I keep having the same conversation with startup founders: "Where should I start with content marketing?"
My answer every time? LinkedIn. Just LinkedIn. For now.
Most founders are biased to believe they need a full-court press: build a blog library, launch email campaigns, publish across channels. But as a founder, you’re probably a team of one. Two if you’re lucky. You don't have the resources to manage all that, and more importantly, you don't have time to wait for it to work.
For most founders, LinkedIn is where you and your audience already are. It doesn’t require much time or money. You can build a foundation in 90 days with just a bit of discipline: testing your message in public, finding what resonates, and building up your audience. LinkedIn — and later, a few other strategic assets — gets you there faster than any other approach.
LinkedIn Gives Fast Feedback
LinkedIn gives you three things from day one: distribution, fast feedback, and real relationships. That’s a rare combination. And for early-stage B2B, it’s a powerful one.
1. It Provides an Asymmetric Opportunity
LinkedIn has 1 billion users, but only 1% post weekly. That imbalance creates an opening.
Plus, your buyers are already there. Over 50% of decision-makers spend an hour or more per week reading thought leadership on the platform, and 95% of B2B buyers say good thought leadership makes them more open to outreach.
So you have high attention, low competition, and an audience that’s actually receptive. That’s an asymmetric opportunity. If you show up with substance, you’ll earn outsized reach versus channels like search that require a domain authority your startup doesn’t have yet.
2. It Delivers Results Faster Than SEO
Speed matters more than authority on LinkedIn. A post today can generate leads tomorrow, and that’s not something that can happen in search.
With SEO, you’re looking at six to 12 months before you see real traffic. With LinkedIn, you can start seeing traction as soon as you start posting.
LinkedIn's algorithm rewards engagement and dwell time, not domain authority or backlinks. There's no SEO spam to compete with. You don't need to be an established brand. You just need to post something worth reading.
Learn what resonates, iterate on it, and then turn the winners into evergreen content on your site.
3. It Humanizes Your Brand
People don’t follow logos; they follow people. LinkedIn lets you show up as an actual human, which builds trust far faster than any brand page ever will.
If you pivoted a pricing strategy, share it. If you killed a feature, explain why. Audiences respond to transparency and evolution, not polished, buttoned-up “news.” Authenticity is what resonates.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
Buffer, a social media management platform, shares its progress, ethos, and challenges on its LinkedIn.
Its founder uses LinkedIn to share revenue updates, employees participate in creator-led experiments, and they openly share internal decisions — even those that are risky, like offboarding inactive subscribers.
The result is a platform with nearly 200,000 active users and $22.6 million in recurring revenue. All because the people behind the brand choose to keep the conversation going.
4. It Accelerates Market Fit
LinkedIn gives you direct access to your market. You can test messaging and validate ideas all through real-time conversations with actual buyers.
Post about a problem you're solving, and you'll see immediately whether it resonates. Share a feature you're considering, and people will tell you if it matters. That feedback loop is fast, unfiltered, and impossible to get from analytics alone.
The faster you learn what your market cares about, the faster you can build something they'll pay for. LinkedIn gives you that speed.
Just Chat, Don't Sell
LinkedIn works best when you treat it like a place to build relationships, not broadcast news.
Most brands post like they're running a PR desk. You’ll see announcements, product updates, and generic thought leadership, but that's not what LinkedIn rewards. It rewards earnest participation. It wants you to start conversations, to share what you're learning, to be willing to be wrong in public. Actual conversation over promotion always wins out.
You don’t need a master plan, but you do need a habit. Show up with curiosity and candor on a regular basis. Take a stance. Invite discussion. Just have something to say.
If I had to start over today, here's what I'd do.
1. Write Like You're Building the Company, Not Marketing It
Treat LinkedIn like a roundtable. Post useful information. Comment back. Ask for takes. Engage with people who interact with your brand.
Share real decisions, beliefs, and tradeoffs — not sanitized talking points. Your fingerprints should be all over the ideas you share.
Example: Instead of "We just launched our new feature. Check it out!" try: "We built this new feature because 70% of our users struggled with [problem]. Here's what we changed and why. Would love your take. How do you handle this?"
Or: "We turned down a $100k deal this week because the customer wasn't the right fit. Hard decision, but here's why it was the right one for us."
That kind of candor builds trust faster than polished brand copy ever could.
2. Think (and Post) Out Loud
Leading voices on LinkedIn would rather be early and wrong than late and perfect.
Example: Instead of waiting for product-market fit data, a founder might post: "We just killed our free trial. Switching to a demo-first model instead. It goes against everything we know about PLG, but our data shows most signups never activate. Stay tuned to find out if this was genius or plain stupid."
You're not on LinkedIn to mimic other thought leaders (then you’re not a leader; you’re a follower). You're there to build your unique voice. Even if the take isn't fully proven or feels counterintuitive, even if you were embarrassingly wrong, you’re inviting discussion and showing that you're thinking, and that’s where real authority can be built.
