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First principles approach to marketing, content, and founder branding.

Harshith Varma

2 months ago, I walked into Stanford University Graduate School of Business with a rough idea of what to expect. 

Last week, I walked out with a clearer sense of how much I'd been leaving on the table.

My background has been in marketing, specifically for B2B SaaS and service businesses. That's where most of my thinking has lived. 

So when I first came across the curriculum, subjects like finance, regulatory frameworks, design thinking, and strategy felt like electives. Sure, they sounded interesting but I assumed they were not really relevant.

That assumption didn't survive the first few weeks.

We typically develop fluency in one or two functions and quietly treat everything else as someone else's problem. It works until the cracks show. 

These functions bleed into each other constantly, and operating with command of only one of them means making half-informed decisions everywhere else without realizing it.

What the program gave was enough of a foundation across each domain to recognize when a decision has dimensions you're underweighting. The way you think about a problem changes when you have more than one lens to look at it through.

Then came the venture project with Senmiao "Samuel" Sun, Lauren Koepke, Suvinai Jiraboonsri, and Galaktion S.. It was in biotech, a space I had zero prior experience in. 

When you're building something credible in a vertical you have no history in, you're forced to rely entirely on frameworks and first principles. It turned out to be one of the more valuable parts of the whole experience.

There's something about being on the Stanford campus that's difficult to articulate without sounding like you're overselling it. I'll be back for sure.

What made it all special was the quality of the professors teaching it. They brought in decades of deep experience in their field. Learning from people at that level is a genuine privilege that you don't fully appreciate until you're sitting in the room.
 
Huge thanks to Professor Yossi Feinberg, Kelsey Carlson and Jiaying Feng for this experience!
 
Grateful for this one.
 
For now, back to building.

Founder - H2H Copy | $2M+ in revenue generated through organic LinkedIn

The Mr. Beast-ification of B2B content is finally happening!

For Wispr Flow's Android launch, Tanay Kothari offered 5 people a Porsche 911 GT3 RS if they could get their AI voice dictation app to make a mistake. Each challenger pushed harder than the last. The product held up every time. 

And this isn't a one-off stunt. 

WisprFlow also has a UGC program, reportedly built by a 19-year-old, that has generated over 500M views in 60 days. (Separate post on that later) 

It's entertaining, it compounds, and it's product-led. That's a hard combination to pull off in B2B.

We've already seen the early wave though. 

Tycho Luijten, Sam Dunning, Todd Clouser, and Tim Davidson proved that B2B content doesn't have to be boring. 

But Tanay just raised the bar quite a bit.

The obvious caveat: this playbook works when you have a product with a bold, falsifiable claim at its core. Not every startup does. But if yours does, a feature launch doesn't have to be a boring announcement. 

Well done, Wispr Flow and Tanay!

I *genuinely* believe I have one of the best jobs in the world.

Every week, I get to talk to founders 1:1 to understand how they built their businesses and how they grow their clients' businesses.

Their clients include some of the LARGEST retailers, hypergrowth start-ups, mid-market and enterprise tech companies on the planet. And I get to understand how they think about solving problems at that scale.

And over time, I've built a fairly good understanding of

...What it actually takes to build a successful product-led company

...The marketing foundations that need to be in place long before you worry about tactics

...How enterprise sales actually work from the inside

And I'm pretty sure all of this is gonna come super handy in the future.

This is the kind of knowledge that takes most people years of trial and error to accumulate. I'm getting it directly from the people who've already figured it out.
You genuinely cannot learn this stuff from a course or a book.

On top of that, I know exactly who to reach out to when I need help in a specific area. I've spent enough time on this platform to know who the best people are in any given domain. 

And getting paid to do all this??

That's kinda insane when I stop to think about it.

I also get to work with extremely talented folks like Jeff Odarve and Navya Shree, and do all of this while traveling wherever I want.

Is it hard? Yes. Absolutely.

As you scale, things break. I'm scrappy by nature, and scrappy has limits.

But when I zoom out and look at the full picture, the people I get to learn from, the teammates I get to build with, the freedom to do it all on my own terms, I feel nothing but grateful.

I don't know how many people get to say their job genuinely makes them smarter every single week.

I get to say that. And I don't take it lightly.

(Well, we *finally* tried skiing for the first time this weekend at Tahoe! Only regret is not having tried it sooner)

LinkedIn is perpetually 14 business days behind Twitter.

Emergent just hit $100M ARR eight months after launch. One of the fastest companies to ever do it. And nobody on LinkedIn is talking about it.

But yeah, let's all *still* talk about PayPal CEO hiring a ghostwriter for $200k because it's not quite self-serving and is super insightful.

Meanwhile, the algorithm is out here surfacing posts from 2 weeks ago and destroying whatever little organic reach creators are left with.

It's a weird dynamic. The platform keeps shooting itself in the foot by disincentivizing creators.

