Entrepreneurs should stop creating personal IPs.

In the past two years, the topic of entrepreneurs and business owners building personal IPs has been extremely popular. Since the year before last, I've been simply advising entrepreneurs on WeChat Moments, subscription accounts, and short - video platforms not to be overly obsessed with becoming internet celebrities or building personal IPs. However, I've never delved deeply into this topic. Today, I'd like to have an in - depth discussion. If you think what I'm saying is wrong, feel free to criticize in the comment section. If you find it reasonable, I hope it can bring you some inspiration and assistance.

01 The Story of an Internet - Celebrity Entrepreneur

I once read a startup story that really struck a chord with me.

In 2016, an American entrepreneur named Trevor Milton became famous. He was the founder of a hydrogen - fuel vehicle brand. Born into an ordinary American family and having dropped out of high school, he founded a brand called Nikola. The name was derived from the inventor Nikola Tesla, aiming to compete with Tesla. From the very beginning, the name seemed to be full of showmanship and ambition.

Milton was extremely good at being in the spotlight. He held a highly - anticipated press conference to launch a hydrogen - fuel cell truck and even claimed that he would surpass Elon Musk. He also said, "I want the world to remember my name." Both the capital market and the public were quickly attracted by his performance. In 2020, as a darling of the capital market and an internet celebrity, Milton quickly took Nikola public through a reverse merger. Its market value once exceeded that of Ford Motor. During the market frenzy, Milton's personal net worth exceeded $8 billion.

However, the listing was not only the peak but also the starting point of the collapse. After the listing, as the brand received more attention, people discovered a large amount of false advertising and fraud that had existed for a long time. In 2023, Milton was convicted of three fraud charges, including false advertising and consumer fraud. Many people mockingly referred to Milton as the "North American Jia Yueting." In February 2025, Nikola's stock price dropped to $0.667, on the verge of bankruptcy.

In this story, what struck me was how far a person could go astray in the process of building an IP just to gain traffic for their startup. When behind the huge traffic lies a shabby reality that one's ability and luck can no longer support, and when marketing crosses the line into fraud, does an entrepreneur still have a chance for a comeback?

Of course, this is a special case, and it may never happen to the entrepreneurs around us. However, this story made me deeply reflect on internet - celebrity IPs, and I believe it can offer valuable insights to our business owners.

Perhaps due to traffic anxiety, many entrepreneurs are rushing headlong into building personal IPs. Many bosses are so worried about missing this "traffic express" that they're as anxious as ants on a hot pan. Becoming an "internet - celebrity boss" has become the ideal of many startup founders.

Don't be in a hurry. Let's break this down and see what the essence of this matter might be.

02 IP Is Not a Brand; IP Has Become a Marketing Consumable

Let's first clarify the concepts of personal brand and personal IP.

In my opinion, a personal brand is the positive content experience that people have of an individual based on their long - term and continuous works, products, undertakings, or deeds. This positive experience could be trust, respect, recognition, etc. The key lies in being long - term, continuous, and consistent in delivery. It's the result of continuous alignment between words and deeds, aiming not for short - term benefits but for accumulation rather than consumption.

Personal IP, originally intended to be a continuously - generated symbol, has, in today's social media operation environment, become a traffic high - ground that can be established through deliberate operation and packaging in the short term. It can gain high popularity in a short period and is a marketing effect achieved through a person. The person becomes a carrier of marketing and is also called an "internet celebrity." With the manipulation of online emotions on the internet, an IP also has a certain life cycle. Once the marketing wanes or the relationship with the public shows cracks, the IP may become a marketing consumable to be discarded after use.

For a personal brand and a personal IP to coexist in one person requires quite strong brand safety management ability and luck. Generally, a person with an established personal brand can occasionally act as a personal IP in the short term, but a mere personal IP cannot be transformed into a personal brand. Whether it's Ren Zhengfei or Steve Jobs, they are not personal IPs in the current sense but personal brands. After their companies grew, they would occasionally take on marketing responsibilities due to the company's marketing needs, but overall, they didn't deliberately engage in IP - based operations.

What should entrepreneurs do? My view has always been that entrepreneurs must build personal brands but should not and need not build personal IPs.

In the marketing - obsessed environment, the personal IP of entrepreneurs has degraded into a marketing consumable, a "fast - moving traffic product." In the short term, it becomes a symbol chased by traffic, but it lacks long - term credibility. Like other marketing materials, its end result is to be discarded after use. Although it may bring some traffic and even sales in the short term, in the long run, using an entrepreneur's personal reputation as a marketing consumable is too costly and risky.

An entrepreneur's personal brand needs to be built over time, bit by bit. It's attached to factors such as a great product experience, a reliable corporate image, and the overall user perception of the product and brand. It's formed through various presentation methods. An entrepreneur's personal brand is one of the most important assets of a company. Entrepreneurs should not be put in the spotlight as marketing materials or commercial consumables. Using an entrepreneur's credibility to fulfill the task of a marketing material and feeding an insatiable traffic black hole is like drinking poison to quench thirst.

03 It's Not Cost - Effective for Entrepreneurs to Build Personal IPs in Terms of Time

Once, an entrepreneur friend asked me how he could quickly become an internet - celebrity founder. I asked him, "How much time are you willing to invest in this?"

