In an age of social media, founder-led brands are the new business model

5 min read

Last Updated :

Aug 14 2026 | 10:43 PM

IST

Ten years ago, if you wanted to sell toothpaste, you hired a celebrity. Today, if you want to sell toothpaste, you put the founder on Instagram. From Boat’s Aman Gupta doing Shark Tank to Zepto’s Aadit Palicha explaining 10-minute delivery on LinkedIn, from Mamaearth’s Ghazal Alagh talking mom problems to Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur breaking down Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — the founder has become the brand. Today, founder-led brands are not a trend. They are a business model.