Navigating the Controversies of PR Strategies

Emilie Gerber is the founder and CEO of Six Eastern, a top PR agency that’s worked with over 100 tech companies, from stealth startups to publicly traded companies. Before starting her own firm, she worked at Uber, where she led PR for the business development team and B2B programs. Prior to that, she worked at Box on product communications, with a focus on product launches and partnership announcements. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Why, and when, getting press is worth your time

• Common misconceptions about the impact press can have

• The second-order effects of press

• Which areas each publication (TechCrunch, Axios, The Verge, etc.) cares most about

• How to craft your pitch

• How to find and reach reporters

• How pitching press is different from pitching customers

• The effectiveness of direct communication through social media versus traditional press

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Brought to you by:

• Sprig—Build a product people love

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-pr-emilie-gerber

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Where to find Emilie Gerber:

• Substack: http://onbackgroundintel.substack.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilie-gerber-59612230/

• Website: https://sixeastern.com/

• Email: hello@sixeastern.com

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Emilie’s background

(04:56) The value of press and second-order effects

(13:00) When press is not worth your time

(17:01) Different publications and their suitability

(25:36) Avoiding negative stories

(27:23) Finding aligned podcasts and awards

(31:12) Advice for reaching out to reporters

(37:23) Controversial pitches

(41:16) Avoiding category creation

(43:26) Examples of pitches that have worked well

(53:32) Pitching to Lenny

(55:46) Effective pitching strategies

(57:45) Improving pitch announcements

(01:03:01) Press releases

(01:07:06) Crafting a compelling story

(01:09:43) Traditional press vs. newsletters, podcasts, and social media

(01:15:50) Building a social media presence

(01:17:51) How to get a Morning Brew feature

(01:19:32) Advice on choosing a PR agency

(01:22:25) Timing and budget for PR

(01:25:39) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/

• Who is Lenny Rachitsky? And what does he know that you don’t about making millions writing online?: https://www.fastcompany.com/90940453/lenny-rachitsky-newsletter-podcast-job-board-substack

• 42-year-old brings in an average of $41,000 a month from his podcast and works on it just 5 hours a week: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/lenny-rachitsky-podcast-brings-in-more-than-500k-a-year-heres-how.html

• How This Newsletter Writer Got More Than 300,000 Subscribers, and Now Makes “Significantly More” Than He Did at His Day Job: https://www.entrepreneur.com/starting-a-business/how-this-newsletter-writer-got-more-than-300000/447172

• Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/

• Contraline: https://www.contraline.com/

• Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/

• TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/

• Axios: https://www.axios.com/

• Fortune: https://fortune.com/

• Term Sheet: https://fortune.com/tag/term-sheet/

• The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/

• Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/

• New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/

• Found podcast: https://techcrunch.com/tag/found/

• Equity podcast: https://techcrunch.com/tag/equity-podcast/

• VentureBeat: https://venturebeat.com/

• Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/

• Clockwise: https://www.getclockwise.com

• Shopify deleted 322,000 hours of meetings. Should the rest of us be jealous?: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/15/1156804295/shopify-delete-meetings-zoom-virtual-productivity

• Shopify canceled all recurring meetings. Should you too?: https://www.getclockwise.com/blog/shopify-cancels-meetings

• Shopify’s new meeting cost calculator is well intentioned—but it’s not addressing the issue: https://www.fastcompany.com/90930137/shopifys-new-meeting-cost-calculator-is-well-intentioned-but-its-not-addressing-the-issue

• Matt Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/voxmatt/

• Ramp: https://ramp.com/welcome

• Corporate card start-up Ramp targets Bill.com with free payments software: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/26/corporate-cards-ramp-targets-billcom-with-free-payments-software.html

• Bill: https://www.bill.com/

• Velocity over everything: How Ramp became the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time | Geoff Charles (VP of Product): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/velocity-over-everything-how-ramp-became-the-fastest-growing-saas-startup-of-all-time-geoff-charl/

• Column Tax: https://www.columntax.com/

• Propel: https://www.joinpropel.com/

• Gamma: https://gamma.app/

• Gamma brings in $7M to bring the slide deck into the 21st century: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/28/gamma-brings-in-7m-to-bring-the-slide-deck-into-the-21st-century/

• NewBank: https://www.newbankusa.com/

• Backed by a16z, Relay races to market with Zapier in its crosshairs: https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/11/relay-a16z-zapier-google/

• Zapier: https://zapier.com/

• Rajiv Ayyangar’s thread on X about tag lines: https://twitter.com/rajivayyangar/status/1758179077629100482

• Entropy: https://entropytechnologydesign.com/

• Money 20/20: https://www.money2020.com/

• Jim Bankoff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbankoff/

• Ramping Up: https://www.notboring.co/p/ramping-up

• Aaron Levie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boxaaron/

• Aaron Levie on X: https://twitter.com/levie

• Duolingo on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo

• Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/

• Tech Brew: https://www.emergingtechbrew.com/

• HR Brew: https://www.hr-brew.com/

• Mark Zuckerberg on Morning Brew Daily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQqsvRHjas4&t=1309s

• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

• The Walking Dead on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70177057

• Yellowjackets on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/yellowjackets/

• The Last of Us on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us

• Apple Vision Pro: https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro

• TNB Tech Minute: Startup Perplexity Challenges Google With AI Search: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing/tnb-tech-minute-startup-perplexity-challenges-google-with-ai-search/984362d5-a8f0-48b4-8b55-ad7e570a74d2

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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