He said, "I can ask my team to handle it simply during my spare time."

I asked him, "Why do you think your team can outperform full - time self - media bloggers and MCN companies with a simple effort?"

He said, "Then I can invest a bit more time."

I said, "What does 'a bit more' mean? Which part of your original time are you going to sacrifice?"

Actually, what I wanted to say is that an entrepreneur's energy and time are precious assets of the company. They should be used for more important things such as strategic decision - making, product development, and team management, rather than spending huge costs on building a personal IP and going head - to - head with many professional self - media and internet - celebrity IP teams. Consuming a large amount of human, financial, and material resources to do things that entrepreneurs may not be good at is not cost - effective in terms of time and energy.

Moreover, the content planning and production of an entrepreneur's personal IP are quite difficult. The positioning of a personal IP is bound to waver between authenticity and inauthenticity. At the same time, it especially tests the balance between an entrepreneur's authenticity and public performance, being restricted by human nature and social expectations. In this constant wavering and dilemma, it's difficult for an entrepreneur to avoid making mistakes if they expose themselves and appear frequently according to the rhythm of IP creation.

Quickly launching an entrepreneur's personal IP from scratch means a large amount of exposure for the entrepreneur, requiring the support of operations, topics, and events. This means that the company needs to invest a large amount of human, financial, and material resources, as well as the entrepreneur's time, energy, and mental strength. It also inevitably involves some entertainment, exposure, and hype. Such operations may pose risks of over - exposure and over - depletion of the entrepreneur's existing personal influence, personal brand, and even the corporate brand.

Some people say that it's a last - resort for founders, especially those of early - stage projects, to build personal IPs. When there are no resources, no people, and no money, having traffic is better. This is actually a typical "escapist" mindset, thinking that having traffic solves everything. If you observe such entrepreneurs, you'll often find that after getting some traffic, they don't take the time to build other aspects of the company. Instead, they end up like self - media people. Maybe, from the start, what they really wanted was to be self - media people.

An entrepreneur's greatest contribution lies in running the company well and establishing a well - known corporate brand. The company comes first, and the entrepreneur comes second. Entrepreneurs should work selflessly and be where the company needs them most. Some may think that the company currently needs traffic, sales channels, and financing, and these can be solved by "becoming famous." In fact, this kind of thinking may be an evasion of other responsibilities as an entrepreneur.

Do entrepreneurs really not have to spend any time on external communication? Of course not.

A company needs the most efficient allocation of resources. When the company needs the entrepreneur to step forward, they should do so. They can be the spokesperson in the professional field, the breakthrough - maker in the face of a crisis, and the expert and leader leading the industry. But they shouldn't follow the trend and step forward in the form of a personal IP. When an early - stage company needs the entrepreneur to spend a lot of time polishing products, building organizations, and thinking about strategies, they really don't have much time to be in the spotlight. They need to work hard behind the scenes, fight for the company, and integrate into the brand.

04 Inspiring the Whole Team for Corporate Marketing May Be a Better Approach

However, in today's era of traffic, we can't just stay silent and go against the trend of the times, right?

Of course not.

Actually, apart from entrepreneurs building personal IPs themselves, there is a more reliable and more fundamental path. That is to fulfill the real mission of entrepreneurs, inspire the strength of all employees in the company, arouse their goodwill and fighting spirit, and make the company a powerful marketing - driven organization in the new era.

From managers to employees, everyone has the desire and ability to express content and convey information. Whether people trust the company depends on whether the employees trust it. If this trust is passed on, it may be more persuasive.

Once, I saw someone in a group sharing about a brand's team (seemingly "Qiutian Manman"). Every member of this team used live - streaming to share content on the internet at any time. At an exhibition, they all sat on the ground, with a live - streaming phone in front of each of them. This kind of "cluster - bomb" - like marketing method may be the most powerful way in the future. (Note that it's not just forcing everyone to share formally but truly guiding those with content - creation abilities in the organization to develop the habit of creating content.)

After all, the essence of a brand is to convey more information about the company to those in need. The conveyer can be the "company" itself, and a company is an organization composed of individuals.

If an entrepreneur truly clarifies the company's direction and strategy, truly maximizes the goodwill of employees, truly leads everyone to understand the value of marketing, and truly helps everyone master marketing methods, and if the whole team makes this a daily routine, they'll develop the habit of keeping the organization's information always online. Instead of letting the entrepreneur's personal IP flutter alone in the wind, this kind of marketing is long - lasting, organized, and sustainable.

Conclusion

I didn't have a particularly strong opinion, either for or against, on entrepreneurs building IPs before. But recently, I've felt the need to discuss this topic. I'm increasingly aware that the line between today's IPs and the personal brands we talk about is becoming clearer. We should clearly distinguish this fundamental difference and have a clearer understanding of the investment and cost of building personal IPs.

To truly build credibility and achieve long - term success, it doesn't rely on satisfying personal heroism or creating short - term traffic - generated excitement. Today, corporate brands are caught in the traffic traps created by commercial platforms. For entrepreneurs, perhaps they should stay sober and take a step back to view the problem.

Exchanging a lifetime of credibility for short - term traffic may be the most expensive trap in the business world.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Li Qian Talks about Brands". Author: Li Qian Talks about Brands. Republished by 36Kr with permission.