The Annual Plot to Photograph the Founder

It involves my CMO, my assistant, my friends—and a very narrow window of good mood.

I don’t know how this works for other founders, but every year my CMO makes me take new photos.

Apparently, a company needs a steady supply of recent founder pictures—for LinkedIn, press requests, quotes, and all those occasions when someone needs proof that the CEO is a real person with a face.

The problem is that I hate being photographed. Not mildly. I really hate it.

I’m not an Instagram person. I don’t document my life, search for flattering angles, or suddenly think, “This moment would be better if someone pointed a camera at me.”

So every year, Veronika—my CMO—has to form a small conspiracy with my assistant, my friends, and occasionally the rest of my immediate environment. Their mission is to catch me during a brief window of good mood and convince me that a photoshoot is necessary for the company.

I approached this year’s session with the usual sense of impending doom.

And then something deeply inconvenient happened: it was easy.

Possibly even fun.

And I actually liked one of the photos.

There is no profound founder lesson here. Just one of those strange things nobody warns you about when you become a CEO: at some point, your face becomes company infrastructure—and you become a slightly unwilling corporate mascot.

So here it is: photographic evidence that the annual conspiracy succeeded.

Other founders: what ridiculous part of becoming “the face of the company” did you never realize you were signing up for?