Users rely on a tech founder's personal character to proxy product trust
Lulu Cheng Meservey · How To Build A Cult | Lulu Cheng Meservey · Sep 16, 2025 · at 1:24:04
Lulu Cheng Meservey is discussing the halo effect in tech communication and why founder personas dictate user trust when AI or data privacy cannot be independently verified.
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“If you're building a A technology that is so mind-blowing and advanced and esoteric and confidential. You can't tell people, well, just go verify that it works. They can't verify that it works. It's not like you're selling a shoe and they try it on and, yes, it's comfortable. They'll buy it. Like, they actually can't verify. They can't verify what you're doing with their data. They'll never be able to investigate for themselves, whether you're respecting their privacy. They just have to use as proxies other things, whether they trust or not. So they'll look at you, the human, as the mascot of the company and use you as a proxy.”
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