Interview, Fireside Chat, Podcast
a16z Podcast | The Why, How, and When of PR
- PR functions as a critical forcing mechanism to define a company narrative, directly impacting recruiting, retention, fundraising, and customer clarity, while a lack of defined storytelling allows competitors to define the brand instead.
- Early-stage companies often face a scarcity of news moments, necessitating the maximization of funding or launch announcements, the bundling of release cycles for attention, or integration into existing conversations, with stealth strategies potentially adopted for six months to a year to avoid premature promotion during long regulatory or development cycles.
- Enterprises with long sales cycles must engage in PR early to initiate conversations with CIOs before closing deals, whereas consumer products in highly competitive spaces may delay PR to build user bases and viral loops before facing incumbents.
- Companies operating in new categories often require evangelism to generate market interest before a product exists, while those targeting specific municipalities should leverage local customer success stories rather than broad press tours.
- SEC rules classify blog posts as valid public filings, whereas press releases are viewed as a waste of money unless required for public filing; consequently, founders should prioritize blogging for internal communication to align employee understanding of the company narrative.
- Founders with limited budgets or early-stage constraints may face suspicion if they lack a visible internal PR person, though small enterprise firms with recruiting goals can sometimes rely on agencies for key moments without a full-time hire.
- Hiring decisions between internal teams and external agencies involve trade-offs, as internal staff better understand technical details and product management, while agencies offer broader media relationships, diverse knowledge, and the ability to see a bigger picture.
- Agency engagements typically operate on monthly retainers with minimum budgets like $10,000, which may be unsuitable for seed-stage companies, and flat retainers can create misalignment incentives if no new product launches occur.
- Success in PR cannot be calculated via direct input/output spreadsheets, though founders can track coverage volume, sentiment, and competitor differences through clip reports, and should measure results by the number of secured interviews rather than linking them directly to revenue contracts.
- Founders should prioritize chemistry and trust over a PR person's technical understanding, expecting that a good agency will require a three-month plan with mock-ups and ensure at least a couple of reporter meetings occur within the first month.
- PR planning is an iterative act rather than a static document, with a good plan documenting 90-day milestones, post-launch actions, and required CEO time, while spending two months on prep is a warning sign of inaction.
- A founder's expectation that PR will save time is dangerous, as effective firms often demand significant time to build a profile, and the media narrative required to secure coverage may differ from the company's website messaging.
- PR must maintain strong connectivity to the CEO to access vision and timeline for effective crisis management, and should have input into product shutdown decisions to mitigate reputational damage, rather than being subsumed entirely under marketing priorities.
- Founders using secrecy to avoid tipping off competitors often fail because the competition will likely catch them regardless unless the product is significantly superior, and those in fast-changing fields like Bitcoin benefit from internal thought leadership to navigate frequent external news.
- Local PR campaigns attempting execution across every state are likely to fail or be too expensive, while national campaigns better serve consumer products with direct distribution channels, and founders must avoid unreasonable goals like appearing on specific late-night shows without the momentum to support them.
- The timing for hiring full-time PR depends on product maturity and sales cycle length, with enterprise companies starting before shipping and consumer apps waiting for app store availability, while skeptical CEOs may experience recruiting slowdowns before recognizing PR's value.
- Founders hiring agencies must conduct reference checks by calling reporters and ask for specific crisis management scenarios to avoid bait-and-switch risks where a senior hire sells the deal but a junior team executes the work.