Decision paper
The people you want to hire check you before they apply.
82 percent of candidates look at a chief executive's online presence when they are considering an application (Brunswick, Connected Leadership, 2022). In most leadership teams there is still no basis to decide what to do about it. This paper gives you one: a benchmark, three objections taken seriously, the real costs, and a recommendation with three options, one of which is: not now.
What the paper covers
Five sections, written to hold up in the room.
Candidates, clients, and partners form a view of the founder before the first conversation. Whether the business answers that is not settled by a marketing plan. It is settled by a decision in the leadership team. This paper prepares it.
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01
The situation, in one number
82 percent of candidates look at a CEO's online presence when they weigh an application (Brunswick, 2022). One benchmark, read honestly, including where it is thin and where our own practice fills the gap.
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02
What this means for a founder-led business
The market's referral system now has a digital first stage. Why the company page alone does not carry the check, and what we see instead in the profiles we review.
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03
The objections, taken seriously
Time, self-promotion, outsourcing. None of the three is unfounded, and the third one is simply right.
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04
What it realistically costs
The founder's time, real market rates for outside help, and the cost of not deciding. No invented hours per week.
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05
The recommendation
Three options, each right under nameable conditions: not now, build internally, bring in outside help. With the criteria for each.
Who this is from
Written to be forwarded.
Builderz builds public reputation for founders and executives who have done more than their LinkedIn shows.
A paper meant for the owners and the board has to survive a harder read than a brochure. So every claim carries its basis in the sentence, the one study it rests on is named along with its limits, and one of the three options argues against starting. What the evidence cannot support honestly is left unstated. The paper holds up even when someone on the board does the math. We are not a neutral party here, and we say so: this is the work we do. That is exactly why the paper is built to be checked, including against us.
The paper
The paper goes to your inbox.
Seven pages including the cover, as a PDF. Confirm the quick email, and the PDF is waiting, written to forward unchanged to owners, the board, and the leadership team.
Your paper
One confirmation, and the paper is in your inbox.
An email from Builderz is on its way to you right now. Confirm it, and the PDF follows straight into your inbox. No email in sight: check your spam folder.
Read the seven pages once yourself afterwards, then forward the paper unchanged to owners and the board. Set a date for the decision, or the question just sits. And if you would like to walk the three options through for your own business first: Bernhard will make the time.