“The messy build-in-public era is ending”: Joel Marlinarson on why founder-led content is evolving

Building in public has become a defining ethos for modern founders. The rationale is straightforward: document the journey, build a loyal audience, and turn that attention into distribution.

But for Joel Marlinarson, a London-based TikTok creator and brand strategist, the model is starting to show its limits.

“The appetite for that kind of messy, unfiltered content is definitely waning,” he told The Daily Influence, pointing to a series of public controversies that have tested how far founder-led transparency can go.

Last May, fashion founder Aimee Smale faced widespread criticism after concerns were raised about her brand Odd Muse and its “slow fashion” claims, with much of the scrutiny playing out publicly across TikTok.

Smale, who launched the UK-based womenswear label in 2020 and built a significant following by documenting the business online, found herself at the centre of the backlash as questions over manufacturing and pricing gained traction.

“When it’s a founder-led brand, all of that customer service angst, all of the negative comments, they have a target,” Marlinarson said. “And that target is usually the founder themselves.”

The result, he argues, is a shift in how founders choose to present themselves – being more selective about what they share, and when.

Marlinarson pointed to Melanie Bender, former chief executive of Rhode, whose new fragrance brand Lore has taken a more curated approach to founder content.

“There isn’t necessarily the Odd Muse approach that works for everyone,” he said. “Audiences want transparency, but not at the expense of credibility.”

That kind of pattern recognition has come to define Marlinarson’s work. He was among the first to flag the resurgence of 2016 nostalgia, after a video he posted last July analysing the trend gained more than a million views on TikTok.

That call has since played out across fashion and culture, with events such as Coachella leaning into the era’s visual identity.

He now believes 2020 will become the next defining nostalgia reference point for the second half of the decade.

“Gen Alpha are approaching the age where they are on social media, and their perception of 2020 is very different,” he said. “They were at home playing video games for three months. They don’t have the context of losing a job or missing an exam.”

Creator, strategist, entrepreneur

Beyond trend forecasting, Marlinarson knows the tension of building a business as a creator firsthand and said the overlap can be an advantage for those who manage it well.

He describes his dual role as both creator and entrepreneur as a “meshed experience”, where insight from building an audience informs business decisions – and vice versa.

But he acknowledged that it’s not a skill everyone automatically possesses.

“Some business owners should never be handed a microphone,” he said. “Some content creators don’t necessarily have that commercial savviness or that genuine want to build a business.”

Marlinarson began building that perspective early, launching a clothing brand called Coldest while still at secondary school. The experience gave him a first-hand view of how social media could translate attention into demand.

From there, he pitched for a job with Chicken Shop Date creator Amelia Dimoldenberg, working as a freelance social media assistant while studying graphic design at university. By the time he graduated, he had built a consultancy working with brands in the US and UK.

Last year, Marlinarson attended the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity through a creator fund run by Billion Dollar Boy, which brought 20 creators to the festival. This year, he returned to judge that same programme and will attend as an official ambassador.

He described the experience as a “full circle moment”, and said the role offers an opportunity to make the creator economy more visible within an industry that has historically kept it at arm’s length. He plans to show who is in the room, how decisions are made, and how those conversations shape the campaigns that follow.

“In the past, the festival has spoken at creators,” he said. “You’re really starting to see that change now.”