PR Agency
topic on 3 shows · 10 statements across 5 episodes
We Live to Build 
Lenny's Podcast 
the a16z Podcast
10 statements about PR Agency, every show
Gerber: Startups should engage PR agencies six weeks before major announcements
“Before an announcement happens, you probably want to kick off six weeks in advance. So when we start with the company, it's like we're working on the blog, we're doing a media training, we're doing the media outreach, we're getting quotes from investors, we're…”
Founders should never pay a PR agency for a traditional press release
“If you go to a, if you hire or talk to a PR agency, and one of the things that they recommend doing that you should spend money on is a press release, like a traditional press release, run as fast as you can away from that. Like, I don't know if you know this,…”
Markovics: PR agencies cannot promise earned media placement results
“Media relations is earned media. Earned, meaning that you're telling a great story and that by virtue of the story you're telling and its interest to folks, readers or viewers, they want to feature you or talk about you. And so you can't promise results. It's …”
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…”
Wenmachers: PR agencies should be managed by dedicated team members, not CEOs
“An agency is ideally managed not by the founder, because as a CEO, you have lots of things to do, right? Like, you're growing a company, you're probably managing engineering still. Like, there's a lot of things to do. So ideally, you have someone with a lot of…”
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…”
Wenmachers: Never trust a PR agency that promises specific press outcomes
“And don't trust an agency ever that will promise you a headline or a story or any kind of outcome.”
Wenmachers: Founders unwilling to engage with media shouldn't hire PR agencies
“If you don't want to deal with PR, then don't bother hiring an agency. A normal reporter, completely reasonable reporter will expect to see and meet and talk to the CEO.”
Wennmachers: Good PR leads say 'not now' rather than 'no'
“A good agency or a good internal person, they don't say no. They say not now, and here's why, and here's what it would take.”
Milosevic: Startup PR agencies should deliver reporter meetings within month one
“I think it's a warning sign if an agency puts together a plan and two months of that plan is just prep and getting up to speed and onboarding. It's like in those first, definitely within the first month, you should have at least a couple of meetings set up.”