Founder faces beat celebrity spends, says Mamaearth’s Varun Alagh

New Delhi: Founders who become the public face of their brands are outpacing celebrity-endorsed rivals on trust, loyalty and marketing efficiency, according to Mamaearth co-founder Varun Alagh. 

In a post, Alagh argued that India’s fastest-growing consumer brands are led by entrepreneurs who front campaigns themselves; “not just as thought leaders… but in actual advertising as the primary brand ambassador.”

Alagh cited examples across the D2C landscape: Ghazal Alagh appearing in Mamaearth campaigns “from day one”; Shashank Mehta featuring in ads for The Whole Truth Foods; Kusha Kapila building undern_eath.in by “being unapologetically herself”; and Aakash Anand fronting BellaVita. “Most founders hire celebrities and build faceless brands. A few do the opposite. And they’re winning disproportionately,” he wrote.

Framing the approach as strategy rather than vanity, Alagh said three effects follow when a founder “puts their face on the product.” First, trust compounds faster because customers buy from a person “who stakes their reputation on every product.” 

Second, the brand story fuses with the founder’s credibility. “When Shashank talks about clean ingredients, it’s not a brand claim. It’s his personal commitment.” Third, it creates a moat competitors can’t copy: products and prices can be replicated, “but not the years of founder equity you’ve built by consistently showing up.”

Responding to common pushback, what if a founder isn’t charismatic or doesn’t want the spotlight?— Alagh said consistency and authenticity matter more than polish. “Founder-led brands in India are consistently outperforming celebrity-endorsed brands in both consumer loyalty and capital efficiency. They’re spending less on marketing while building deeper connections,” he said.

Alagh linked Mamaearth’s origin story to the thesis: “When Ghazal Alagh and I started Mamaearth, our own experience became the brand story. That was our reality, and it became the foundation of everything we built.” His bottom line: “The brands winning today aren’t the ones with the biggest celebrity budgets. They’re the ones where customers know exactly who built the product and why.”