The Influence Forge is a bespoke consulting practice focused on helping Founders and CXOs meet their Executive Presence needs. Our founders have over two decades of marketing and public markets investing experience, offering a unique mix of marketing chops across brand equity building, digital and social media marketing, and investor relations experience.

Work with us if you’re looking for experienced operators fully engaged on your personal presence internally and externally.

What do we do?

The Influence Forge works with two specific client personas:

Founders: Nearly every new age brand you know today comes with a founder who’s a constant presence on your feed. Part charismatic, part irritating, but omnipresent- the founder persona is everywhere. If you are a founder who wants this critical aspect of your firm’s brand persona to shine, we are here to help build and scale it. At this point, we are selecting to work with startups with Series C funding in place, and who are looking to IPO in the next three years.

CXOs: As a CXO at a listed or private firm, you are gunning for the top role. While you have your execution chops in place, you are competing with peers with an impressive track record. Your differentiation doesn’t need to stick to quarterly numbers or hitting your targets. Work with The Influence Forge to build a persona that shines!

Who are you working with?

The Influence Forge is incubated by Karan Rajpal- a seasoned marketing executive and public markets investor for the past two decades.

Karan has successfully led marketing strategy at marquee global brands for over two decades. As an ex-entrepreneur, marketing leader, public markets investor and social media personality, he has the myriad of skills required to elevate your presence.

Why work with The Influence Forge?

While the proposition is simple, and can be ‘offered’ by anyone, Executive Presence demands specific attention to detail:

• Unique skill requirement: Most advertising agencies and PR firms are still focused on traditional aspects of their craft- their skill sets, staffing and pricing levels are design to extract maximal billing. Executive presence requires bespoke work that scales at an individual level

• Specific attention requirements: Building Executive Presence needs to move beyond hocking your brand, sharing funding or GMV updates, or commentary on the industry you are a part of. As an Executive, your presence needs to more than sum of your parts, and no part of your internal and agency teams are specifically attuned to it. In short- you will not be line item number 42 on your firm’s marketing plan

• Compounding, not scaling: Together, we will do things that don’t scale. We don’t promise thousands (millions!) of followers, 50 posts per week or any other line item sold. A specifically bespoke, tasteful set of outcomes designed to position you like you deserve. So while we may not scale, we will definitely compound.

• Nerds need nerds: As a business leader, you are constantly code switching. From reviewing sales numbers to calculating CAC; from approving brand campaigns to building investor presentations, you are running through a variety of tasks during the day, and often, no single team gets it all. With The Influence Forge at your side, you can build the sum of parts into a beautiful whole. Everyone needs someone who gets them, and you will find out that we do.

Plus!

Apart from the services provided, Karan remains at hand to offer experience backed advice on marketing, social media, performance marketing and internal communications. As an investor, he will help position your investor relations materials to impress VCs, PE funds and public market investors alike. He’s factual, will often challenge you, and operates from a strong experience of having successfully run brands and building large public market portfolios.

When he helps you finish a piece of communication, you will deliver unexpected joy, crystal clear vision and a future everyone can believe in.