Working with a founder who doesn’t understand content is mentally exhausting
I’ve been working for a founder for around a month and a half now. He’s very successful in his field, highly connected, smart when it comes to business and networking, and honestly one of the brightest people I’ve seen in that domain.
But he does not understand content at all.
He hired me to handle content strategy, blogs, podcasts, social media, PR, basically everything related to communication and branding because he himself can’t write or structure content properly.
Initially, I was genuinely excited because I thought I’d get to build something meaningful with someone who already had authority and reach.
Instead, it’s becoming one of the most frustrating work experiences I’ve had.
Every time I suggest ideas, strategies, platform-specific content, storytelling angles, audience-focused approaches, or long-term positioning, the suggestions get dismissed immediately. At this point, I genuinely don’t understand why I was hired in the first place.
What makes it worse is that they expect the exact same content to be copy-pasted across LinkedIn, Instagram, X, YouTube, and every other platform as if audiences behave the same everywhere.
And this is something I’ve noticed with many founders, especially in startup and e-commerce circles:
They know tech.
They know sales.
They know operations.
They know how to make money.
But many of them think content is just “posting online.”
It’s not.
Content requires understanding audience psychology, platform behavior, storytelling, positioning, distribution, and consistency. You cannot build a strong brand by randomly posting recycled thoughts everywhere.
Another funny part is that their former customer support person suddenly became the HR and now gives instructions on content strategy despite having zero understanding of the field. So half the time I feel like I’m being managed by people who neither understand content nor trust the person they hired for it.
I’m exhausted.
Have any of you worked with founders like this? How do you deal with people who hire specialists but refuse to trust their expertise?