand’s mission and your audience’s interests so it feels meaningful, not random or self-promotional.
- Share your “why”: Clearly express the beliefs, vision, and motivation behind starting the business. This helps customers see how your values align with theirs.
- Inspire, don’t just inform: A great founder’s story isn’t just background, it’s an invitation for customers to join your journey and believe in what you’re building.
4 Expert Tips for Creating a Distinctive Founder's Story
1. Keep It Short, Memorable, & Easy to Endorse
Storytelling is an art, but you don't need to be an expert to do it right. The best way to make the story memorable and easy to endorse is to make it personal. If the audience can connect with the founder and their story, they'll engage more. Keeping it short and sweet goes hand in hand with this since the one emotion you don't want your audience to feel is boredom.
TOMS does a great job of keeping it short while still managing to communicate the company's humanitarian origins.
2. Be Honest & Express Gratitude
Honesty is the best policy, giving your story the genuine tone it needs. The story should share the founder's raw emotions throughout their journey—especially their gratitude to those who continued to support the business through challenges (such as the employees, customers, investors, and partners).
Chipotle's story is one of being honest with their customers and especially grateful to their employees.
3. Make It Relevant
When composing the story, make sure to keep it relevant to the brand and the audience. Don't stray from the main storyline unless necessary. Sticking to the point will bring out positive emotions in the audience, especially if you're targeting something they're passionate about too.
Warby Parker, for example, addresses the pain point of expensive eyewear, as it's the very reason the founder started the company.
4. Share Your Beliefs, Vision, & Mission
Most importantly, the founder should share what motivated them to start the business and what the beliefs, vision, and mission that drives them are. Describing these details briefly will give your audience a better understanding of how they can fit into the brand's vision.
SoulCycle is genuine and isn't afraid to share what drives them, which does a great job of attracting those who can relate.
» Interested in interactive marketing? Take a look at the best interactive marketing tools and strategies
Pro Tip: Turn Your Founder’s Story into a Shoppable Experience
Your founder’s story isn’t just backstory, it’s conversion fuel when told interactively. Use video and authentic storytelling to make shoppers feel like they’re part of your journey.
- Start with a Founder Video: Record a short (under 60s) video where the founder shares why they started the brand. Add tappable product tags tied to the story moment, “This was our first design.”
- Weave It into PDPs: Place that video above the fold on key product pages. Shoppers are 2× more likely to trust and buy when they see the real people behind a product.
- Add Interactive Chapters: Use Tolstoy’s branching feature so viewers can choose what to explore next.
- Close with a Call to Join: End the story with a clear CTA, inviting visitors to follow your mission or shop featured items that align with your values.
Final Thoughts
While it may seem daunting at first, all you need to make your story stand out is just sharing your journey in a genuine, relevant, and positive way. Your brand's unique approach will inspire the audience and give them something to think about.
FAQs
Your audience connects when they see shared values or challenges reflected in your journey.
- Open with a defining “aha moment” that explains why your brand exists.
- Focus on customer pain points, not personal success.
- Show emotional transparency, gratitude, doubt, and resilience build trust.
See emotional branding examples in Marketing Strategies: Authentic Storytelling Is Key.
Overcomplicating, over-selling, or omitting vulnerability are the three killers of authenticity.
- Avoid corporate jargon, use conversational language.
- Cut unnecessary backstory that doesn’t reinforce your mission.
- Balance “I” and “we” statements to shift focus from founder to customer impact.
Treat your story as a scalable marketing asset, not a one-time bio.
- Record a short founder video and feature it on your homepage or email welcome flow.
- Use it in paid ads to build credibility with cold audiences.
- Embed interactive CTAs leading to key products or initiatives.
Explore high-performing examples in Brilliant Ways Videos Can Increase Your Conversion Rates.
Tolstoy’s AI Studio can transform your written story into cinematic, on-brand video assets in minutes.
- Input your narrative and specify tone (e.g., “authentic”, “uplifting”, “documentary-style”).
- Generate short branded visuals or product cutaways for key story moments.
- Use the video editor to insert the AI shots into the founder’s video.
- Publish directly to your homepage or ads to boost emotional engagement.
With the AI Player, you can embed clickable, SEO-optimized videos that drive viewers from story to purchase.
- Use the branching videos to funnel shoppers through your story, allowing them to navigate the story based on their interest.
- Leverage player analytics to see which videos hold attention longest.
- Turn engagement data into new campaign insights for email or retargeting.
Explore the workflow in How Shoppable Video Is Shaping the E-commerce Storefront.
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