Growing Old with the Market

In entrepreneurial lore, founders are often portrayed as bold visionaries who shape markets through disruptive ideas and persuasive narratives. But markets are not passive audiences. Customers respond, reinterpret and shift their interests over time, and founders who fail to adapt risk losing attention, even when their ideas are strong.

This insight motivates a recent study we co-authored, published in the Academy of Management Journal. In the paper, we ask a simple but underexplored question: how do founders attract market attention when their startup is young, and how do they keep it as the venture grows older?

The Black Box of Entrepreneurship

Much of entrepreneurship research focuses on the moment of founding, when opportunities are identified and ventures are launched, and on eventual outcomes, such as growth or failure. What happens in between is often treated as a black box. Yet, this “in-between” period is precisely when founders and markets interact, learn from each other and co-evolve.

Our study takes a dynamic view of entrepreneurship. We conceptualize entrepreneurship as an ongoing, two-sided interaction between founders and the market, unfolding over time. Founders act, markets respond and these responses, in turn, reshape founders’ subsequent actions.

Taking Action Through Artifacts

To study this process, we build on the entrepreneurial action literature and the design view of entrepreneurship, which emphasizes that founders act through artifacts — means through which imagined opportunities are made visible and testable in the world. We focus on three artifacts that capture different ways in which founders can influence, listen to or learn from the market:

• Leading the market discussion, by introducing new themes and frames that influence what the market talks about.
• Following the market discussion, by adapting founder communication to topics that are already gaining traction among customers.
• Introducing new products, material artifacts that embody the startup’s evolving understanding of market needs.

To empirically test our theoretical framework, we analyze 1,529 US startups founded in 2014–2015. Using social media data, text analysis and time-series methods, we track how founders’ communication and market discussions evolve quarter by quarter. We then relate these dynamics to market attention, measured through organic traffic to startups’ websites, a strong indicator of visibility and future growth. This longitudinal approach allows us to move beyond snapshots and examine when different founder strategies are most effective.

Our results reveal a clear temporal pattern.

When Leading the Market Works (And When It Doesn’t) 

In the early stages, leading the market discussion pays off. Founders who successfully introduce new ways of framing problems and solutions attract more attention when their startup is still unknown. At this stage, standing out matters.

Over time, however, this advantage fades. Once a startup has established an identity, repeatedly trying to redefine the conversation can confuse audiences or clash with established expectations. In contrast, following the market discussion becomes increasingly effective. Founders who listen carefully and adapt their communication to evolving market interests are better able to sustain attention.

Finally, new product introductions matter, but with a delay. Launching new products does not immediately boost attention, but its impact grows over time, signaling learning, progress and responsiveness to customer needs.

Founders: From Market Influencers to Attentive Listeners 

In short, founders seem to benefit from leading first, then listening and adapting, while gradually reinforcing their relevance through tangible products. These findings challenge the idea that successful entrepreneurship is only about shaping markets. Instead, they suggest that effective founders evolve over time: from market influencers to attentive listeners. This shift does not imply abandoning vision. Rather, it highlights the importance of adaptability: sustaining attention requires recognizing when to push new ideas and when to let the market guide the conversation.

For founders, the message is practical: capturing market attention is not a one-off achievement, but an ongoing challenge that requires changing gears as the venture matures. Like the John Lennon song that shares its name, Grow Old with Me is a story of evolution, empathy, and lasting connection: how great founders grow old with their markets. The best is yet to come!