The Narrative War: How Founders Shape the Public Narrative for Better or Worse

Climate activism failed to inspire hope, can founders fill the void? Discover why the next cultural revolution won’t be led by politicians, but by startup leaders.

Episode Summary

In this solo episode, Marina Schmidt dissects how startup founders have become some of the most powerful public communicators of our time—and why that power matters. She explores the rise of founder evangelism, the cultural shift from corporate branding to personal leadership, and the urgent need for integrity-driven voices in an era of polarization and information overload.

Drawing on her decade of experience across media, startups, and communications, Marina outlines six theses that map the transformation of founders from company builders to narrative shapers—people who influence culture, policy, and public trust. She argues that after the failure of fear-based climate activism, the responsibility to offer hope, direction, and credible optimism now falls to founders who are building tangible solutions for a better future.

• The rise of founder evangelism and the decentralization of influence

• How social media and podcasts transformed CEOs into cultural figures

• The power shift from institutions to individuals

• Founders as lighthouses: signaling hope, direction, and vision

• The dark side of influence—when founders mislead or polarize

• Why climate activism failed and what founders can learn from it

• The “Hope–Hook–Opportunity–Path–Excitement” framework for storytelling

• The role of founders in restoring public trust and building new role models

  
  

The role of founders is no longer limited to business leadership. In an age where voices travel faster than institutions, founders shape how society sees the future. They can deepen divides—or illuminate the path forward. The question is not whether to speak, but what kind of lighthouse you want to be.

Key Words

founder branding, founder influence, startup communication, leadership storytelling, public narrative, media influence, hope-based communication, climate activism, decentralization of media, founder evangelism, science communication, tech founders, responsible leadership, thought leadership, narrative framing, communication strategy, startup culture, future builders, social impact founders, trust and influence

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The era of founder evangelism ishere.
It has been here for a while, but things are intensifying and
they're not about to stop. What I'm going to speak about
today are topics that have been on my mind for years.
Being a communications professional with a decade of
experience in the startup scene.I've worked in market analysis,

(00:23):
journalistic work on agricultureand food and biotechnology.
I've covered the startup scene. I assisted and consulted
founders, and I have seen thingsthat both concern me and excite
me about the future role of founders as spokespeople, as

(00:43):
public figures. I'm Marina Schmidt, this is
Scaling Nerds, the communicationpodcast for science and tech
founders. This episode is for you if you
are a startup founder, if you are an investor, or if you're
interested in the forces that have been shaping our media

(01:03):
narratives. OK, let's get into the points
that I have for you. My first thesis is the direct
influence on culture and societyand policy that founders can
have has never been greater. Rockefeller had a lot of

(01:23):
influence. Henry Ford had a lot of
influence. But something greater is
happening. And I mean, there has never been
such a thin barrier between public figures being able to
speak their minds and thousands,if not millions of people

(01:44):
getting the message directly through LinkedIn, through
Twitter, through podcasts, all much more decentralized than we
used to have years ago. We see founders influencing
stock prices. We see founders being much more
influential in terms of political decisions and rallying

(02:07):
public opinion to push for changes they want to see in
policy. So since the 2000s, founders
themselves started to get much more publicity because the media
noticed that people connect a lot more with seeing a face and
hearing the story of a person instead of just, you know,

(02:31):
having a faceless press release and just the company logo.
The founders became central to company identity, right?
And they were pitching the company, promoting it, speaking
out. Steve Jobs is the example of
this era and this change. And we've seen that the rise of

(02:52):
the influence of founders has been accelerating because of
Twitter, because of LinkedIn, because of Sub stack and
podcasts. My second thesis is that the
rise of AI content slot it's just going to cause us to crave
seeing real people in real conversations even more.

(03:17):
We still are wired as we were many years ago.
We still want to work with people we know, like and trust.
And just the sheer overwhelm of incoming messages, incoming
information and news, it will just increase our one to
actually know who is behind companies and our preference to

(03:41):
invest in companies or buy from companies where we feel like we
know the founder and we we have a face that is associated with
the company. My third thesis is that you're a
lighthouse as a founder. And the question is which
lighthouse you want to be. Being a founder is like being a

(04:03):
lighthouse because you think about what a lighthouse does,
right? Stand there and shines the light
out far out onto the ocean, ontothe land and shows people this
is where you can find land. This is where to go.
Like signals out to attract the right kind of ships, but also

(04:27):
signals out to help those peoplelost at sea who don't know where
to go, who are who are lost in the dark.
The role of a founder is to signal all the time to talk
about the vision, mission, values, whatever right, left,
right, left, right, but also what kind of future we want to

(04:49):
build and what needs to change and what can change.
Sharing that light beam of hope,especially in these recent
years, we've also have gotten a bunch of red lighthouses.
And I envision them, you know, like far out into the ocean.

(05:09):
It's these dark lighthouses casting a red beam all around
them 360°. And the issue is that instead of
giving people grounding, insteadof leading them onto the land,
they're leading them further outdeep into the sea where there

(05:31):
will be lost. In February this year, maybe you
remember this. Elon Musk held a chainsaw over
his head. And this image really burned
itself into my memory. It was the last straw.