3. Stick to One Problem Space
Pick one problem your ideal customer cares about deeply, then post about it — a lot. Don't dilute your message with too many perspectives too fast, or you’ll scatter your focus and confuse customers.
Example: If you help B2B SaaS teams reduce churn, your posts should center on that theme: onboarding issues, usage patterns, customer success. Save trending topics and cultural riffs for later.
Carve out your central niche first and branch out later. This consistency contributes to your authority and positions you as a leader in your space.
4. Format Posts for Dwell Time
LinkedIn uses dwell time as a ranking signal. Basically, it favors content that holds attention and keeps people on the platform. So when you’re writing a post, you’ll need to format it so people stop, read, and comment.
Start with a hook. Something like: “We deleted our onboarding flow, and our activation rate went up. Here’s the breakdown.”
It’s short, surprising, and promises value, giving readers a reason to stop scrolling and stay engaged.
Then add a succinct setup: two to three beats of evidence, one clear takeaway, and an optional question.
5. Find Your Own Cadence
Consistency builds visibility, so start small. Post just once or twice a week at first to develop your voice and understand what resonates with your audience. When you know what lands, grow to ~12/month.
Simple rhythm: Post a Monday lesson and a Friday insight. It builds a habit for you and expectations for your audience. Adjust once the comments show you what to double down on.
Frequency will help you reach more people, sure. But first, just show up and build momentum.
6. Resist the Multi-Channel Itch
You know how going multi-product too early can kill your startup? Going multi-channel too early will kill your momentum.
I see this all the time. Founders try to spin up a blog, launch a podcast, and build out a weekly newsletter, all at once. It doesn't work. It’s a strain on your already limited resources and splitting focus.
The only exception I'd make? Competitive AdWords. If there's a clear, high-intent keyword where you can profitably outbid an incumbent, go for it.
But generally: Earn focus first, then expand.
Later, You Can Scale
Once you have a solid foundation, a good cadence, and a basic understanding of what resonated with your audience, I’d start adding two additional assets into the fold: case studies (proof) and high-intent Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) (capture). This is what I’d call low-effort, high-return content.
1. Add Case Studies
Case studies legitimize your claims. They prove your value proposition with actual customer wins.
Start with one good story. Show the problem (preferably a common one your customers face), your approach, and real results — with numbers if you can get them. Get the logo and a quote if the customer allows it — social proof goes a long way. Then publish it on your site as a full write-up so you can send it to prospects and reference it in future posts.
2. Work on High-Intent AEO
AEO content catches people who are actively searching for answers. It complements your LinkedIn strategy by meeting buyers where they already are.
Take your best content — the posts that got the most engagement or that you feel strongest about — and publish them as blog posts. Collect email addresses there and start building a secondary audience.
Focus on two to three pieces that buyers are actually searching for:
What-if explainers that define your category and/or product
Competitive comparisons (e.g., X vs. Y)
Sales-aligned articles (e.g., articles that answer real sales questions)
These rank way faster than traditional SEO because they're narrow and high-intent. You're going after long-tail keywords you can actually own, not vanity terms your bigger competitors already dominate.
So, case studies prove you're real. AEO makes you findable and builds your list. Together, they turn your LinkedIn presence from thoughts into results.
Take ‘The LinkedIn Thought Leadership Challenge’
Here's my challenge to you: Post three times a week for 30 days. That's it.
Sounds simple, but most founders quit too early. They cite that they’re too busy or they don’t have enough content. The secret? Get an accountability buddy. Find another founder, set up a weekly check-in, and hold each other to it. Or DM me on LinkedIn. Seriously, I’ll be your buddy.
As you get into the habit, you can then begin to:
Reply to comments
Engage with other founders and brands
Repost thought leaders and add your own take
But first, focus on posting. Don’t worry about optimizing for vitality. Worry about building your presence, generating that feedback loop, and testing market fit.
For month two, scale what works. Add more posts, turn top performers into evergreen articles, publish a case study. If you want outside help, now is a good time to hire an agency, but only once you know what you want amplified.
By month three, post 12x or more, publish another case study, and build out those two to three AEO articles (built from real conversations).
As you look beyond your first three months, keep LinkedIn as your primary engine. Add more case studies. Layer in more AEO where it makes sense. As you grow your habit, you’ll grow your audience.
Focus Is the Growth Hack
I know. A LinkedIn-first strategy may feel too narrow at first. You're probably thinking about all the channels you're not using — the blog, the newsletter, the podcast everyone says you need.
But here's what I've seen work: Founders who post on LinkedIn learn what lands, turn posts into assets, and grow their brand. Within 90 days, they've got a sharper message and momentum. Within six months, they've got a growth engine and real trust.
Post for conversations and data. Ship proof through case studies. Capture intent with a few smart AEO pieces. Focus first, expand later.
If you want help running this playbook, let's talk.