In 2026, a16z did something strange.
They launched an 8-week fellowship program—training not engineers, not product managers, but storytellers and content creators. After training, these individuals are directly sent to a16z's portfolio companies to help founders with product launches and content dissemination.
The world's top venture capitalist began systematically teaching founders to become KOLs.
If you still think that "building IP" is optional, this signal is worth rethinking.
The customer acquisition cost can no longer be overlooked
Let's start with an uncomfortable number: In the past 10 years, the customer acquisition cost (CAC) for consumer products has increased by 222%.
In 2025, the cost of a paid lead on Google Ads was **$70+**, and it's still rising year-on-year.
The median in the SaaS industry is even more outrageous—spending $2 to earn back only $1 in annual revenue.
In the financial sector, obtaining a single customer costs over **$4,000**.
It's not that your ads aren't targeted enough; the whole market is raising prices. Privacy regulations have tightened targeted positioning, platform ad space is inflating, and competitors are vying for the same users' attention.
Worse yet, when the ads stop, the traffic goes to zero. If you spent millions on ads, the customer acquisition cost may end up being more expensive than the product itself. And once the budget is cut, the previously bought traffic leaves no trace.
Meanwhile, there is a completely different set of data:
- The organic reach ROI of personal content from founders is 388%—and it compounds over time.
- Posts from founders generate 33% more leads than company official accounts.
- Deals driven by founders are 3.7 times larger.
- The engagement of content from founders and employees is 8 times that of company pages.
In the same market, there are two completely different growth logics. One involves spending money to buy growth, getting more expensive; the other uses personality to exchange for trust, becoming more valuable the more it is used.
AI is speeding up product commoditization faster than you can react
In 2024, the number of global AI startups skyrocketed from 14,000 to 22,000. New AI products are added daily, at a rate of 10 to 15. Venture capital investment is doubling.
It sounds prosperous. But the flip side is that in the same year, there were 966 startup failures in the U.S. (Carta data), many of which were AI wrappers—just dressed-up versions of ChatGPT.
The head start advantage window for product functions has shrunk from "years" to "3-12 months."
In August 2024, Google reduced the input price for Gemini 1.5 Flash by 78%, and OpenAI slashed GPT-4o by 50%. Underlying models are being commoditized, and upper-level applications are becoming more homogenized. The function you create today can be replicated by competitors tomorrow.
This is not a special phenomenon in the AI industry. AI has accelerated the homogenization of all consumer products—because AI speeds up development, design, and iteration.
When everyone can create an 80-point product in 3 months, where is the last 20-point difference written?
Consumers are voting with their wallets: they choose "people," not just "products."
- 98% of consumers believe that brand authenticity is crucial for building trust.
- 71% of people express distrust towards brands that heavily rely on AI communication.
- 52% of individuals see a drop in engagement once they detect AI-generated content.
- 67% of consumers are willing to pay more for brands led by founders with aligned values.
The more AI content floods the market, the scarcer "human touch" becomes. Human-centered operations are the survival rule for businesses in the era of AI.
Consumers are increasingly inclined to choose brands backed by "a real person."
This is the underlying value of founder IP—not as simple as "founders becoming internet celebrities," but in an era where AI has made everything homogenized, the founders themselves have become the brand's greatest differentiating asset.
Let me share a few names you've definitely heard of.
First, Sam Altman — One person supports the entire AI narrative
Sam Altman's Twitter followers number 4.5 million, surpassing the 3.3 million of the official OpenAI account. When Sora launched, Altman tweeted to ask his followers what they wanted to use it for—1,500 comments, 7 million impressions. This is not a campaign orchestrated by the marketing department; it is a tweet from the founder himself. In January 2025, he tweeted "We are fairly certain we know how to build AGI"—without a product launch or technical paper, a single sentence changed the global AI narrative.
OpenAI's valuation rose from $29 billion in 2023 to $300 billion in 2025. Altman's personal IP is the biggest free accelerator in this growth curve.
Second, Aravind Srinivas — From researcher to $21 billion with zero marketing budget
The CEO of Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, could be the most interesting case study in 2025. He is neither a celebrity nor a marketer but a machine learning researcher—previously working at OpenAI, Google Brain, and DeepMind. After starting his own company, he did one thing: personally handled all product communications, never delegating to the marketing team. He writes research breakdowns on Twitter, explains product logic, and directly responds to user feedback.
