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Personal branding · Founders and owners

An investor forms a view of you weeks before your deck reaches a partner meeting.

For a startup founder this is the public record an investor, an operator or a senior candidate reads before anybody answers your email: what you have built, what you believe about your market, and who is willing to say so.

Tell us what you needor call +91 80958 58589

Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

A professional shares her expertise in a recorded interview

In one paragraph

For a startup founder this is the public record an investor, an operator or a senior candidate reads before anybody answers your email: what you have built, what you believe about your market, and who is willing to say so. GullySales assembles that record from one recorded hour, and keeps revenue, burn and valuation out of it unless your board has agreed to publish them.

Also written for

Startup founder, Venture-backed founder, Social entrepreneur.

Where this sits

For startup founders

Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.

  • “Diligence begins as a search, not a data room”

    Your deck gets forwarded on a Tuesday and somebody junior searches your name the same evening. What they find decides whether the meeting is taken. Nothing found is not the same as nothing wrong, but it reads that way.

  • “The round closes and the founder goes quiet”

    One announcement post, then eighteen months of nothing, then a fresh raise started from a cold list. The people who should have watched you make progress were never given anything to watch.

  • “Senior operators are betting two years of their career”

    A staff engineer or a first sales lead giving up a large-company salary reads everything you have ever said about how you run a team. Equity does not answer that question.

  • “A social enterprise is judged on the founder's motive”

    CSR heads, grant committees and donors want to know why this person took this problem on. The registered trust or section 8 company tells them nothing they cannot get from a filing.

What we do

What we deliver for startup founders.

Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.

  1. A profile written for somebody checking you out

    Your history stated plainly, with dates that match your filings and your previous employers. Nothing inflated, because inflation is what a reference call finds first.

    Result: A back-channel check confirms your story instead of raising a question.

  2. The hour that supplies everything else

    One recorded conversation, usually about what you learned from the last twenty customer calls. Drafts come from that, and you correct them before anything goes out.

    Result: Material without you opening a blank document at midnight.

  3. A market view you are willing to defend

    The thing you believe about your category that most people in it do not. Written once, argued properly, and revisited when you change your mind in public.

    Result: Investors and operators arrive already knowing what you think, so the meeting starts further along.

  4. Progress in public without the numbers you cannot share

    Launches, hires, the customer problem you cracked. Revenue, burn and valuation stay out unless your board has agreed to publish them.

    Result: Momentum that people outside the company can see, with nothing you will regret in a data room.

  5. Press and panel material kept ready

    A short biography, a long one, a current photograph, and the subjects you can speak on without preparation.

    Result: An event organiser or reporter gets what they need the same day.

  6. The rest of the founding team named

    Your co-founders and first leaders given profiles of their own, with what each of them runs.

    Result: A fund looking at key-person risk sees a team rather than one person.

How the result is measured

  • Enquiries that name you or came through your profile
  • Searches for your name, from Search Console
  • Profile views and connection requests from your industry
  • Speaking invitations, press enquiries and podcast requests
  • Posts published against posts planned, and what held up the rest

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

Read the full personal branding page

How it works

How the work runs for startup founders

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Work out whether this is even your bottleneck

    The first conversation covers how enquiries reach you today. If the company's own site is the weaker link, that comes first, and we say so.

  2. 2

    Search your own name with you

    We look at what a buyer sees today: every profile, old listing and photograph. Some of it you will want taken down, and some of it only you can take down.

  3. 3

    Agree what you will and will not say

    The subjects you know cold, the ones that belong to your clients, and the lines your regulator or association draws. Written down before anything is published.

  4. 4

    Rebuild the profiles

    The bio page, LinkedIn and the directories that matter in your field, done once and done properly.

  5. 5

    The routine

    Interview, drafts, your approval, publication. The interview is the only part that needs you, and it is the part that cannot be skipped.

  6. 6

    Hand it over

    The subject list, the drafting notes and the calendar are yours. If you would rather keep it running yourself, that is a fair outcome.

Before you hire anyone

The first thing to do yourself.

It costs nothing, and it shows what a buyer sees before they ever call you.

  1. Search your own name and your practice or business name in a private browser window, and list the first ten results.
  2. Open your profile on each major platform and check that the name, photo, description and contact details agree.
  3. Ask two people who recently chose you what they looked up first, and write down their answers.

Judge any provider

What to ask any agency or ghost-writer.

Useful whoever you choose, including us.

  • Who writes my words, and do I approve everything before it goes out?
  • Which of my own details and claims will you need to check with me before publishing?
  • What will you not write because of the rules my profession follows?
  • Whose account do the profiles and the content sit in, and what happens to them if we stop?
  • What do you count as a result, and what will you not promise?

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

Tell us what you need
We are in stealth until launch. Should we wait?
Wait on the product and start on you. Your own history is not confidential, and fixing it now costs you an hour. We keep the company, the category and the roadmap out until you say otherwise.
Can we talk publicly about the round we are raising?
Be careful here. Soliciting investment from the public is restricted for a private company, and what you may say about a live round is a question for your company secretary or counsel, not for us. We draft nothing about a raise until they have seen it, because the exposure is yours.
Our investors want me posting every day. Is that what this is?
No. Daily output without the interview turns into the same recycled advice everyone scrolls past, and the people you want to reach can tell. If you cannot give one hour, spend the money on outbound instead and keep your name out of it.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped after we have read your brief and spoken to you, and put in writing before anything starts, split into our time, your media spend and production.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
How soon will we see results?
It depends on what is being changed and how many of the people who matter see it. After we have read your brief and spoken to you, we say what we would expect to move first and how it will be measured against the baseline. Nothing here is guaranteed.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
Your brief, and a conversation. After that, access to whatever the work touches, such as your profiles, your website or your accounts, and time with the people who can answer our questions.
What if we are not happy with the work?
Tell us and the plan changes. Everything is reported against the baseline, so a number that is not moving is visible to both sides. The term is in your written scope, and the refund and cancellation policy sets out the rest.

Founders and owners

Personal branding for the rest of the founders and owners.

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Your next practical step

Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.

Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.

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