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 deployed into a16z's portfolio companies to help founders with product launches and content dissemination.
The world's top-tier VC is now systematically teaching founders to become KOLs.
If you still think "building an IP" is optional, this signal is worth reconsidering.
The Math on Customer Acquisition No Longer Adds Up
First, an uncomfortable number: Over the past 10 years, the customer acquisition cost (CAC) for to-C products has increased by 222%.
In 2025, the cost per paid lead on Google Ads was **$70+**, and it's still rising year-over-year.
The median in the SaaS industry is even more outrageous—spending $2 to earn back just $1 in annual revenue.
In the financial industry, the cost to acquire a single customer exceeds **$4,000**.
It's not that your targeting isn't precise enough; the entire market is getting more expensive. Privacy regulations have tightened precise targeting, platform ad inventory is inflating, and competitors are vying for the same pool of user attention.
More critically, when ads stop, the traffic drops to zero. You might spend millions on advertising, with the CAC potentially higher than the product itself. And once the budget is cut, the previously bought traffic leaves no trace.
At the same time, there's a completely different set of data:
- The organic reach ROI of founder-created content is 388%—and it compounds over time.
- Posts by founders generate 33% more leads than the company's official account.
- Deals driven by founders are 3.7 times larger.
- Engagement on content from founders and employees is 8 times higher than on the company page.
The same market, two completely different growth logics. One is buying traffic, which gets increasingly expensive; the other is trading personality for trust, which becomes more valuable over time.
AI Is Homogenizing Products Faster Than You Can React
In 2024, global AI startups surged from 14,000 to 22,000. 10-15 new AI products are launched daily. Venture capital funding doubled.
It sounds prosperous. But the flip side is: in the same year, 966 startups shut down in the US (Carta data), many of which were AI wrappers—thin shells around ChatGPT.
The first-mover advantage window for product features has shrunk from "years" to "3-12 months".
In August 2024, Google cut the input price of Gemini 1.5 Flash by 78%, and OpenAI cut GPT-4o by 50%. The underlying models are being commoditized, and the applications built on top are becoming more homogeneous. The feature you build today can be copied by a competitor tomorrow.
This isn't unique to the AI industry. AI is accelerating the homogenization of all to-C products—because AI makes development faster, design faster, and iteration faster.
When everyone can build an 80-point product in 3 months, where is the final 20-point gap written?
Consumers are voting with their wallets: they choose the "person", not just the "product".
- 98% of consumers believe brand authenticity is crucial for building trust.
- 71% of people say they distrust brands that rely heavily on AI for communication.
- 52% of people's engagement drops immediately upon detecting AI-generated content.
- 67% of consumers are willing to pay more for founder brands whose values align with their own.
The more AI content floods the market, the scarcer "human touch" becomes. Operations with a human touch are the survival rule for enterprises in this AI era.
Consumers Increasingly Prefer Brands That Have "A Real Person Standing Behind Them"
This is the underlying value of a founder's IP—it's not simply about "the founder becoming an influencer," but rather, in an era where AI makes everything homogeneous, the founder themselves become the brand's greatest differentiating asset.
Let me share a few names you've certainly heard of.
1. Sam Altman — One Man Driving the Entire AI Narrative
Sam Altman's Twitter followers: 4.5 million, more than OpenAI's official account's 3.3 million. When Sora was released, Altman tweeted asking fans what they wanted to do with it—1500 comments, 7 million impressions. This wasn't a campaign planned by the marketing department; it was just the founder sending a tweet. In January 2025, he stated, "We are quite confident we know how to build AGI"—no product launch, no technical paper, just one sentence that changed the direction of the global AI narrative.
OpenAI's valuation rose from $29 billion in 2023 to $300 billion in 2025. Altman's personal IP is the largest free accelerator in this growth curve.
2. Aravind Srinivas — Researcher Background, Zero Marketing Budget to $21 Billion
Perplexity's CEO Aravind Srinivas might be the most worth-studying case in 2025. He wasn't an influencer; he was an ML researcher—previously at OpenAI, Google Brain, and DeepMind. After starting up, he did one thing: personally handled all product communication, never delegating it to a marketing team. On Twitter, he writes research breakdowns, explains product logic, and directly responds to user feedback.
