Founder-led content

You don't have to "do marketing." You have to become the person developers trust on the problem. Sell the category, not the product, and let the authority pull people in.

Use this when: content feels slimy so you avoid it, your "blog" is a changelog, or a competitor is quietly becoming the go-to voice while you ship in silence.

The core idea

Developers reward technical depth, honesty, and a real point of view, and punish polished fluff. The move isn't promotion; it's education. Be the trusted expert on the problem, take a stance on where the space is heading, and the product sells itself as the obvious answer.

Before product-market fit, only the founder can do this. It's the #2 hire (DevRel) later, not now.

Framework: authority positioning (Frankl)

• Own the problem, not just the product page. Talks, posts, teardowns, a distinctive thesis.
• Sell the category: teach the problem, describe the need for "a tool like this," share results, without proactively pitching (that trips developer defenses).
• Have an actual point of view on where the industry is going. A trusted expert has opinions; a vendor has features.

The "O'Reilly book" content plan (Frankl): imagine the definitive book on your problem, ~10 chapters, ~10 sections each. That's ~100 genuinely useful pieces mapped out. Publish against the outline consistently. You're writing the book that makes you the authority.