Anyway. If you want to know what's actually happening in tech, go spend 30 minutes on Twitter.

And if you're active on Twitter, let's connect!
https://lnkd.in/gCFBfaAr

I'm SO done with Bay Area startup events man.

Every single time I explain what I do, I get the same blank stare. 

And I'm not talking about one awkward conversation - this has been a pattern. At this point I've tried every possible angle and framing. Doesn't matter.

I've tried explaining it as distribution strategy - how if nobody knows you exist, your product doesn't matter. I've tried the top-of-mind angle - how your prospects need to think of you the moment they have the problem you solve.

I've even broken it down into pure revenue terms with actual client numbers.
Still nothing.

I used to think it was the curse of knowledge - that I was too deep in this world to explain it simply. But that's not entirely true.

And look, this isn't me saying I know everything or that I'm too good for these rooms. It's just basic market fit. Matthew Hunt posted about it yesterday:

"Stop trying to convince people who don't care about the problems you solve.

Preach to the choir.

Sell to people who already know they have a problem. 
People who are actively looking for a solution.
People who want to change."

The frustrating part is that good events DO exist. I had a great time at Sculpt last year! (Bruno Estrella/ Clay - bring it back faster please?)

But they're almost never the ones you find scrolling through Luma. The ones worth attending are private, invite-only, and nobody tells you about them until you already know someone inside.

Request: If you're in the Bay Area and you actually know of events worth attending, please drop them below or send me a message. I'm genuinely done wasting evenings making small talk with people who've never heard of founder branding.

There has to be a better room somewhere.

I just finished reading Paul Graham's 4,288-word essay on taste. It was published back in 2002, and I think it's more relevant today than it's ever been.
 
Taste is the word everyone is using right now. It's also the word nobody can quite explain.
 
I've been thinking about it for a while now — long before I read that essay. Writing 2,000+ posts for founders will do that to you. You start noticing things you can't un-notice.
 
Once you accumulate enough reps, your eye develops an intolerance for what's off.
 
And the more you feed it with great content — really great content — the sharper it gets. Your standards keep getting higher because you now know what great looks like. Once you've seen it enough times, anything less becomes harder to ignore.
 
Graham puts it well: "As a practical matter, I think it's easier to see ugliness than to imagine beauty. Most of the people who've made beautiful things seem to have done it by fixing something that they thought ugly. Great work usually seems to happen because someone sees something and thinks, I could do better than that."
 
Even Ashley Lewin recently wrote a great post about it. She defines taste as pattern recognition built through fundamentals and repetition, specific enough to name what's off and why.

That said, knowing what taste is and actually developing it are two very different things.
 
Jeff Odarve and I have started blocking time each week just for this. We look at what's working in this space, understand the mechanics behind it, and ask how we can take it further.
 
We want to be the absolute best in our space.
 
And we'll do whatever it takes to get there.

Develops and implements personalized branding strategies for C-suite executives, leveraging content marketing tactics to enhance their online presence and thought leadership.

- Creates compelling and tailored content assets, including articles, blog posts, and social media updates, to showcase the expertise and unique perspectives of CXOs across various industries.

- Collaborates closely with CXOs to identify key messaging themes and content opportunities aligned with their professional goals and target audience preferences.

- Monitors and analyzes performance metrics to track the effectiveness of branding initiatives and identify areas for optimization. Implemented data-driven insights to refine content strategies and maximize ROI for clients.

- Provides ongoing guidance and support to CXOs, offering strategic advice and recommendations to maintain consistent branding efforts and adapt to evolving industry trends.


This has helped my clients be thought leaders, show their industry expertise, and create inbound leads and opportunities in their particular niche.

Personal Branding Strategist

Self employed

- Produced engaging and informative content across various industries, including technology, finance, and healthcare, consistently meeting client requirements and deadlines.

- Implemented SEO best practices to optimize content for organic search, resulting in improved search engine rankings and increased organic traffic for client websites.

- Collaborated with clients to develop content strategies aligned with their business goals, resulting in enhanced brand awareness and increased customer engagement.

📍 Delivered satisfactory work to clients from 🇮🇳🇺🇲🇭🇲🇬🇧🇸🇬🇨🇦🇲🇨

Freelance Content Writer/ Copywriter

Independent Consultant

Helps brands, CXOs, and professionals to develop a content strategy for their social media profiles according to their goals.

Social Media Marketing Consultant

Storytellers Tribe

Community manager at this thriving community of dedicated marketing and sales enthusiasts. I work with the team to build our ecosystem, market and promote it. Mainly handles content and social media.

Tribe Chief 

Revenue Boost

- Consulted leads and clients for a high-ticket B2B marketing and sales offer, generating $8k - $12k in revenue per client.

- Developed and executed comprehensive content marketing strategies to engage leads and nurture client relationships. For instance, I spearheaded a targeted outreach campaign aimed at high-potential leads, resulting in a 20% increase in conversation rates, and a 12% increase in conversion rates.

