Why More Founders Should Leverage LinkedIn Content in their GTM Strategy

Attention is the Scarce Resource in the AI Era

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Hey y’all! 👋

I’m writing this in a coffee shop with a little extra pep in my step—or, flicker in my fingers, I should say. Maybe it’s the sunrise sweeping over the space, or the lulling beat of Trent Reznor in my ears, or (most likely) the caffeine hitting my bloodstream. Nonetheless, I’m giddy to write. What a joy to do something I love, even if for a brief moment in time. I chase that feeling. Whether in go-to-market, learning a new skill, tinkering with AI, or writing/exploring my thoughts.

In a world increasingly filled with AI, I am finding myself drawn more to craft. To hand-poured coffee, art, farm-to-table food, and consuming long-form content. It’s a luxury, no doubt. But it’s a thread worth pulling on—to follow your curiosities to wherever your attention leads you.

And in our AI-saturated world, the only durable advantage is the ability to earn attention, maintain trust, and stand out by showing your taste—and LinkedIn is the most powerful place to do that in B2B today. Kooky as it may be, LinkedIn is evolving from “online resume” to “where B2B SaaS conversations happen.”

Here’s what I wanted to cover in today’s post:

• Recap: “The increasing value of quality content as part of the modern marketing playbook”

• How to build “trust at scale”

• Craft is the antidote to slop

• The LinkedIn playbook

• The goal isn’t to become “an influencer”

• Conclusion

Let’s get into it.

Recap: “The increasing value of quality content as part of the modern marketing playbook”

Today’s post is an extension of another recent post. Here’s the tldr if you missed it:

1. Attention is harder to get than ever before.

2. Those who can get it—and keep it—are able to “build trust at scale.”

3. In this new world, “taste” is a moat.

4. I shared examples of a few folks I’ve learned from.

5. My personal experience doing this at Groundswell.

6. And how to take action (ie: The Barbell of Marketing).

How to build “trust at scale”

You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you’re advertising to a moving parade.
—David Ogilvy

There’s a counterintuitive idea I can’t prove, but deeply believe. Everyone’s talking about AI flooding the internet with content, so it’s going to get harder. But, I think this creates a massive opportunity for people with unique perspectives.

Don’t treat posting on LinkedIn like a billboard. Instead, you should treat it like a conversation.

And, some of your posts will inevitably turn into DMs.

[Btw, this is where Kondo comes in! Remember: it’s Superhuman for LI DMs. And you can try it completely free for 2 months using this code.]

The noise will make authentic voices more valuable, not less. Because unique voices will rise to the top more in the AI era

Craft is the antidote to slop

Here’s an excerpt from this article by Will Manidis:

Language models provide the means for industrialization of Slop. In their highest calling, these tools can eliminate genuine toil: tending to burdensome emails, litigating with your co-op board, or drafting a parking ticket appeal. But when we ask a model to write a poem, design a church, or compose a eulogy, we get something fundamentally different from human creation. The model has never lost a loved one, never stood in a holy space, never lived. We can and should automate toil, but we must preserve craft. The difference is simple: when I use a model as leverage to remove toil, I remain source; when I ask a model to remove my agency by replacing my labor, something ancient and unseen becomes source.

“Slop” is AI-generated, context-free, soulless content flooding every channel. Which means there’s an increasing gap in the market for craft. Because scarcity creates value.

What craft looks like in practice: specificity, lived experience, actual opinions. This is what the best founders and marketers are doing. Even the best sellers send a cold email with a unique point of view about the world.

Craft can—and should—have a place in go-to-market in 2026.

The LinkedIn Playbook

I’ve talked to a lot of founders who say “LinkedIn is not for me.” I press them, and quickly figure out, it’s too cringey for them. (And, I get that. I really do.) But, everything good is on the other side of cringe (or, should I say, LinkedcrINge… oof, sorry).

Also, I should say—creating content takes a lot of time. So, it’s not for everyone. Which makes me all the more bullish. Because it’s hard to do, there’s a moat.

Dave Gerhardt’s book, Founder Brand, (published in 2022) has gone from a nascent idea that most look at as vanity, to a channel that is becoming a necessity.

Here’s how DG described it in a LinkedIn post earlier this year:

The whole point is that the Founder needs to have a strong POV on the industry. On the customer problem.

