Ep. 23 - In The Feed: What the Rise of ‘Founders as Creators’ Means for Actual Creators

Everyone’s a creator now, especially the people who never wanted to be. Founders, VCs, product managers... they’re all publishing, performing, and building personal brands in public.

In this episode of In the Feed, Pratyush explores the strange, quiet shift where builders are now storytellers, and creators are being pushed behind the scenes.

We ask:

• What happens when startup CEOs get better reach than full-time creators?
• Why does algorithmic attention reward status over originality?
• Where do actual creators fit in this new ecosystem?

If you’ve felt invisible in a sea of polished founder content, this one’s for you. It’s not about resentment. It’s about reclaiming what creators do best: seeing things clearly, and telling the truth before it trends.

Topics covered:

• The burnout loop between founders & creators
• Ghostwriting culture and creative commodification
• How to own your POV in a performative world
• Building depth when others are optimizing for reach

This episode is for:
 Creators. Freelancers. Designers. Storytellers.
 Anyone still building without the spotlight and trying to make it matter.

About Pk:
Pratyush has been a designer for more than 6 years. He started creating content to share his knowledge and establish a connection between design and business. He believes that knowledge grows by sharing and he wants to do just that. He is in a journey to help fellow freelancers and content creators make a profitable career.

Connect with Pk: LinkedIn | X | YouTube

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Transcript

Hi and welcome back to the underdog protagonist. This is in the feed, the series where we look beyond what's trending to ask what's really going on beneath it. This isn't a tech commentary. It's not creator drama. It's that corner of the internet where we slow down, breathe and say things you have probably been thinking but have not had time to name yet.

I'm Pratyush, a designer, strategist and full time overthinker of what we are building and why we are building it. And today, we're talking about a very strange, very meta shift that's happening lately. Everyone's becoming a creator especially the people who never wanted to be. Founders, startup CEOs, VCs, SaaS builders, even product managers with 300 followers and a vision board. They're all publishing now, not just thought leadership posts.

I mean, actual content. They have got content calendars, click worthy carousels and YouTube thumbnails that rival actual creators. And I've got one big question for you. When CEOs start vlogging, who's really influencing culture now? And even more importantly, what does this shift mean for actual creators, the ones who have been in the trenches for years?

If you're a freelancer, solopreneur or full time creative trying to navigate this very noisy landscape, this episode is for you. So without any further ado, let's get started. Okay. Let's zoom out. We used to separate builders and storytellers.

Founders build things. Creators told the story. But now the builder is the storyteller. The founder is the face, the content, vibe, and brand. They're on Twitter every day, they're doing day in the life YouTube shorts, they're running LinkedIn posts like a creator playbook, what building a startup taught me about marriage, here's how I went from burnout to break even in six months, Five lessons I learned raising 2 millions from angel investors and what I'd do differently.

These titles are a few among the lot that has been posted recently. And, hey, there's a lot of value in this. I'm not against this. They're being transparent. They're humanizing the business.

They're sharing the process and I respect that. But here's the tension. When everyone's building and performing, where does that leave people whose full time job is performance? Here's what I'm seeing and maybe you are too. There was a time when creators were the ones pushing the internet forward.

New formats, new energy and new language every now and then. But now creators are starting to feel like consultants. Can you help me grow my founder brand? Can you ghostwrite my LinkedIn post? Can you build me an ocean side that feels more like me?

Can you make me a carousel that converts? So suddenly, the original storytellers, the creatives are behind the scenes. Again, while the spotlight shines on the people with equity, funding and startup momentum. And that's weird. Right?

Because the people who know content best are being asked to prop up the people who are new to it just because they have capital and confidence. Let's be real for a second. This isn't about bitterness. This isn't about creators versus founders. It's about power, about attention, about asking who's allowed to speak, Who's listened to?

And who's still hustling for scraps of the algorithm? Because when a VC posts one polished thread and gets 30 k likes while a creator spends hours filming, editing, scripting, designing, and gets 300 views. You start to wonder is my value tied to my story or to my status. And, yeah, that hits deep. This shift isn't just affecting creators.

It's affecting founders too. Because let's be honest, most founders did not sign up to be content creators. They signed up to solve a problem. But now, you can't just build. You have to talk about building.

