Build Loyalty Through Founder Tales

Howdy readers 🥰

In this newsletter you will find:

💪 Using a Founder-Centric Approach to Scale Your Brand

🖥️ Chrome's Engagement Metrics and Their Role

🚀Ad of the Day

If you’re new to ScaleUP, then a hearty welcome! You’ve reached the right place, along with 50k+ CEOs, CMOS, and marketers. Let’s get into it, shall we? Oh! Before you forget, if someone forwarded this newsletter to you, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss out!

Together with Particl

Do You Know How Your Competitors Performed This BFCM?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, but the real winners are just now emerging. While your competitors are already dissecting their results and planning their next moves, are you still in the dark?

Particl gives eCommerce brands instant access to competitor insights—unveiling top-selling products, discounting strategies, and inventory trends. 

Wondering if you missed the mark on your pricing or need to adjust for the rest of the holiday season? Particl helps brands like Skims, Mejuri, and Vuori stay ahead of the curve with data-backed strategies that drive results.

The competition isn't waiting for the next big wave—neither should you. Finish the year strong by understanding what worked (and didn't) for your industry.

Start your free trial today and uncover the strategies your competitors don't want you to see!

💪 Using a Founder-Centric Approach to Scale Your Brand

A founder-centric strategy can be a powerful tool for growth, especially in today’s market where consumers crave authenticity and personal connections. When done right, this approach can create a loyal customer base and elevate your brand’s story while keeping scalability intact. Here’s how to use founder-centric strategies to grow your DTC brand effectively.

1. Make the Founder’s Journey Relatable

Consumers are drawn to brands that solve problems they can relate to. A compelling founder story showcases not only the challenges the founder faced but also how those challenges connect to the audience’s pain points.

Actionable Tip: Use frameworks like PAS (Problem, Agitation, Solution) to frame your founder’s story. For example, instead of just sharing “how you started,” explain how you identified a gap in the market and turned it into a solution. Use lines like, “I faced this, just like you do, and here’s how we fixed it.”

Allbirds' Joey Zwillinger, left, and Tim Brown. Allbirds

Example: Allbirds’ founders leveraged their story of creating eco-friendly shoes to resonate with consumers who prioritize sustainability. Their personal commitment made the brand’s mission feel genuine.

2. Blend Authenticity with Strategy

The founder’s story should serve as a gateway to the brand’s broader narrative. Customers buy into the solution, not just the founder. Position the founder as the visionary who started the journey, but highlight the brand as the one delivering value.

Actionable Tip: Create content that transitions smoothly from founder-led storytelling to customer success stories. Use testimonials, case studies, or reviews to show how the brand solves problems for real people.

Pro Move: Integrate employee or team member stories to balance the narrative and show that the brand is a collective effort.

3. Build Scalable Content Around the Founder

Your founder story should scale with the brand. Develop content that other team members or ambassadors can deliver without losing its essence.

Actionable Tip: Repurpose the founder story into multiple formats—short TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, long-form blogs, or email campaigns. Use key moments from the founder’s journey to craft ongoing narratives that resonate across platforms.

Example: Patagonia scaled its founder, Yvon Chouinard’s, story of sustainability into a company-wide mission. By embedding his commitment to environmental preservation into every campaign, the brand continues to grow while staying authentic to its roots.

4. Connect the Founder’s Vision to Consumer Values

The founder’s story should amplify the values the brand stands for, creating alignment between the business mission and customer beliefs.

Actionable Tip: Focus on purpose-driven content. If the founder is passionate about sustainability, for example, create content around eco-conscious practices and align products with those values.

A founder-centric approach isn’t just about storytelling; it’s about making the founder’s journey a bridge between the brand and its audience. By keeping the narrative relatable, scalable, and customer-focused, you can grow your brand’s reach while maintaining authenticity.

When aligned with strategic content and purpose-driven messaging, the founder’s story becomes a powerful engine for growth.

