Building a founder brand is increasingly becoming part of the startup playbook, but finding an audience takes more than posting regularly on social media. It requires years of experimentation, a willingness to stand apart, and the ability to adapt as technology and audience expectations change, according to Varun Mayya, Founder and CEO of AEOS, a content and media-tech company.

Speaking at the closing session of Day 1 of YourStory’s startup-tech summit TechSparks in Bengaluru, the content creator and entrepreneur joined Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project, for a fireside chat on building a brand, the secret to virality, and staying agile in an increasingly dynamic content landscape. 

For Mayya, brand building comes down to two things: courage and differentiation. The first is simply having the courage to put yourself out there. He pointed to how comfortable many young Indians, GenZ in particular, are with making videos and sharing them online from their teens, admitting that he didn't have that confidence when he was younger.

Differentiation, for Mayya, is vital. For young founders, standing out can mean raising funding at a time when they have few other markers of success. Securing $5 million or $10 million can set them apart from their peers, give them a story to tell, and offer something to build their social media presence around. While these numbers may matter less once a founder has established a name for themselves, Mayya believes the underlying principle holds: find what makes you different, and build your story around it.

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