(05:55):
It was something that cracked inme and threw me into a grey hole
for a good week, unable to really cope and being a very
optimistic and resilient person that has been through a lot of

(06:16):
crap. I usually wouldn't let myself
feel this, but this felt different because it hit home.
I got into the startup industry when I was just 16.
Long story, but I was studying business at that time and
because I studied business, I felt like I can go to startup
events and I did. That means I kind of grew up

(06:40):
with the startup scene coming from an immigrant family, my
father and my my mother and they're considered Russian
Germans. So my mother is is completely
Russian. And my family actually grew up
in Kazakhstan. When they immigrated to Germany

(07:01):
they were considered refugees. They were put in a refugee camp
with my two older siblings and just two suitcases and nothing.
No money, nada. So I'm technically an immigrant
and I have been spending years of my life advocating for

(07:21):
climate change. The happenings that we've been
seeing in the start up scene areconcerning, and I deeply believe
we are at a tipping point in history.
We are fighting a narrative war,a war of polarization and a war
of scarcity. And that can be used to

(07:45):
manipulate. And what we are lacking is
people who can give hope. And the question is, what kind
of lighthouse do you want to be?And if you think like, oh, I'm
and I need to be a lighthouse, but you're the spokesperson, the
CEO of your company, I think youare a lighthouse by definition

(08:07):
of what you're doing day-to-day.And what kind of lighthouse do
you want to be? Well, this doesn't mean that
being a founder requires you to like champion political change,
associate with a political partyand have like a political agenda
or whatever. It's not about that.

(08:28):
Like you can if you want to, andthere are ways to do that while
being conscientious of the impact of on your company,
right? It's also about leaving people
better off than we found them, leaving them with a feeling of

(08:50):
being filled with positivity or hope or excitement or or at
least a direction of where we can go instead of lost at sea.
Thesis 4. Unfortunately, climate activism
has failed as much as we have been trying our best.
Last year I was at the United Nations performing a poetry slam

(09:14):
on climate communication. And my narrative is that the
climate narrative is broken and it has been broken for a long
period of time because it has been driven by fear and by shame
and guilt, pointing fingers, threatening.
And while that was effective fora period of time, it's like if

(09:38):
you like push somebody and throwthem back, the likelihood that
they will actually get back at you and you and, and throw you
back is high. It's an interaction that is
based on confrontation that the entire climate narrative has
been based on. You are the bad guys.
You are not doing the right thing.
And while there is truth in that, the issue is that what

(10:00):
we've been missing is hope. A hook that actually gets
people's attention, showing themthe opportunity, the benefits of
working on a better future, showing them the path, how we
get there. Like there are solutions, we are
working on it. This is happening and

(10:21):
excitement, making people excited, you know, hope hook,
opportunity, path, excitement. This is the framework that I
shared at the United Nations Thesis 5.
If there is somebody who can still turn this around, it's

(10:42):
going to be founders that are actually future builders that
are not just talking about what a better future would look like,
but working on scientific and technological innovations that
are actually building a better future.
And the best people to do that are founders in biotech and
agritech, in health tech and societal impact, whatever, in

(11:09):
whatever field you're working in.
If you're working on something that will actually create a
better future, that is the strongest example of giving
people hope by talking about it and by leading with the vision.
That means that founders can be future builders, right?

(11:31):
Speak reality into existence andfill a void that we have right
now culturally which is being exploited by people who are
trying to create and manufacturedestruction.
This void is making us all susceptible to manipulation and

(11:52):
I strongly believe that in thesetimes we need hope and
promoting. What you do is not about
promoting yourself, it is about having the spotlight on you so
you can shine it on topics that matter.
And that includes your company, but maybe also a few other

(12:14):
things that need to change or need attention.
So if there's any little piece of you which fields the calling
to speak out for, a movement to contribute to discussions you
want to positively influence thepublic narrative, this is the
best time you could do it. It will handsomely pay off for

(12:42):
your startup, for your mission, for your own career.
It's a win win situation if you do it right.
My last thesis is that one of the strongest way in which we
can shape the public narrative is by enabling the right people

(13:03):
to speak out and be present and be an alternative role model.
And I know I may sound cheesy inthis episode, but boy oh boy, do
we need some good role models. Do we need some good alternative
paths for future generations to look up to.

(13:25):
And I know so many people, so many founders or would love to
see more would be a much greaterinfluence just due to who they
are, due to the integrity they have, the the values that they
carry that they actually stick to.

(13:46):
There are plenty of these potential lighthouses out there.
They are just somewhere in a corner signaling 2 meters and in
front of them, left, right, left, right, here and there, on
and off. We need you to be present.
We need you. That's my sermon of Wednesday.

(14:12):
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk on Founder Evangelist.
I'm Marina Schmidt. This is Scaling Nerds, the
communication podcast for science and tech founders.
And if you want to connect with me on that, if you have any
points, questions, disagreements, you can reach me

(14:32):
on LinkedIn or you can find my e-mail in the show notes below.
I very much believe that there is a great opportunity to
influence the public debates by enabling the right people to be
out there, and that's why I'm doing it.