Founders and CEOs - Is There a Difference?

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Assom: Listening to great executives, due interviews life, early stage founder and sat and adella are not apples to apples comparison. You can't tell as much from earned media coverage how good a spokesperson is, but really trying to absorb how the best in class executives and leaders show up in the world for coms is an important way of learning. Assom: I think evan speagle's done a really job lately. He's showing up as a much more advanced leader to day than he did in the earlier days. So i like watching him as well.

Today’s episode is with Nairi Hourdajian, the VP of Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma.

Prior to joining Figma, Nairi was the Chief Marketing Officer at Canaan, an early-stage venture capital firm. In 2013, she became Uber’s first communications person and spent the next 3 years building out the function. Before getting into tech, Nairi came from the world of politics. She was a VP at Glover Park Group, a communications consulting firm started by former Clinton officials, and she also served as a policy director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and as a staff assistant to then-Senator Joe Biden.

Our conversation focuses on what a great communications strategy looks like at early-stage startups. Nairi breaks down the basics for founders who aren’t familiar with this function, and shares advice for thinking beyond just announcing your Series A funding. She shares lots of thoughts on crafting foundational messaging for different audiences and shaping the company narrative — with examples from both Uber and Figma, as well as startups she’s advised.

Next, we get into the nuts and bolts of building relationships with reporters. Nairi shares her take on handling negative stories about your competitors, and offers tons of tactical pointers on how to prepare for a media interview.

We ended on her advice for assembling the team that can help you shape and execute on your comms strategy — from working with agencies and freelancers, to making your first full-time comms hire.

You can follow Nairi on Twitter at @NairiHourdaj. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @brettberson.