🖥️ Chrome's Engagement Metrics and Their Role
Insights from SEJ

Google Chrome collects site engagement metrics to enhance user experience within its browser ecosystem. These metrics prioritize user interaction, allocate resources, and determine feature enablement.

While some may speculate on their broader use, Google’s documentation explicitly clarifies that these metrics are confined to improving browser functionality and usability.

The Breakdown:

📊 How Metrics Work: Chrome measures user engagement primarily by active time spent on a site, with signals like homepage additions included. Scores range from 0-100, reflecting user activity levels. Scores decay over time if users stop visiting a site, keeping metrics relevant.

⚙️ Uses of Engagement Scores: Metrics serve three core functions:

• Prioritizing resources: Sites with higher engagement receive more storage and background sync priority.
• Feature enablement: Metrics decide when features like autoplay or app banners are triggered.
• Site sorting: Engagement levels determine tab management, most-used lists, and tab discarding during low memory.

🔒 Privacy Protections: Scores are device-specific, unsynced across devices, and isolated in Incognito Mode. Clearing browsing history erases these metrics. Google affirms that engagement scores are not shared or used for Google Search ranking, maintaining strict transparency and user data isolation.

Chrome's engagement metrics enhance browser usability, focusing on user preferences while maintaining privacy safeguards. While skepticism around potential misuse exists, the documentation provides a clear purpose: optimizing browser functionality.

Together with Minisocial

Last call to save BIG for an even BIGGER 2025 -

The DTC communities favorite micro-influencer & UGC platform also dubbed "the last good UGC platform" is having a killer promo in December: Get legacy pricing and 15% off before pricing goes up in January.

With minisocial brand see: 

• 400% ROI on influencer posts
• Boost organic social engagement by 92%
• Decrease cost per add-to-cart by 50%
• Get more fully licensed content to promote on your channels
• Even go viral! 🤪

With the discount, you can save $800 off their base package if you start a project now instead of waiting until January.

Something unique about minisocial is they have no long-term commitments, so give it a try and see for yourself why so many brands keep coming back even though they don't have to 😆

Learn more about minisocial here and get started before the end of the month for their best deal ever!

What Works:

1. Unique Selling Proposition: “First and Only Customizable Shapewear” directly highlights a market-first innovation, making the product stand out in a competitive space.
2. Clear Demonstration: The side-by-side comparison visually explains the functionality and versatility of the shapewear, helping potential customers immediately understand its benefits.
3. Relatable Copy: The phrase “Ready to unlock your wardrobe’s full potential?” connects with an emotional desire for confidence and wardrobe flexibility.
4. Clean Aesthetic: The minimalistic background ensures the focus remains on the product and its transformational effect, keeping the visual uncluttered and impactful.
5. Educational Touch: The added note “Shorten one side to expose more leg” shows functionality in action, reinforcing how the product can adapt to individual needs.

What Can Be Better:

1. Call-to-Action: Adding a clear CTA like “Shop Customizable Shapewear Now” or “Discover Your Perfect Fit” would direct viewers to act immediately.
2. Highlight Comfort or Features: A brief mention of additional benefits, such as all-day comfort, breathable material, or seamless design, would add more depth to the ad and attract a broader audience.

Broader Insights:

Innovation-focused products benefit from visual storytelling and a clear explanation of unique features, as seen here. Pairing such clarity with actionable CTAs and highlighting practical benefits ensures a stronger connection with shoppers who seek both style and utility.

Advertise with Us

Wanna put out your message in front of over 50,000 best marketers and decision makers?

Find our Partner Kit here🤝

We are concerned about everything DTC and its winning strategies. If you liked what you read, why not join the 50k+ marketers from 13k+ DTC brands who have already subscribed? Just follow this.

At ScaleUP, we care about our readers and want to provide the best possible experience. That's why we always look for ways to improve our content and connect with our audience. If you'd like to stay in touch, be sure to follow us EVERYWHERE🥰

Thanks for your support :) We'll be back again with more such content 🥳