Most founders spend their days fighting fires, chasing customers, and building products. What they don’t do—at least not often enough—is pay attention to the policies being written quietly in the background that could redefine their entire business. They wait for the rules to show up, then scramble to adapt. And by then, it’s usually too late or too expensive.

If you’re building in a regulated market, which is most markets, you’re not just shipping products. You’re participating in a system that’s constantly evolving. Regulation touches everything: how you raise capital, what markets you enter, how fast you scale, and what margins you can sustain. A new policy can tank your customer acquisition cost overnight or load you up with unexpected compliance expenses. Sitting back and waiting to react isn’t just risky — it’s dangerous.

Historically, policy influence belonged to a closed club. Industry associations, well-connected fixers, retired government officials on retainer—they were the ones with access to the rooms where rules got written. Founders, especially the ones still climbing the first few rungs, usually didn’t have a seat at that table. Even those who did find that access to be expensive, slow, and highly vulnerable to political turnover. 

But the way policy is shaped has changed because the way narratives move has changed. The internet broke the monopoly on influence. Regulators read what the rest of us read. They’re watching TV, scrolling social feeds, scanning LinkedIn, listening to podcasts, and reading business columns like this one. The public narrative has become one of the most powerful levers in shaping how policymakers think. And that lever is available to any founder willing to engage.

When founders consistently put forward clear, thoughtful, and credible perspectives about how policy affects innovation, job creation, investment, and national competitiveness, people notice. Not immediately. But over time, repetition builds recognition, and recognition builds trust. 

Policymakers don’t live in a vacuum. They’re trying to make sense of fast-moving industries, often outside their own technical expertise. When someone explains where unintended consequences might land or proposes smarter alternatives to poorly constructed draft legislation, it helps. And when that help is offered early and often, founders start to become trusted references. Once that happens, invitations to more formal conversations follow.

Building that credibility requires a different mindset. This isn’t a side hobby or a personal branding exercise. It’s not about going viral or picking fights online. It’s part of running the business. Narrative work belongs next to product development, customer acquisition, and capital strategy. Writing regularly, whether on LinkedIn or in longer form essays, helps unpack complex regulatory issues for broader audiences. 

Podcasts, video interviews, policy roundtables, and research briefs all serve the same function: clarifying complexity and creating shared language for both industry and government to engage with. Done well, it makes regulators’ jobs easier, not harder. That’s what gets their attention.

Some founders in Nigeria are already doing this in ways that feel natural, not forced. Segunfunmi Olajide helps people make sense of how internet governance actually works—how no single government or company controls it, but how shared responsibility across governments, civil society, and the private sector shapes what kind of internet we all get to use.

Moses Faya brings a steady rhythm to the policy conversation, tracking the weekly flow of new regulations and decisions across Africa’s tech space, and making sense of it all for the people trying to build inside the system. Hamzat Lawal starts at the grassroots, carrying the stories of real communities into the national conversation, making sure the people most affected by policy decisions actually have a voice in shaping them. 

Oluwabankole Falade works from inside one of the biggest fintechs on the continent, helping bridge the gap between private innovation and the complex web of cross-border rules that make digital payments possible. And Adewunmi Emoruwa keeps the focus on governance itself, making the case that stable, functional institutions aren’t just good politics—they’re good for business, too. 

None of them waited for someone to hand them permission. They stepped in, spoke up, and earned a place in the conversation by being consistently useful.

Influence doesn’t happen in a flash. One good post doesn’t open doors. Trust builds slowly through repetition, consistency, and substance. But over time, when regulators see a founder repeatedly offering pragmatic, well-reasoned contributions to public debate, the dynamic changes. Instead of scrambling to react to new rules, those founders often find themselves consulted in advance, shaping policy from within rather than defending against it after the fact.

This isn’t vanity work. It’s modern advocacy. And it may prove to be one of the most durable advantages any founder can build.
Shehu, the founder and CEO of Column, wrote from UK.