Shannon Brayton

Partner & CMO, Bessemer Venture Partners · 1 appearance on the record.

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executiveinvestoroperator@sstubo ↗LinkedIn ↗bvp.com ↗

Shannon Brayton spent nearly a decade at LinkedIn as VP of Corporate Communications and later Chief Marketing Officer, guiding the company through its IPO and acquisition by Microsoft. She previously held senior communications roles at eBay, Yahoo!, and OpenTable.

10statements → 0claims → 0claims resolved → 3.8/5average certainty → 2/5average debate potential →

1 opinion · 9 insights · every statement was checked. none of them is a claim the record can settle: opinions, insights and disclosures never carry an assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Shannon argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: speaking style how? →

287 words/min while actually speaking · 3 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Shannon Brayton: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews.

Measured by listening to 2,708 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Shannon Brayton is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

What they said10 Episodes1

Everything Shannon Brayton said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion

Brayton: Fired PR agencies should not be allowed to re-pitch

“If you put your account up for review, because you're not happy with your agency, the incumbent agency should not be allowed to pitch. I think it's terrible for the agency, and I think it's terrible for the company.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 23:29 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: PR agency results require close, two-way relationship investment

“Don't expect to hire an agency and get results immediately, just like all of a sudden. You actually need to invest in the relationship both ways. The closer I've brought an agency, the better the results. The more I keep them at an arm's length, the results ju…”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 2:31 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: External PR agencies deliver harsh executive feedback better than employees

“This is why I love having agencies do media training too, because agencies can really tell a CEO, actually, you look like a complete dweeb, or this message completely did not resonate, where the employee sometimes has a harder time landing that message.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 8:36 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: Early startups should leverage PR agencies to build their narrative

“I think an agency to come in at the very beginning and talk about the company's narrative and what are your value props, what are your market fit, and who are the people running this company? Super, super valuable to have an agency help you do that. Without ha…”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 9:14 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: Five to ten monthly media inquiries signals the need for PR

“If you're getting, you know, five to 10 a month, you're probably at a point where you may need an agency to help you manage through that.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 12:33 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: Founders without PR expertise must not handle corporate crises alone

“A crisis, I would not leave it to a founder or a management team to manage a crisis on their own if they don't have deep PR expertise.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 13:40 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: PR agencies must pitch with their actual account team

“Do not bring in the shiny object from DC or the shiny object from New York if that is not your account team. Bring the people who are going to work on the account.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 22:49 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: The best PR agency referrals come directly from journalists

“I think the best agency referrals come from reporters.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 31:46 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: A tech company's first earnings call is harder than its IPO

“The IPO has this misnomer that it's like super challenging and tricky and yeah, there's some complexity to it, but what's really hard is your first earnings call as a public company.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 35:18 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Insight

Brayton: Asking founders for their dreaded headline uncovers hidden startup risks

“And then you get a really good view into what's going on when you ask about the absolute dreaded headline, because you can actually glean what is potentially underneath that you're not necessarily being told.”

Shannon Brayton Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 10:34 a16z Podcast | How to Manage a PR Agency

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
a16z Podcast \| How to Manage a PR Agency	Jan 2, 2019	10m

Shannon Brayton

The record, in short

How they sound: speaking style how? →

Appearances (1)

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