Your Startup Doesn’t Need Instagram
Why Most Founders Get Social Media Wrong (And How to Fix It)
"Let’s go viral on TikTok!" – every founder ever, five minutes into building their company.
We’ve all been there. Pressure’s on, product’s live, investor asks about traction – and your instinct says: Time to post some Reels! But hold up. Before you dive headfirst into dancing on camera or scheduling memes into Hootsuite, ask yourself one simple thing:
Does social media even make sense for your startup right now, for your product, and your audience?
Because here’s the truth most marketers won’t tell you:
Not every startup needs social media to grow.
And for some, it’s actually a time- and energy-sucking trap.
This isn’t a “delete your Instagram” manifesto. It’s a call to think strategically before you default to social because everyone else is doing it. Let’s break down when, why, and if social media actually deserves a place in your marketing stack – and what to do instead if it doesn’t.
1. What Stage Are You Really In?
The first question to ask is: where is your company right now?
If you’re still working toward product–market fit, testing hypotheses, validating retention, finding your core users, then social media is likely not your biggest lever. It might feel productive, but it’s usually not. Your most valuable asset at this stage is feedback and iteration speed, not followers.
Social can give the illusion of progress, a few viral posts might create external noise, but without strong retention or real usage, it’s just that: noise. As Andrew Chen puts it, social media launches often give you a "sugar high": “It can only happen once… the algorithm is against you, and it only lasts a few hours.” Instead of spending time making your Instagram grid look pretty, spend it refining your onboarding flow, fixing churn, or talking to users 1:1.
Once you do have a working product with solid engagement and some demand pull, the role of social shifts. It can become a meaningful channel for brand building, education, or community, but only if those goals serve your growth model. Don’t jump into social just because others are doing it. Do it because it maps to your current goals, with a clear ROI.
2. Is Your Product Even Social-Friendly?
Not every product is built to perform well on social media and that’s completely fine.
Some categories are naturally emotional, visual, or inherently social. Think fitness, food, or lifestyle brands. These products lend themselves to storytelling, visuals, and organic sharing. For instance, at Dopamine, a fitness startup, we constantly had content opportunities – people posting workouts, progress, motivation. Similarly, at GoTiger, an Asian grocery commerce platform I co-founded, our visual content (food, cooking, culture) naturally resonated with social users and performed well.
When we launched Juniper, our weight-loss brand in Germany, we quickly recognized that the user journey was deeply personal. Weight loss isn’t something most people want to broadcast—it’s private, sometimes emotional, and rarely Instagram-worthy. Rather than pushing users into social sharing, we leaned into this insight and made a strategic decision: skip the organic social playbook. Instead, we invested in performance marketing and strengthened our owned communication channel, spaces where users felt safe, supported, and unseen.
The takeaway? For brands like Juniper, offering private, functional, or non-visual products—organic social may not just underperform; it may backfire. Know your audience, and choose the right channels accordingly.
Instead, look for angles that are adjacent to your core offering but more naturally shareable. For example, some fintech apps (like Cleo or Finanzfluss) created traction by posting short, punchy TikToks about budgeting or financial literacy, not about the app itself. The education angle built awareness and trust before any product push.
Don’t play status games. Focus on product strength and let users share organically when it fits. If there’s no organic conversation around your category yet, wait or find a smarter hook.
3. Do You Have Audience–Platform Fit?
You’ve likely heard of product–market fit. Think of audience–platform fit as its sibling: Is your target audience actually on the platform you're targeting and are they in the right mindset when they’re there?
Too often, startups try to be everywhere: Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, even Discord, without stopping to ask whether their audience is active on those platforms, or whether their message fits the native tone and format.
For example, if you’re targeting Gen Z, then yes, TikTok and Instagram are probably high-priority channels. But if your audience is older, busy parents, maybe Facebook Groups or Pinterest is more relevant. Selling a premium product? LinkedIn might outperform Instagram.
Equally important is emotional context. People scroll TikTok for short-form entertainment. They’re on Reddit to learn or discuss. On Instagram, they’re looking for inspiration or aspiration. Your content should not only appear in the right feed, it should also feel like it belongs there.
Where does our audience spend time online?
What are they doing when they’re there?
Can we show up authentically on that platform?
If you can’t answer all three clearly, it’s worth reconsidering your channel mix.