Ideally this founder didn’t just start a company because they thought it would be some get rich quick scheme.

It’s because they have deep experience in an industry. Had some big challenge. Found their way of solving it.

This is about IP. It’s about your point of view. Challenging the status quo. Teaching a new way of doing things.

Telling your story directly to your customers has never been more important. The founders winning on LinkedIn right now have a strong/unique point of view.

Plus, there are more benefits than generating revenue.

• You’ll learn how to position your product—“the best copy (from your customers) is found, not written.”

• You’ll get product feedback.

• You can get beta testers for new features.

• You can attract incredible talent (Kyle Norton is the best example here).

Adam Robinson is one of the best in the game. And, lucky for us, last week he released a 37-minute video on everything he’s learned in the past two years about growing to over 100,000 followers on LinkedIn:

Most founders think LinkedIn is just another social media platform. But it’s actually the highest ROI growth engine that exists today.

Here’s what the video covers:

1. How to turn LinkedIn traffic into actual revenue (not just vanity metrics)

2. The posting frameworks that drove millions in SaaS ARR

3. How to build an audience BEFORE you even need its new (free) playbook

Other feeds to scroll as examples are:

• Austin (Unify)

• Patrick (Clarify)

• Elaine (ToFu)

• Alec Paul (“the Rick Rubin of LinkedIn”) does LinkedIn writing coaching (not ghostwriting) for Adam Robinson, Sam Jacobs, Gal Aga, and others

• Todd (Champify)

• Marty (Pylon)

But, you probably don’t need to scroll through their feeds because you’ve already seen their content in your feed. Because it works. :)

The goal isn’t to become “an influencer”

Founders who are winning on LinkedIn are seen as the trusted voice on a topic. In the case of Austin: Growth. In the case of Marty: Customer Success. In my case—at Groundswell—it was around PLG/product-led sales (and now: on signal-based selling, and more recently on AI GTM).

The companies that win over the next few years will be the ones whose leaders can get—and hold—attention. And they’ll do this by adding value without any ask. They’ll share best practices (freely), rarely suggesting a call to action.

They’re not “influencers.” But they will have influence. By sharing their experience and stories from the frontlines. I’m as “AI-pilled” as anyone, but I still believe that people buy from people.

Storytelling is one of the highest forms of leverage and you should invest heavily in it. Money flows as a function of stories.
—David Senra (Founder’s podcast)

Conclusion

As AI content saturates our feeds, the best voices will rise to the surface. Those voices will be ones who have a unique story to tell and use craft to tell it. I’m excited to showcase more of those voices in 2026.

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Other corners of the internet I explored this week:

• What world-class GTM looks like in 2026 | Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (Vercel, Stripe, Google), Lenny’s Podcast

  • Topics discussed: 1. Why GTM is becoming more strategically important in the AI era. 2. The rise of the GTM engineer. 3. A primer on segmentation. 4. How to build a sales org that engineers and product teams respect. 5. The changing calculus of build vs. buy for go-to-market tools in the AI era. 6. Why most customers buy to avoid pain rather than to gain upside.

• Inside Tech’s Water Cooler: Breaking Down the Magic Behind TBPN with John Coogan & Jordi Hays

  • John Coogan and Jordi Hays are the hosts of TBPN, a daily live show covering the technology business. It launched only a year ago, but has gained a cult-following and is described as “a center of gravity for terminally online technologists.” In this podcast, they share how they’ve built a media business in an era of infinite competition by leaning into high volume and constant iteration, all while treating media as the “main thing.” I think founders and marketing leaders should listen to this conversation. Lot to be learned from John and Jordi.

• Base44’s Founder, Maor Shlomo on Why Vibe Coding Has No Defensibility

  • Maor Shlomo is the Founder and CEO of Base44, the AI building platform that Maor built from idea to $80M acquisition by Wix, in just 8 months. Today the company serves millions of users and will hit $50M ARR by the end of the year. Before Base44, Maor was the Co-Founder of Explorium.

• Re-listened to Naval Ravikant on Bro Jogan and re-reading Navalmanack. I can never get enough Naval.

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As always, thank you for your attention and trust. I do not take it for granted.

See you next time,
Brendan 🫡