FODcast Takeaway: In a World of AI, Trust Is Becoming the Real Competitive Advantage

July 28, 2026

For years, most go-to-market strategies were built around products. 

Businesses focused heavily on functionality, pricing, differentiation, and scale, with marketing centred on explaining why one platform, service, or solution was better than another. In many sectors, particularly within technology, that became the standard playbook.

The challenge now is that product advantages rarely stay unique for very long.

Features can be replicated quickly, pricing can be matched, and AI is accelerating the speed at which competitors can launch, market, and position similar offerings. As a result, businesses are increasingly looking for new ways to differentiate themselves in markets that are becoming more crowded and more competitive.

That is where founder-led branding and founder visibility are starting to play a much bigger role.

In a recent episode of The FODcast, we sat down with Angeley Mullins, Founder & CEO of Aetheris Ventures and Chief Growth Officer at Ninox Software, to explore the growing importance of authenticity, storytelling, and founder visibility in modern go-to-market strategy, and why businesses are starting to rethink how they build trust and connection with audiences.

Why founder visibility is becoming more important

One of the clearest themes throughout the conversation was the shift away from purely product-led messaging.

As Angeley explained, audiences are becoming increasingly resistant to generic corporate positioning and repetitive product marketing. In sectors where multiple businesses may offer broadly similar functionality, the story behind the business itself often becomes the differentiator.

That story increasingly comes from founders and leadership teams.

Founder-led branding is not simply about building a personal profile or becoming more visible online. At its best, it gives businesses a more human identity, allowing audiences to connect with the people, experiences, challenges, and thinking behind the company itself.

The conversation referenced founders openly sharing the realities of building businesses, discussing setbacks alongside successes, and creating content that feels more personal and relatable than traditional corporate messaging. That level of openness tends to resonate strongly, particularly in a market where audiences are becoming more selective about who and what they trust.

Angeley referenced founders such as Amelia, co-founder of the recruitment platform Ivee, who has built visibility not simply by promoting the product itself, but by openly sharing the realities of building the business. Rather than focusing purely on features or sales messaging, the content centres around the founder journey itself, including the challenges, uncertainty, and day-to-day realities behind scaling a company.

That kind of openness increasingly resonates with audiences who are looking for something more human and relatable than traditional corporate marketing.

Why storytelling is becoming a strategic advantage

Another major theme throughout the discussion was the growing importance of storytelling within modern go-to-market strategy.

For years, many businesses competed primarily on product features and commercial positioning. Increasingly though, those areas alone are no longer enough to sustain attention.

As AI tools continue to make content creation, product development, and messaging more accessible, the ability to communicate a compelling narrative is becoming far more valuable. Increasingly, businesses are realising that buyers are influenced not just by products themselves, but by credibility, perspective, trust, and the people behind the business.

That is changing how organisations think about marketing itself.

Angeley pointed to the growing demand for storytelling-focused roles within larger businesses as evidence of this shift. Companies are recognising that strong narrative capability is becoming a strategic asset rather than simply a brand exercise.

This feels particularly relevant in digital commerce and technology, where differentiation can disappear quickly and customer attention is increasingly difficult to maintain.

The growing demand for authenticity

One of the more interesting points raised during the conversation was the audience demand for authenticity.

Consumers and buyers alike are exposed to huge amounts of content every day, much of which follows increasingly similar formats and messaging patterns. As a result, audiences are becoming better at filtering out content that feels overly polished, overly corporate, or disconnected from real experience.

Founder-led branding works partly because it introduces a level of relatability back into the conversation.

That does not mean every founder suddenly needs to become a content creator or public personality. What it does suggest, however, is that businesses increasingly benefit from allowing customers to see the people and thinking behind the organisation itself.

In many ways, this reflects a broader shift in how trust is built. Buyers are increasingly looking for signals of credibility, consistency, and transparency before making decisions, particularly in uncertain economic conditions where risk tolerance is lower.

How AI is reshaping go-to-market teams

The conversation also explored how AI is beginning to reshape the structure of marketing and go-to-market teams themselves.

As automation becomes more sophisticated, many of the repetitive tasks traditionally associated with entry-level sales and marketing roles are likely to change significantly. Outreach, research, content generation, and operational workflows can increasingly be supported through AI-driven tools and agents.

What becomes more valuable in that environment is strategic thinking.

As Angeley discussed, businesses are likely to place greater emphasis on individuals capable of managing AI systems, interpreting outputs, shaping narrative, and making commercially informed decisions around messaging and positioning.

Collectively, that points towards a fairly significant shift in how businesses structure marketing and go-to-market teams over the coming years.

The capability challenge behind founder-led branding

One of the wider themes that continues to emerge across digital commerce and technology is the growing importance of adaptable talent.

Founder-led branding, storytelling, AI strategy, and go-to-market execution increasingly overlap with one another. As a result, businesses need people capable of thinking commercially, communicating clearly, and navigating rapidly evolving technology landscapes at the same time.

From our perspective, this is another example of how modern growth strategies are becoming increasingly interconnected. Technology clearly matters, but the ability to build trust, communicate effectively, and create authentic connections is becoming just as important.

That is particularly true in competitive markets where product differentiation alone is becoming harder to sustain.

Final thoughts

What came through clearly in this conversation is that founder-led branding is not simply a passing trend or social media tactic.

As Angeley highlighted, it reflects a much broader shift in how businesses build trust, differentiate themselves, and connect with audiences in increasingly crowded markets. As AI accelerates the speed of competition, authenticity, storytelling, and strategic narrative are becoming more commercially important than ever.

For businesses, that means thinking more carefully about not just what they sell, but how they communicate who they are, what they believe, and why customers should trust them.

