YouSaid · the spoken record

Katie McCarthy

lines on the record: 83
first: 2018-09-27
most recent: 2018-09-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“But that's where the reality does come in. I have a friend who founded a beauty related company, and she was saying that getting a placement in in-style magazine and also incidentally based in New York.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Velivers, like dealing with developer communities, consumer Consumer. I could do GMA Today Show or CBS this morning. Which segment do you want? That's a real specialty, and those are usually people based in New York. Oh, who have the deep relationships with the producers at these shows? For a consumer-facing product, that's the nirvana is to have a today show slot, right? Right.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, there are people who are really good at product reviews. And if you are a hardware company and like product reviews, they're their own animal, right? And you want to make them, for the most part, that's my belief, really high touch. Someone is there to hold the reporter's hands, obviously proverbially, you know, as they discover the product. That's its own muscle. There's a set of people who will review products. You know, if you do it right, you know, you even get coverage about like the unpacking the whole nine bits. Like that's very different from exec comms.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and you react to that. But like all of that is building, right? You are trying to see stories that don't exist, right? You're in a crisis. You're trying to minimize a story that very much exists.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. And by the way, with my DUI example, it's totally hypothetical, but I would not put a founder into a car for a photo shoot if I knew he had a DUI because I know that picture is going to be amazing for reporters to use in a year. So I need to know that.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Boy, they sure could have brought in some help. One other thing, too, I think there are certain people I've worked with who think, oh, I don't need to tell her about that thing. It's like some skeleton that I inevitably end up finding out about. And so I wish I knew up front because I would potentially do things differently in year one if I knew that in year two it was going to come out you had a DUI or something.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's the next inflection point I was going to say, which is it's more incidental than inflection point, but 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.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are a company where there's product market fit, the company is growing, things are going well, you're thinking of if it's an enterprise software company, another office somewhere, you have a management team, right? And you're thinking like, you know what, we should, you know, we should get the CFO in the door because in the next two years, we want to be in a position that if the market is good, we might file. You definitely need to get a PR firm in yesterday because you only have a very short window in which you can do anything at all before you go quiet.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are companies that really don't have any profile, and they're thinking of going public. I would say you have left money on the table if you find yourself in that position because there's not that much you can do. Like once you meet with bankers, you're in a quiet period. So you can't really be doing anything, right? So if you...”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd say a huge influx of media inquiries coming to you because then you realize actually this is getting out there and we're not controlling the story. So I think if you're getting five to ten a month, you're probably at a point where you may need an agency to help you manage through that.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, example, you're basically an established person with an established career in Silicon Valley and all you want to do is, you know, put out something that you're working on something so you get an inflow of like talent and investors knocking on the door and whatnot. And you just want to be very efficient about it. You probably have a relationship with a reporter and you, I don't pick up the phone, assign it to someone. You do this one story and off you go. And then you go back into stealth and you're done. Like you don't really need an agency.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, what you would do is you basically are taking them on the journey with you, right? If they say like, I want the headline to be like, we have the best search engine technology on the planet. And you're like, okay, well, then how, like, what would the reporter need to come to that conclusion, right? And so then you walk again, you walk backwards with them where you have them go substantiate the story. And then if you can't, then you're discovering that together, right?”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Isn't that a little bit dangerous also for them though, in terms of mixed messages? Because a lot of founders, especially those who haven't done communications and marketing before, they assume that, oh, I'm going to say this. This is the truth. This is a message. There is no variation from this. It's like logic, not story, which has multiple flavors of interpretation.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And one of the things I'll ask people too at the outset is what is your desired headline? Let's think about your dream cover story. What does that say and what is the headline? 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.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I totally agree. One thing that I've learned in working with a lot of startups is that you need to strip all the language that we are used to because I can't hear it. So for example, CEO will call and say like we're launching soon. We need to have an agency. Can you arrange the launch? And then oftentimes people say like, well, first thing we need to do is we need to do a messaging positioning, blah, blah, blah. And they just, you're like, blah, blah, blah, dollars, blah, blah, blah, dollars. And none of it means anything to you. Try to work backwards from where the CEO is. Okay, so when is the product ready? You know, it's all different whether it's consumer enterprise, right? And work back from there and go like, well, if you want to get have your launch day be that, that means you'd have to be on the road doing interviews then. And then before that, just kind of meet them where they are and try to strip out all the technical lingo out of the thing because that's like.