Social Files by Tommy Clark
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Storytelling for B2B founders, explained.

Storytelling for B2B founders, explained.

1 simple shift you can use to get more reach on your next batch of content.

Tommy Clark
May 13, 2025

Hey!

Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.

Hope you had a great weekend. I spent my weekend catching up on sleep, and reading—per usual. Current read is Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio. If you read, and were obsessed with, Red Rising like I was, I think you’ll like this one, too.

Anyway, on to B2B marketing stuff. Today I want to talk to you a bit about everyone’s favorite topic: “storytelling.”

Lot of talk about this coming out of the personal brand guru industrial complex. Very little advice which is actually usable.

Done right, using storytelling will make your content perform better. You’ll grow faster on platforms like LinkedIn, or wherever else your ICP might hang out.

Shall we?

Also, quick note! One of those talented people I know in content marketing is hiring for someone to join their team at Redpoint in a Content & Social Media Operations role (you’ve probably seen his videos on your FYP). Here’s the JD! I’d apply in a heartbeat if I weren’t running my agency 🙂

🔎 DEEP DIVE

Storytelling for B2B founders, explained.

1 simple shift you can use to get more reach on your next batch of content.

I’ve been going through somewhat of an existential crisis lately. I’ve just been so bored with B2B content, and all sorts of “content strategy” content on the internet. It’s all the same stuff.

Whenever this happens, I like to spend time in other categories. I’ve been spending a lot more time lately reading fiction, and learning from fiction authors.

It’s way more fun to read than another recycled post from a content strategy guru whose using an engagement pod.
You’ll actually learn more that you can use in your day-to-day as a founder & marketer than you will by reading one more post from someone in the personal brand industrial complex.

On point number two, one area I’ve been wanting to work on is storytelling. I know. Yet another term which has been bastardized by online marketers. Marketers ruin everything. But done right, understanding how to tell a compelling story will elevate your content above the competition in-market.

Today, I thought I’d walk through a simple storytelling framework you can apply to your next content batch that will make your content more compelling to your ideal customer.

Pick the right viewpoint character.

In most books you’ll read, there will be a clear viewpoint character at a given point in the story. They provide the eyes through which you view the story.

In Red Rising, you're seeing the world from Darrow’s point of view. In the Mistborn trilogy, you're alternating between a few characters, but it’s mostly Vin and Elend. If you're reading a book right now, pick it up and see if you can pinpoint the viewpoint character.

Authors choose viewpoint and tense intentionally. There are pros and cons to each choice. Some stories work better in 1st person point of view, some in 3rd person. Within 3rd person, there’s also a choice between “3rd person limited” and “3rd person omniscient.” I won’t bore you with the details—my point is, viewpoint is a choice an author makes.

When most founders try “storytelling” in their content, they don’t actively make a decision about viewpoint.

Usually, storytelling content from founders defaults to first-person. You’ll often see some sort of “building in public” post where the content is focused around the founder, and their company’s, progress.

Founders will write posts about how they got their first customers. They’ll share an “oh shit” moment in the company’s growth they had to overcome. They’ll share how they raised millions in VC money.

Building in public works well (see Adam Robinson, Tyler Denk, etc), but it’s not the only way to use storytelling in founder content. And it’s often the wrong choice for your company.

See, building in public works for lead generation when you are your own ICP. Adam shares how he’s scaling his SaaS companies to $25M ARR. He’s vulnerable, sharing both the good and the bad. At one point he literally posted his full P&L on the LinkedIn timeline.

Adam’s target buyers are other SaaS founders. Another way to look at it: he is his own ICP. So even though he’s telling his story through content, his customers can put themselves in his place as the ‘viewpoint character.’

Tyler Denk, founder of beehiiv, is another example of first-person founder content done well.

He uses building in public content to share how he’s building beehiiv, and also to document the growth of his newsletter, Big Desk Energy. There’s some percentage of Tyler’s ICP who are founders, so the content hits. Tyler also uses his content for generating investor hype, so the play makes sense. Again, intentional decision.