A huge thank you to Angeley for taking the time to share her insight and perspective on this topic. If founder-led branding or modern go-to-market strategy is something your business is currently exploring, make sure you tune in – link below.

Written by:

Tim Roedel

CEO

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FODcast Takeaway: Why Retail Media Is Becoming the New Battleground for Customer Attention

July 15, 2026

Retail media is quickly becoming one of the most important areas of digital commerce, but it is also one of the most delicate to get right.

On the surface, the opportunity is obvious. Retailers sit on enormous amounts of customer and transactional data, brands are looking for more effective ways to reach increasingly fragmented audiences, and media networks create entirely new commercial opportunities within retail environments.

The challenge is that customer attention is finite.

As retailers continue to expand their media capabilities, the balance between commercial ambition and customer experience is becoming increasingly important. The businesses that navigate that balance well are likely to create meaningful long-term value. Tand, tose that don’t risk turning already crowded customer journeys into even noisier experiences.

In the latest episode of The FODcast, Dean Harris, Head of Co-op Media Network, and Anders Henricson, CEO of Grassfish, shared some really interesting perspectives on how retail media is evolving, the opportunities it creates, and the operational challenges retailers now face as media, commerce, and customer experience become more closely connected.

Why retail media strategy matters more than ever

One of the clearest themes throughout the discussion was the growing value of retailer-owned data.

Traditional advertising channels have become increasingly fragmented, while changes in privacy, tracking, and customer behaviour continue to reshape how brands reach audiences online. Retailers, however, remain in a uniquely strong position. They have direct access to customer behaviour, purchasing habits, and transactional insight at a scale many other channels simply cannot replicate.

That is what makes retail media so attractive.

As Dean discussed through the work being done within the Co-op Media Network, retailers are now able to offer brands highly targeted opportunities built around real shopping behaviour and real moments of intent. With millions of transactions taking place every week, the scale of insight available is significant.

However, what came through strongly during the conversation was that successful retail media strategy cannot simply become a race to place more advertising in front of customers.

The customer experience balancing act

One of the more interesting areas explored during the discussion was the risk of communication overload.

Customers already navigate huge amounts of messaging across digital platforms, social channels, websites, apps, email, and increasingly in-store environments too. Adding more promotional messaging into retail experiences may create new revenue opportunities, but it also increases the risk of fatigue and disengagement if not handled carefully.

That is where relevance becomes critical.

The retailers making the strongest progress in this area are typically not those creating the most noise, but those creating the most useful and contextually relevant experiences. Retail media works best when it complements the customer journey rather than interrupting it.

This feels particularly important in environments like grocery retail, where convenience, familiarity, and speed are already central to the shopping experience. Customers are rarely looking for more friction or more decision-making complexity. In many cases, the role of retail media should be to simplify decisions, not complicate them.

As Anders highlighted during the conversation, the physical and digital customer journey is also becoming increasingly interconnected, which raises the stakes further. Retailers are no longer simply managing isolated digital campaigns. They are managing joined-up experiences across stores, apps, loyalty programmes, ecommerce platforms, and digital touchpoints simultaneously.

Why data alone is not enough

Data may sit at the heart of retail media, but another important theme from the conversation was that access to data alone does not automatically create strong customer engagement.

Many retailers already have vast amounts of customer information available to them. The challenge lies in how effectively that insight is interpreted, operationalised, and applied across the wider business.

Understanding customer behaviour is one thing. Delivering genuinely relevant experiences from it is something else entirely.

That requires more than technology investment. It requires strong collaboration between marketing, ecommerce, customer, operations, and commercial teams, alongside clear governance around how retail media activity supports the wider customer journey.

As retail media networks continue to mature, the businesses that stand out are likely to be those capable of combining data capability with strong customer understanding and operational discipline, rather than simply increasing advertising inventory.

The governance challenge behind retail media growth

Another point that came through strongly was the importance of maintaining long-term thinking.

Retail media creates understandable commercial temptation. New revenue streams are attractive, particularly in challenging economic conditions, and there is always pressure to maximise inventory opportunities wherever possible.

The risk, however, is that short-term revenue goals begin to outweigh the long-term customer relationship.

Retailers therefore need clear frameworks around campaign quality, customer relevance, and operational oversight to ensure that retail media enhances the customer experience rather than detracting from it. Without that structure, there is a danger that the shopping journey becomes overly commercialised and ultimately less effective for everyone involved.

The retailers navigating this best tend to treat retail media as part of the overall customer experience strategy, not simply as a standalone advertising function.

The capability challenge behind retail media

One of the wider themes that continues to emerge across digital commerce is the growing importance of cross-functional capability.

Retail media now sits across ecommerce, advertising, customer experience, data, partnerships, operations, and commercial strategy. That means the talent required to manage it effectively is becoming increasingly broad and increasingly difficult to find.

Retailers need teams capable of understanding customer behaviour, interpreting data, managing commercial relationships, and balancing revenue generation with customer experience objectives. Those skillsets do not always exist neatly within traditional organisational structures.

From our perspective, this is becoming one of the defining challenges behind retail media growth. The opportunity itself is substantial, but long-term success depends heavily on having the right operational maturity and talent capability in place to support it.

Final thoughts

What came through clearly in this conversation is that retail media is evolving into something far bigger than a new advertising channel.

As Dean and Anders highlighted, the real opportunity lies in creating more connected, relevant, and useful customer experiences that work for both brands and shoppers without compromising trust or usability along the way.

For retailers, that means balancing commercial ambition with customer expectations, while also building the operational structures and talent capability required to support increasingly sophisticated retail media ecosystems.

A huge thank you to Dean and Anders for sharing their insight and experience on this topic. If retail media strategy is something your business is currently exploring, the full episode is well worth a listen.

Written by:

Tim Roedel

CEO

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