The Problem: B2B marketing teams often face a standoff: Founders have the deep industry expertise ("The Magic") but no time to write, while Marketers have the time but lack the technical nuance. This leads to either bottlenecks (waiting for the Founder) or fluff (generic content that ignores technical reality).
The Solution: Stop asking Founders to write. Instead, use the "Extraction Protocol": a 30-minute recorded interview process where the Marketer acts as an investigative journalist to capture raw insights.
The Outcome: A scalable content engine where 20 minutes of talking generates a month's worth of expert assets (articles, social posts, newsletters) without adding stress to the executive team.
You have a content calendar. You have a deadline. What you don’t have is the deep, technical insight needed to write the article.
This is the classic standoff in B2B marketing teams. It usually manifests on a Friday afternoon when you’re staring at a blinking cursor in a blank Google Doc.
The Founder has "The Magic". The years of market intuition, the proprietary product vision, and the sharp, contrarian opinions that build trust with buyers. But they have zero time to write.
The Marketing Lead has the time, the distribution channels, and the writing skills. But they lack the 10,000 hours of industry context required to write with genuine authority. You can counter this problem by using our 30-Minute Routine (Extraction Protocol)(template included).
Founder-led content usually fails due to two structural issues: The Bottleneck (waiting for executive approval) or The Fluff (hiring generalists who lack technical context). Both result in missed deadlines or generic content that fails to engage sophisticated B2B buyers.
There is a better way. You don’t need the Founder to become a writer. You just need 30 minutes of their time and a repeatable process to turn their spoken words into marketing assets.
When the content calendar stalls, the instinct is often to hire a freelancer. This rarely works in technical sectors like Fintech, SaaS, or Engineering.
A freelance writer doesn’t know why your specific API architecture reduces latency by 40%. They don't know the exact objection a prospect raised yesterday. They can research around the topic, but they cannot simulate the scars of a founder who has lived the problem.
The result? Rework. When you receive a draft that is 60% accurate but 100% generic, the Marketing Lead spends five hours rewriting it. Your ICP can smell the "BS" from a mile away.
Founders often promise to write on the weekend, but Monday comes with an empty Google Doc. This is the "Curse of Knowledge." Experts are so close to their subject that they struggle to structure arguments for beginners.
Your job as the Marketer is to act as the bridge. Stop asking them to write. Start asking them to talk.
The Extraction Protocol is a three-step method to generate expert content:
Preparation (Prompt), Interview (Recording), and Asset Creation (Remix).
This shifts the marketer's role from "writer" to "investigative journalist," capturing raw expertise efficiently.
Preparation is critical. Never book a meeting with the agenda: "Brainstorm content." Instead, browse CRM notes or listen to sales calls. Prepare three specific, probing questions.
Get on a call and hit record. This is non-negotiable. As the interviewer, play the "skeptical buyer."
Use a tool like Deepgram or OpenAI Whisper to transcribe the audio. This is your "raw clay." From a single 20-minute recording, you can build:
The final hurdle is approval. To avoid the "Inbox Graveyard," change when you ask for input.
You don't need a technical writer if you have a technical expert (Founder/CTO) in-house. Use an interview-based "Extraction Protocol" to record their insights, then have a marketer structure and polish that raw material into assets.
Founders suffer from the "Curse of Knowledge" and lack of time. Writing requires structuring thoughts, which is cognitively demanding. It is more efficient for them to speak (which is natural) than to write (which is a chore).
Use AI transcription tools like Deepgram or OpenAI Whisper. These tools provide high-accuracy text from audio/video files, separating speakers and allowing you to quickly copy specific quotes for your content.
Expert content is the only way to build trust in a crowded B2B market. But you cannot build a scalable engine on "creativity" alone.
By moving to an interview-based model, you solve the two biggest pains in B2B marketing: Volume and Quality. The Founder feels heard without doing the manual labor, and the Marketer gets high-quality material that actually converts.
[Download our SME Interview Questions Template]
Get the exact prompts we use to get technical founders talking about the things that actually matter to your buyers.