Founders tend to default to first-person storytelling via “building in public” because they don’t have to think much to execute the content well. You're just relaying your own lived experiences. I don’t mean this as a dig. When this aligns with your content goals, you absolutely should do this.

Now, you might not be selling to other founders. What if your main goal is lead gen and you're trying to attract VPs of Sales? “Founder story” content might from a first-person point of view might not be your best approach.

When your goal is to attract customers, your content should be through the viewpoint of the customer.

Important nuance. This isn’t just picking a target audience for your content. This is more specific to stories in your content.

Here are some tactical ways to do this well, with examples.

A1: First-person, building in public content (lead gen focus)

When this works: traditional “BIP” content with the founder as the viewpoint character works best when the founder is their own ICP.

Example: Adam Robinson has grown his new company, RB2B, to $5M ARR in roughly 1 year off the back of founder-led content.

A2: First-person, building in public content (funding & recruiting focus)

When this works: BIP content can also work well if your main goal is creating hype for funding and for recruiting. You can do both A1 and A2 at the same time if you are your own ICP. But if that isn’t you, opting for A2 may cost you lead generation, depending on your target customer.

Example: Tyler Denk reported that posting his content online helped him raise a $2.6M seed round in 7 days.

B: First-person, career story content

When this works: This works when you were in your ICP’s shoes in the past. For example, assume you were an enterprise AE at Gong, and you go start your own sales tech SaaS for enterprise AEs. You’re technically not your ICP anymore, but you do have plenty of stories from when you were which can be used in content. You could write a narrative post about a mistake that cost you a $500K deal, for example.

Example: Gal Aga, CEO of Aligned, often posts stories from his days as a CRO. Here’s an example. Aligned sells into sales leaders, so this type of story is relevant since the customer can see themselves in it.

C: First-person, hypothetical content

When this works: This is a great way to make the customer the viewpoint character, even when you don’t have the experience yourself. These posts will usually have a hook that is some variation of “If I were [ICP], here’s the playbook I’d use to [achieve ideal outcome].”

Example: I recently published a post with a hook that read, “If I lost my 36.7k LinkedIn audience & $1M revenue content agency, and had to build it all again from scratch—I’d use this exact content strategy:”. This frames the post to resonate with a founder who’s starting on LinkedIn from scratch.

C: Third-person, customer story content

When this works: This is the classic customer story content format. Take a customer case study or anecdote and package it for the social timeline. Obviously, in this format, the customer is the viewpoint character.

Example: This X thread from Zipline is the best customer story content I’ve seen all year. Goes way beyond the “Here’s how Company A increased [metric] by XX% using [Product]” case study slop.

D: Third-person, anecdote content

When this works: This type of story is helpful when you're having conversations with people who fit your ICP. You can tell their stories, which will resonate with your ICP on LinkedIn. This is one way you can do narrative content well even without direct career experience as your own ICP.

Example: The classic version of this on LinkedIn right now is the “I was at dinner with a $50M SaaS CMO, and [insert story here].” You can replace “50M SaaS CMO” with whoever your target customer is. Here’s an example—Adam Robinson prints with these.

Viewpoint is an intentional decision.

When you're building an audience online, don’t always go for the path of least resistance. This will often lead you to “building in public” and sharing all your revenue numbers to the timeline.

While this may work for some folks, it could leave you with a hollow audience with no real buyers.

Be intentional about who will resonate with each piece of storytelling content you put you. And again, the target reader doesn’t always have to be customers. It could be investors. Potential candidates.

Just be aware of which audience you're choosing to attract.

🗃 FILE CABINET

Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.

THE shortest LinkedIn course you’ll ever need by Tommy Clark 🎥
What The Greatest Entrepreneurs Have in Common | David Senra Interview by Invest Like The Best 🎥

Check these out.

BEFORE YOU GO…

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