The result? Perplexity's valuation soared from **$150 million in 2023 to $21.2 billion** in 2026—a 133x increase. Monthly queries: 780 million, 30 million daily. User growth in India: 640%—largely due to Aravind's personal clout there as an Indian-origin founder.
No traditional marketing. Just founder credibility + product story + transparent communication. Now, let me ask you, how much time do you spend weekly, daily, in your user community?
3. David Holz — Zero Ads, 20 People, $500 Million Revenue
Midjourney's founder David Holz is even more extreme. This is zero marketing budget. Team size only 10-15 people. 2025 revenue: $500 million. Users: over 20 million.
His strategy? Regularly hosts "Office Hours" live on Discord—personally answering user questions, discussing product direction, handling copyright disputes. Doesn't do public launches; all updates are announced only within the Discord community. Users feel like they are participating in something with an "idealistic independent research lab," not just using a company's product. This sense of trust leads Midjourney users to spontaneously share their creations on Twitter and Reddit—every user becomes a free marketing channel.
4. Alternative Case Duolingo — Not Founder IP, but the Essence is the Same
Duolingo didn't take the founder IP route; virtual IP is also project IP: turned the brand into a "personality". A green owl "goes crazy" on TikTok—algorithm stalking you, pretending to die, feuding with other brands. In 4 years, monthly active users grew from 37 million to 117 million. Whether it's the founder themselves building an IP or the brand being personified—the underlying logic is the same: in an era where AI makes all products look similar, consumers need a "living thing" to connect with. This "living thing" can be the founder, or it can be a crazy owl.
5. Also a Classic, Elon Musk — The Ultimate Double-Edged Sword Case
You can't just talk about the good with Musk.
160M followers, the most influential founder KOL globally. Grok, relying on his personal promotion + X platform integration, saw its market share rise from 1.9% in early 2025 to 17.8% in 2026.
But the other side is: Tesla's brand value dropped from **$58.3 billion in 2024 to $27.6 billion in 2026—a 53% decline.** 2025 sales fell 9%. Reason? Musk's political comments triggered large-scale consumer boycotts. Of course, Elon is a god in my mind, so he has also successfully overcome this issue. I include this here merely to provide a comprehensive example for better understanding.
Founder IP is an amplifier—it amplifies everything, the good and the bad.
This is an Era Betting on Founders Who Know How to Build an IP
The VC logic is straightforward: a founder's IP capability determines the product's market penetration speed and fundraising efficiency.
Weber Shandwick's research quantified this relationship: corporate executives estimate that 44% of their company's market value is directly attributable to the CEO's reputation. 44%—almost half.
When VCs start systematically investing in founders' personal brands, this has shifted from a "nice to have" to infrastructure.
But remember: product strength is the 1, IP is the 0s that follow.
After these cases, one thing must be made clear.
Many say they have huge traffic but no one uses the product. Then we're back to whether your product is robust and has a moat? And is your traffic for building user NDA for the brand, or just chasing noise or so-called hot topics that your project doesn't even need?
Founder IP has one prerequisite: product strength is the 1, IP is the 0s that follow. Without the 1, any number of 0s is still 0.
IP amplifies product value; it cannot create value out of thin air. First, have a solid product, then IP has a foundation to amplify. Conversely, having a good product but no IP is like a 1 with no 0s—you can win, but you win very slowly.
The New Mandatory Course for Founders in the AI Era
To summarize the core logic chain:
Customer acquisition costs spiral out of control → Traditional advertising ROI continues to deteriorate → Need more efficient growth methods.
AI accelerates product homogenization → Features are no longer a barrier → Need new sources of differentiation.
Consumers want "human touch" → The more AI content floods, the scarcer authenticity becomes → Brands with a real person behind them win.
These three lines converge on the same conclusion: the founder's IP is the most efficient growth lever for to-C products in the AI era, and also the hardest barrier to replicate.
If you haven't started building your own IP yet, if you're still纠结ing "the company has so many things to handle, building an IP takes too much time"—then please re-evaluate after reading this article.
Start now, DO IT NOW.