- Managed a thriving community of over 5000 members, responding promptly to objections, inquiries, and complaints to maintain high levels of engagement and satisfaction. Implemented community feedback to refine content strategies and improve user experience, resulting in a 18% increase in community engagement metrics over six months.

- Collaborated with design and content teams to produce high-quality, on-brand content assets, including case studies, lead magnets, and blog posts. One notable project involved creating a series of educational webinars targeting key pain points of our target audience, resulting in a 30% increase in webinar attendance and a 25% increase in lead conversions.

- Fostered strong relationships with key stakeholders and cross-functional teams to ensure alignment and cohesion in content marketing efforts. Led weekly meetings to review content performance metrics and adjust strategies as needed, resulting in a 15% increase in overall content engagement and a 10% increase in client retention rates.

Community Manager and B2B Marketing Consultant

scool.life

- Played a key role in achieving sales performance benchmarks through the development and implementation of data-driven content marketing strategies.
- Tracked the performance of blogs and social media posts on a national scale, analyzing metrics such as engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Implemented optimization strategies to improve content performance and drive user engagement.
- Implemented SEO best practices to optimize content for organic search, resulting in a 40% increase in organic traffic and a 20% increase in keyword rankings within six months.
- Instrumental in scaling the Instagram community from 2k to over 150k followers, leveraging targeted content initiatives and engagement tactics to increase brand visibility and audience reach.

Content and Inbound Marketing Manager

📍Worked on the content for Instagram posts (@scool.buzz) and convert them into SEO-based blogs. (scool.buzz)
📍 Contributed to the brand's growth on Instagram from 2k to 112k followers. 
📍 Main focus was on storytelling while keeping it simple and quirky to add value to the readers. 
📍 Adapted to a writing style that has a touch of humour/ Gen Z dialect to reach out to the audience. 
📍My role as a social media writer demanded me to tweak the content in a way that the young, Indian TG finds it interesting and shareable.

Social Media Writer 

Cubet Techno Labs

📍Created blog posts and social media content for the company to cater to their target audience. 
📍Helped the company with LinkedIn marketing and branding for lead generation. 
📍The TG consisted of industry experts and tech-aware individuals.

Technical Writer

Word Smith Writing

Curated content suitable for 
📍business articles, 
📍 news stories, 
📍meta descriptions, 
📍product descriptions, etc.

Web Content Writer

Flowers TV ( Insight Media CIty)

📍Got to know about what happens in the field of digital media, editing and video shoots of popular TV programmes.
📍 An insight into the everyday dilemmas and problems of TV production and how to tackle them were part of the internship. 
📍Flowers TV, being one of the popular Malayalam television channels helped me gain professional development and I learnt to work in a group and as a part of the crew.

Production Intern

Utter

📍involved interacting with learners on a daily basis via the Utter app. 
📍Devised new methods to help them communicate in English. 
📍Introduced me to marketing as I relayed to the users the benefits of the premium package.

Communication Trainer

I believe that content should speak for itself. It should have a personality. It should have a tone; a voice to convey who you are and why your audience needs you.

This is what my writing incorporates. 

You get to decide how I should shape its personality with the tone you require and your need. 

I help you(and your brand) to drive conversations with your audience, connect with them, and bring in ROI this way.

Hi! Thanks for checking out my profile!💙

I can help you (or your brand) to inform, persuade, and entertain the audience in your brand voice. 

🎯
My journey as a content and copywriter began 4 years ago. And that's how I struck a chord with branding as well.

I have written a wide range of articles, blogs, social media copy and web content belonging to different niches like travel, business, Martech, SaaS, AI, etc. I have worked for clients whose target groups were very specified as well as broad categories in my earlier freelancing days.

Now I invest more time in the branding domain as a personal branding strategist and social media consultant. I help founders, CXOs, and coaches to create social media content in accordance with a content strategy that is designed based on their brand and target personas.

Recently, I spoke at a global webinar conducted by IEEE on ‘Freelancing : Challenges & Opportunities’. 

My workshop ‘Content Writing 101’ conducted through Bloody Donuts helped me connect with many aspiring content writers. 

This also persuaded me to launch consultation calls to help you identify and solve your problems in your freelancing/content writing/copywriting/branding journey. 

I have extended this service to brands recently. I do this by providing a detailed analysis of your existing content (if there is any) or understanding your vision and mission so that you can flavour your content right.

🔴 My email id: krishnendu5clt@gmail.com 

Feel free to send me a DM and let's chat to see if I could help you in some way 🌐

taplio

The Battle

Harshith Varma

Krishnendu (Krish) K

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taplio

The Battle

Harshith Varma

Krishnendu (Krish) K

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Harshith Varma's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreHarshith Varma's LinkedIn Performance