The result? Perplexity's valuation skyrocketed from **$150 million in 2023 to **$21.2 billion in 2026**—a 133-fold increase. Monthly queries reached 780 million, with a daily average of 30 million. Indian user growth surged by 640%—largely due to Aravind’s personal influence as an Indian founder locally.
No traditional marketing. Just the founder's credibility + product story + transparent communication. Now, let me ask you, how much time do you spend engaging with your user community every week or daily?
Third, David Holz — Zero ads, 20 people, $500 million revenue
The founder of Midjourney, David Holz, takes it to the extreme. This is zero marketing budget. The team is only 10-15 people. In 2025, revenue reached $500 million. The user base surpassed 20 million.
What’s his strategy? Regular "Office Hours" live streams on Discord—personally answering user questions, discussing product direction, and handling copyright disputes. No public releases; all updates are announced only in the Discord community. Users feel they are engaged with a "idealist from an independent research lab" rather than just using a company's product. This sense of trust encourages Midjourney users to share their works organically on Twitter and Reddit—each user becomes a free marketing channel.
Fourth, an alternative case Duolingo — Not founder IP, but essentially the same
Duolingo didn't take the founder IP route; virtual IP is also project IP: turning the brand into a "personality." A green owl "goes crazy" on TikTok—tracking algorithms, pretending to die, and roasting other brands. In 4 years, monthly active users grew from 37 million to 117 million. Whether it's founder-led IP or brand personification—the underlying logic is the same: in an era where AI makes all products look similar, consumers need something "alive" to establish a connection. This "alive thing" can be the founder or a quirky owl.
Fifth, and the last classic, Elon Musk — The ultimate double-edged sword case
One cannot only say good things about Musk.
With 160 million followers, he is the most influential founder KOL globally. Grok's market share increased from 1.9% at the beginning of 2025 to 17.8% thanks to his personal promotion and X platform integration.
However, on the flip side: Tesla's brand value fell from **$58.3 billion in 2024 to $27.6 billion in 2026—a 53% drop**. Sales decreased by 9% in 2025. The reason? Musk's political comments triggered large-scale consumer boycotts. Of course, Elon is a god in my mind, so he managed to overcome this issue as well. I mentioned it only to better provide examples for everyone's understanding.
Founder IP is an amplifier, amplifying everything—both the good and the bad.
This is an era betting on founders who understand how to build IP
The logic of VC is straightforward: a founder’s IP capability determines the market penetration speed and financing efficiency of a product.
Research by Weber Shandwick quantified this relationship: Corporate executives estimate that 44% of their company's market value is directly attributable to the CEO's reputation. 44%—nearly half.
When VCs start systematically investing in founders' personal brands, this has shifted from "nice to have" to infrastructure.
But remember: product strength is 1, and IP is the subsequent 0.
After all these cases, there is one thing that must be made clear.
Many people say they have a lot of traffic but no one uses the product, which brings us back to whether your product can withstand challenges and whether it has a moat. Is your traffic created for building a brand based on user NDA or just to chase the latest trends that your project really doesn't need, or what we call noise?
Founder's IP has one premise: product strength is 1, and IP is the following 0. Without the 1, the more 0s you have, it's still 0.
IP amplifies product value but cannot create value out of thin air. Only with a solid product can IP have fertile ground for amplification. Conversely, having a good product without IP is akin to having a 1 without a 0—winning is possible, but it's a slow process.
The new prerequisite for founders in the AI era
To summarize the core logical chain:
Customer acquisition costs are out of control → Traditional advertising ROI continues to deteriorate → A need for more efficient growth methods
AI accelerates product homogenization → Functions are no longer a barrier → A need for new differentiation sources
Consumers want "humanity" → The more AI content floods the market, the more authenticity becomes scarce → Brands backed by real humans win out
The intersection of these three lines leads to the same conclusion: the founder's IP is the most efficient growth lever for to C products in the AI era and the hardest barrier to replicate.
If you haven't started building your own IP yet, if you're still stuck on "there are too many things to handle in the company, building IP takes too much time"—then please reassess this after reading this article.
From now on, DO IT NOW.
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