Building a Founders Website with Next.js and Sanity

Why Founders Websites Are Different

Not just a business site. Personal brand element.

Portfolio of experiences, thought leadership.

Needs to convey credibility and personality.

Often changes as founder’s journey evolves.

The Tech Stack

Frontend: Next.js. React + SEO + performance out of box.

CMS: Sanity. Structured content, real-time collaboration.

Hosting: Vercel. Perfect Next.js integration.

Deployment: Git push = deploy.

From our workA website that sells on its ownHero of You sells printed books straight from its site, payment and shipping included.Build your website →

Why Not WordPress

Founders often want unique design.

Themes fight against you.

Elementor + custom = compromise.

Full custom in Next.js: unlimited flexibility.

Content Structure

About: story, values, current focus.

Portfolio: projects, companies, experiences.

Writing: articles, essays, newsletter archive.

Speaking: talks, podcasts, videos.

Contact: opportunities, media inquiries.

Design Principles

Editorial feel: reads like magazine.

Typography-driven: text is content.

Minimal but not sterile.

Personal touches: photos, hand-drawn elements.

Performance Priorities

First page load: under 1s.

Images: Next.js Image component with WebP.

Fonts: subset and preload.

Third-party scripts: minimal, deferred.

SEO Foundation

Personal name as brand keyword.

Content that ranks for professional expertise.

Structured data: Person, Author schema.

Social sharing: Open Graph optimized.

Sanity as CMS

Schema in code: version controlled, easy to change.

Real-time preview: see changes as you type.

Portable Text: rich text with custom components.

Image handling: automatic sizing, cropping.

Content Management Experience

Founder edits directly. No dev needed for content.

Interface simple enough for non-technical.

Draft/publish workflow.

Scheduled posts.

Deployment

Git push → Vercel builds → live in seconds.

Preview URLs for every branch.

Rollback: revert commit = revert live.

Costs

Vercel: free for personal, $20/mo for pro.

Sanity: free tier generous. $99/mo for growing.

Domain: $12/year.

Total: $10-30/month for professional founder site.

Newsletter Integration

Substack: separate but embedded.

Convertkit: forms integrated.

Beehiiv: newer, growing fast.

Native: build own with SendGrid/Postmark.

Analytics

Simple: Plausible, Fathom (privacy-friendly).

Detailed: Google Analytics 4.

Content performance: track what people read.

Commenting

Usually off for founders sites. Twitter/LinkedIn better.

If needed: Disqus, Utterances (GitHub-based).

Media Presence

Press mentions section.

Podcast appearances with embedded players.

Video content: YouTube embed or self-hosted.

Long-term Maintenance

Update Next.js version yearly.

Update dependencies monthly.

Content updates: whenever inspired.

Total time: maybe 1 hour per month for maintenance.

Based on Real Projects

This guide is based on our work with:

• The Founders
• Bamboo Connect

Further Reading

If this guide helped you, you might also want to read our comprehensive guide on Web Development.