4. Organic, Paid, Creator-Led — What’s Your Approach?
Saying “we’re doing social” is too vague. There are fundamentally different paths within social media, and each serves a different purpose.
Organic (Owned Channels)
At Royfort, a DTC wellness brand, we built a slow but loyal community through owned social. Our content was around lifestyle, inspiration, and wellness — not just product plugs. It took time, but it paid off as a long-term brand asset.
The upside: it’s yours. You own the feed, the message, the community. The downside: slow growth, constant content demand, and low early reach unless something hits.
At Juniper, we made an early strategic call: skip organic social and go straight to paid. We knew our product, weight loss, was inherently private and not something people would share publicly. But privacy doesn’t mean invisibility. Through Meta dark posts and TikTok Spark Ads, we pushed native-feeling content directly into feeds. No hashtags, no dance challenges, just targeted, controlled reach. It worked. We scaled without waiting around for virality.
Paid gave us speed, targeting, and a feedback loop on creative performance. But we also knew: it only works if your funnel is airtight. Buying traffic into a leaky bucket? That’s just setting fire to your budget.
Creator-Led
In a world where trust is fragmented and attention is rented, creators offer built-in credibility. A creator-led approach means letting others tell your story, ideally, people whose audience already trusts them more than any brand account ever could. Done right, this unlocks authenticity and reach.
At LANCH, we built a hybrid model. Our own social channels carried lifestyle content to build the brand world, but for launches and product drops, we leaned on creators. We didn’t try to out-shout everyone, we “borrowed” the megaphones of people whose followers actually listened.
Of course, that requires orchestration: promo codes, UTMs, and a strong match between creator tone and product vibe.
5. Can You Operationally Support a Social Strategy?
This part gets overlooked all the time.
Social media isn’t a one-and-done effort. It’s a system. If you plan to build a presence, you need processes in place — for content creation, scheduling, community engagement, analytics, and iteration.
Ask yourself:
Who is making the content?
Who’s editing, posting, replying, analyzing?
Can we keep up momentum post-launch?
If it’s just you (the founder or solo marketer) and you're already wearing five other hats, social might become a burden — or worse, an inconsistent, low-quality feed that hurts more than it helps.
Inactivity or sloppy execution can make your brand feel stagnant. Consistency matters, especially with platform algorithms. Better to wait until you can resource it properly than start and abandon it later.
Also: hiring for social is hard. You’re looking for someone who can write, shoot, edit, analyze, project manage and often be the face of your brand - all at once. That unicorn is rare (and expensive). Plan accordingly.
6. Measure the Right Things
The biggest mistake? Chasing metrics that look good but mean nothing. A high follower count doesn’t build a business. A viral post that doesn’t move anyone to act is just noise. A million impressions without context is just that—impressions.
What matters depends on your strategy:
For organic: Focus on view-through engagement—how many people saw your content and cared. Metrics like save rate, share rate, and engagement rate per view give you a clearer sense of resonance than raw likes.
For paid: Track CPM, CTR, CPC, CAC, and most importantly—conversion rate. Reach is cheap. Returns are not.
For creators: Combine the two: how well did content resonate and convert? UTMs and discount codes are your friends here.
Know your platforms, too. TikTok runs on the algorithm—engagement per view beats follower count. On Instagram, saves and shares drive distribution. On Reddit, post longevity and thoughtful comments show true community buy-in.
The goal isn’t reach for reach’s sake. It’s relevance, and ideally, retention.
Final Thought: Play a Meaningful Game
There’s a difference between building a business and building a content engine.
You’re here to serve customers, solve real problems, and create value, not win popularity contests.
Before you post because “we haven’t posted in a while,” pause. Ask:
Is this helping us reach our actual business goals — or just filling a feed?
Social media can be a powerful growth tool. But it’s not the default answer.
Startups win by doing what’s necessary, not what’s trendy.
Key Takeaways
Don’t default to social, build a strategy based on your product, stage, and audience.
Early-stage? Focus on product and traction. Social can come later.
Not all products belong on TikTok or Instagram. If yours isn’t inherently shareable, don’t force it.
Audience–platform fit matters more than channel presence. Go where your users are, and match their intent.
Pick your approach: organic for brand, paid for scale, creators for trust. Combine with intention.
Resource matters. Don’t start social without a clear plan for content, engagement, and consistency.
Track real metrics, not vanity ones. Likes ≠ value.
You're not building a content account, you're building a company.