By Alice Johnston, MD of LOI DIGITAL.
For years, creators were paid to promote someone else’s product.
Now, they’re building their own – and running the companies behind them.
Meanwhile, traditional CEOs are learning the same lesson in reverse: faceless brands don’t cut through anymore. People buy from people. And in a world where algorithms reward personality over polish, being visible isn’t vanity – it’s strategy.
From Followers to Founders
The creator-to-CEO pipeline has exploded in the past two years.
What used to be an outlier – a YouTuber with a side hustle – has become a playbook.
Look at Prime, launched by Logan Paul and KSI. Two YouTubers turned a sports drink into a multi-million brand in under a year. They didn’t need billboards or TV ads – they had built-in distribution. Their followers became their customers overnight.
The hype did eventually cool, but Prime proved something bigger: creator-led brands can reach scale faster than most VC-backed start-ups. Audience first. Product second. That’s the new funnel.
Then there’s Emma Chamberlain. Her coffee brand, Chamberlain Coffee, started as a side project and is now stocked in Whole Foods and Walmart. She built it on authenticity – same tone, same curiosity, just repackaged into a brand people trust. The company expects to hit eight-figure revenues this year.
Or Mark Rober, the NASA engineer turned YouTuber. His CrunchLabs subscription boxes sell out month after month because his content is the marketing. Every viral video doubles as a product demo.
And in the U.K., fitness creator Milly Goldsmith co-founded SULT, a hydration start-up, by sharing the build-up online — product testing, flavour debates, fulfilment chaos. Before launch day, she’d gathered tens of thousands of followers and thousands of pre-orders. When the first batch dropped, it sold out instantly. The audience didn’t need convincing; they already felt part of it.
The formula works because it inverts how brands have traditionally grown: instead of create product → find audience, creators build audiences first → then sell them something worth buying. It’s efficient. It’s personal. And it’s changing the brand landscape altogether.
CEOs are finally catching up
Flip the mirror, and you’ll see the same shift inside boardrooms.
Founders are acting more like creators – telling their stories, sharing failures, posting behind-the-scenes moments – and it’s paying off.
Take Simmy Dhillon, who left Google to build Simmer Eats. He’s sold over a million healthy meals in the UK — and much of that traction came from TikToks filmed in his own kitchen. His videos aren’t polished. They’re real. Delivery bloopers, family cameos, startup chaos. It’s messy — and it works.
Or Amelia Christie-Miller at Bold Bean Co. She made beans sexy — partly through great products, partly through charisma. Her “beanspo” videos and life-of-a founder content turned a pantry staple into a Waitrose cult brand.
Same for Aimee Smale, founder of Odd Muse. She built an eight-figure fashion brand while documenting every high and low online. When she posted a tearful video about feeling out of her depth as a young CEO, two million people watched. Instead of hurting her credibility, it made the brand stronger. People saw themselves in her story.
And then there’s Mid-Day Squares — a Canadian chocolate brand that runs like a reality show. Founders Jake, Lezlie, and Nick film everything: breakdowns, fights, wins. Their unfiltered storytelling pulled in 10+ million LinkedIn views last year and helped raise $17 million in funding.
This is the new corporate communications: unfiltered, emotional, immediate. The CEO is no longer just a face on the “About Us” page — they’re the content.
Why it works
It’s easy to dismiss this as marketing theatre. But there’s a commercial logic underneath.
1. Built-in distribution.
When your founder has an audience, your CAC (customer acquisition cost) starts near zero. Prime didn’t need paid ads. SULT sold out its first production run before launch.
2. Authentic trust.
People trust people more than logos. When Amelia from Bold Bean recommends a recipe, or Emma Chamberlain picks a roast, it lands as advice, not advertising.
3. Community co-creation.
Creator-led brands build with their audience, not just for them. SULT asked followers to vote on flavours. Mid-Day Squares let fans lobby Costco on their behalf. That sense of participation (and leverage) is priceless.
Attention has become a company asset. And in 2025, attention flows toward people who show up, not brands that hide.
Being the face of your brand comes with a cost.
Of course, visibility isn’t free. Authenticity burns energy. Constant content creation is a job in itself. SULT’s founders now travel with a videographer just to keep up with the pace of posting.
There’s also risk. When the founder is the brand, one misstep or burnout spiral can hurt the company. And as Prime found, hype alone can’t sustain a product — quality still matters.
The best creator-founders understand that virality is a spark, not a strategy. After the early buzz, they settle into proper brand-building: consistent product, clear purpose, community. That’s how Emma Chamberlain made the leap from influencer merch to grocery-store brand.
For CEOs crossing the line into creator territory: There’s a fine line between authentic storytelling and forced personal branding. Audiences can smell when it’s contrived. The magic only works when it’s real.
The new playbook
What’s emerging is a hybrid model — part influencer, part operator.
Every startup now needs someone who can do both. Not just a CEO but also a CCO: Chief Creator Officer.
These hybrid founders treat distribution as seriously as product. They don’t outsource storytelling. They understand that in the scroll economy, the company narrative is the product experience.
Venture capital is catching on. Investor decks now highlight “founder audience reach” as a strategic advantage. Some funds even scout for creator co-founders. Because distribution has become the hardest part of growth — and creators bring it on day one.
The smartest CEOs are learning from them too. Look at Ben Francis at Gymshark. He started vlogging to show the company’s inner workings — hiring, challenges, factory tours. It made Gymshark relatable. Employees became evangelists. Customers became fans.
That’s the crossover: creators learning operations, operators learning storytelling. And the result? Brands that feel alive.
What comes next
Creators are setting up proper companies with CFOs and manufacturing lines. CEOs are building audiences like it’s 2015 YouTube all over again.
Over the next few years, expect to see even more C-suite-creator mashups — a CMO who’s also a micro-influencer, or a TikTok creator sitting on a cap table. Because distribution and authenticity have become the new growth engines.
Every brand will need a face. Every founder will need a story.
And the ones who can tell theirs best – will win.
