TikTok Founders Are Skipping This One Essential Step - And It's Why Brands Don’t Last

We’re in a golden age of entrepreneurial energy and TikTok is its launchpad.

Scroll for five minutes and you’ll see it: start-up founders documenting product development, packaging samples, figuring out cashflow. Behind-the-scenes footage of late-night label design and “small biz wins.” There’s something electric about it. It’s raw, real, and often incredibly inspiring.

Founders like Grace Beverley and Aimee Smale have shown that you can build huge momentum by showing up consistently, tapping into a niche, and building a community before you even have product in stock.

But for every Tala or Odd Muse, there are thousands of start-ups launching in crowded markets — skincare, fashion, wellness, accessories — with founders pouring savings into products, packaging and paid ads… and still struggling to cut through.

Why?

Because visibility alone isn’t differentiation. Because aesthetic doesn’t equal strategy. Because hype fades and brand equity is what remains.

A Following Isn’t a Foundation

Three years ago, TikTok was the launchpad for my own brand. It’s the reason I was able to build recognition quickly in my category and punch far above my weight from day one. I’ve gone viral multiple times, and I understand firsthand the power the platform has to catapult small businesses into the spotlight.

But here’s the difference: I launched my brand with 10 years of big-brand marketing experience behind me.

I have a huge amount of admiration for founders who launch without that background. The ones who learn marketing as they go, test things live, figure it out in real-time. That’s no small feat.

For most founders I see online, the one thing I see so many of them skipping is also the one thing that could take their business from temporary traction to long-term growth: brand strategy.

The Missing Piece

Brand strategy isn’t the vibe or the visual. It’s the thinking that holds your brand together when the trends shift and the algorithm dips.

It defines:

• Who you’re really for (and who you’re not)

• What you stand for beyond your product

• What makes you different in a market full of sameness (especially important in competitive categories)

• How you show up across every touchpoint, not just TikTok

Without this, you’re relying on product and content to carry the brand and these alone can’t do all the heavy lifting, especially when ad costs rise or your viral moment doesn’t come.

In a Crowded Market, Brand DNA Is Your Only Moat

In the past week alone, I’ve seen four new founders upset that someone copied their product, replicated their photoshoot concept, or launched under the same brand name in another market.

I looked into this - the commonality between all of these was a lack of fundamental differentiation at brand level. No brand DNA. No unique edge.

There are no truly original ideas. People will launch something similar to yours and often without even realising it already exists. That’s the reality of building in fast-moving, trend-driven categories.

The thing is, when your brand is built on a strong foundation, the sameness of those ideas has no reason to rock your world.

A product alone doesn’t make a brand. What sets you apart and makes your business resilient is the meaning, the emotion, and the strategic clarity behind it. When that’s in place, another founder releasing a similar product or replicating a photoshoot isn’t a threat. It’s just noise.

Strong brand foundations give your business depth. They anchor you to a message and a mission that can’t be easily copied even if the product looks similar on the surface. That’s your edge. That’s what lasts.

That’s the power of strategy. That’s what protects your business.

Where Founders Are Going Wrong

These are the most common traps I see:

1. Product-first, brand-second
 Founders fall in love with the product, but don’t spend time defining the why behind it. Your story isn’t only about the business, it’s about the transformation your customer wants to feel part of.

2. Over-investing in ads too soon
 TikTok made it look easy, so the next step is: boost a post, run a Meta campaign. But if your offer’s not clear, your positioning is weak, or your landing page doesn’t convert, you’re just burning cash.

3. Copy-paste branding
 Glossy moodboards and nice packaging do not equal brand clarity. You need to own your space and not emulate someone else’s.

4. Scaling before they’re ready
 Manufacturing more units, adding new SKUs, running influencer campaigns all without a scalable brand narrative or system. It’s growth with no grounding. 

Differentiation Isn’t Optional Anymore

If you’re in skincare, fashion, wellness or lifestyle, you’re not in a niche — you’re in a saturated category. That means brand is your only real leverage and your disadvantage is that you're up against players with really deep pockets, who are spending hundreds of thousands in ads with significant infrastructure behind them.

The brands that cut through are the ones that:

• Speak clearly to a specific person with a specific belief or need

• Build emotional relevance, not just aesthetic appeal

• Create content that deepens brand meaning, not just sells

• Build a brand system that can grow beyond the founder’s face

What you do have — that most corporate brands don’t — is a human face and a real, relatable story. One that people genuinely want to support.

A smart founder recognises that this isn’t the brand foundation but it’s a powerful asset that strengthens it. When paired with clear positioning, a strong point of difference, and a defined audience, your story becomes part of what solidifies the brand before you start pumping money into product and ads.
Inspiration ≠ Imitation

Grace Beverley didn’t just launch activewear — she built a purpose-led ecosystem around productivity and performance. Aimee Smale didn’t just sell dresses — she created a brand identity that embodied elegance, ambition and modern femininity. That’s brand strategy.

Their businesses aren’t just viral. They’re cohesive. And that’s what makes them scalable.

If you want your start-up to do more than trend, you need more than a following. You need a foundation. You need brand strategy that doesn’t just help you launch, it helps you last.