You can't just raise money. You have to frame it like a lifestyle win. You can't just write a cold email. You need a thirty second breakdown of why it worked. And the emotional cost of that, it's real.

Founders are burning out from content pressure. Creators are burning out from competition with people who don't even want the title. It's a weird loop. Creators want founder freedom. Founders want creator attention and both are faking it for the feed.

But let's talk the big picture. The shift is fundamentally altering the creator economy in three ways. And here's number one. The lines are blurring. The term creator used to mean something.

Now, it's a feature in a bio, a checkbox, a brand layer maybe. Number two. The algorithms are skewed. People with big networks, investors, CEOs get amplified even if the content is mid. Meanwhile, indie creators still have to hack their way into visibility.

Number three, audience trust is shifting. More people are turning into founders, not for the product but for the personality. Which means your story is now your strongest product whether you like it or not. The last one, that's the weirdest part. You might be building a great company but if your personal brand isn't relatable or worthy of a clip, people move on.

So here's the real question for the full time creatives listening. If founders are creators now, then what are we? Where do you find meaning in the work when everyone's doing what you do but with more funding, more reach and more time? You can feel lost in that. Like your craft has been commodified, Like your originality has been outsourced.

And like, your voice is now just another tool for someone else's funnel. But, here's the thing. Original creators aren't just good at content. They're good at seeing things others don't. They're good at making meaning, not just making noise.

And that's the difference. Anyone can learn content tactics but only a creator knows how to turn a quiet truth into a cultural moment. And don't forget that. Alright. Let's get practical.

Here's what I'm telling myself and maybe it'll help you too. Number one, double down on depth. While founders optimize for reach, you can optimize for resonance. Say something real. Make it stick.

Don't chase the trends. Tell them the truth. Number two. Own your edge. Don't dilute your weird.

Don't flatten your voice. What makes you different makes you memorable. Number three, stop feeding the comparison machine. Their metrics aren't your mirror. You don't know their budget, the team or strategy.

So stay focused on your story. Number four, productivize your POV. If you're tired of ghostwriting for founders, make something for your own audience. Sell your system, teach your lens, monetize your mind. Number five.

Collaborate, don't compete. Not every founder is your enemy. Some are your next client. But only if you show up with clarity, not resentment. Let's land this.

If you're a creator in 2025, it's easy to feel invisible. It's easy to feel like everyone's copying your thing and scaling it faster than you can even post. But, here's the quiet truth. You don't need to perform louder. You don't need to build like you already matter because you do.

Your lens matters. Your weird ideas also matter. The things you said before they became friends, those matter. You're not just a creator. You're a translator of culture And that role, it's irreplaceable.

Now to give you further clarity, I'm not against this founders being creators culture. Doesn't matter if that's a creator or a founder. The story, if it's real, if it's impactful, that matters. If someone wants to be a creator or is forced to be to tell a story that can impact people or that can potentially matter, I think it's a good thing. People need to know different personalities.

People need to know the big story, the hustle behind the actual results. And that's why this podcast exists. This podcast is to give the voice for the unspoken things, for the people who are still in the grind, for the people who have not made major breakthroughs but are still building something, learning things along the way which can be shared, which are meant to be shared to the audience. Hence, in a way we are not doing two different things. We are the two sides of the same page.

So this can be your last takeaway. If someone is putting value in their content, doesn't matter who they are, It's worth checking out. It's worth the credit. Doesn't matter if they have the resources or not. Doesn't matter if you have funding, you have a team or not.

It's valuable. A creator who has nothing to back them up is always trying to build a team in the near future so that his work, his efforts can be minimized and he can post content more frequently now. And being a business owner or a founder, they have already had the funding, had the money, they have already generated income which they can put into that content machine and hire people so that their workload is lesser. So both are essentially trying to do the same thing. Therefore, there's no point in keeping bitterness.

If this hit home, send it to a fellow creative who's been in the fog. Someone who's felt that invisible burnout of being original in the sea of optimized founder content. And, hey, if you're a founder listening to this, I have no hate and no shade. You have been listening to in the feed from the underdog protagonist. I'm Pratyush and I'll catch you in the next one.
Until then, take care.