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“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 having to hire someone at the outset.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is why I love how the 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.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the internal team too gets a lot of G2 on other companies by talking to reporters directly too if they build the relationship some information about other companies and what's happening in the valley and the industry, just Intel in general.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And at the same time, I think it's really important for internal folks to be talking to the press because you kind of lose touch what is even a good story? What are they thinking? Like what's kind of in the water and not knowing that at all is just really detrimental. However, do you need to be booking all of the appointments or do you need to be working on every story? Probably not, right? So it's a balance.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think it really depends on who's got the relationship And there should not be pride of ownership. If the agency has the better relationship, like in Margaret's case at Outcast, they probably had way better relationships with reporters than half their clients. The client has to be willing to say, Margaret, I'm fine with you calling Quentin Hardy. I don't need to do that. And not having that conflict of interest between the two, it should really be who's ever got the best relationship.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I hear the thing on that specialties may vary and that some of the media relationships may vary. But are you also guys saying then that people should outsource their media relationships to their agency or do the in-house people also still invest? Like how do you sort of divvy that bit up?”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Specialty You can dial up and down. Particularly, you know, once you're a really established high growth company, you want to grow the team, you want all of that. But like when you're not in that stage, an agency can be super, super effective.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Manage and then potentially have to exit at some point. Number two, if you've got, you get the phone call, hey, we're going to launch in India, but we're actually not going to put an office there or a country manager and we just need some arms and legs on the ground. That works beautifully to be able to find an agency in the network and call up and say, we really need your help with Project A. And if it works out, we'd love to keep you on.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Two things I think when it works really, really well. So, one is when you've got way more program dollars to spend and you'd rather do that than bring out a headcount, which is much more of a fixed cost. So a CFO actually, a conversation with the CFO is typically, oh, an agency sounds like a great model instead of hiring three people that may be very, very hard to.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's totally legit. I mean, like, I don't think Apple has really used PR agencies. There are models where you don't have an agency at all. What we should do is dissect like how would you divide and conquer? Like who is good at what? If your internal, you probably are, you have more of your time is often consumed with like talking to the product managers and figuring out what the roadmap is, right? And like doing all that and like finding the stories, making sure that everything moves forward. Do all those meetings, right? And you don't have any of that when you're on the agency side, right? Your time is taken up with talking to reporters all the time because you have multiple clients. So as a result, you know stories that are kind of outside of scope. And that's interesting to a client where it's like, you know, I'd be good for me to know if Wired is doing a cover story on AI.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To invest in the relationship. So there's a real dance I'm hearing, but quite frankly, what I'm also hearing a little bit of and just disillusion me of this is Why would I even bother outsourcing this? Why not just hire someone in house? Like, why do all this work if you're saying it's not dictation, you should be able to discover.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Almost nobody can do it The story is not oh hi, I'm gonna call you and I'm gonna tell you the story, and then you're gonna tell the reporter bringing the person into your world and letting them help find it experience your culture, get to know you a little bit better. That's going to make the story much richer.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So if you are the founder that has that gene and understands, oh, this will be interesting to Wired, that will be interesting to TechCrunch. This is not interesting at all, which almost nobody can do. That's just not a given that you have that skill. So then if you don't, then you need to let that team in so they can discover the stories and tell them for you. And then they do all of the story finding, the fact finding the backup, like who needs to tell the story and all of them. Then they figure out how to map a particular idea to a particular person at a particular outlet who would be interested in that.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Agencies ideally managed not by the founder because as a CEO, you've lots of things to do, right? Like you're growing company, you're probably managing engineering still. There's a lot of things to do. So ideally, you have someone with a lot of input from you who will help the agency be successful and the other way around. And so, yes, you do weekly phone calls and you share lists and like this and that and the other. But there's like, okay, the building, the camaraderie and sort of the investment together. The agency can only tell the stories that they know.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have a question about this because honestly, if I'm a founder and I'm busy trying to build a freaking company, for God's sake, and in the beginning you're doing like 20 things at one's wearing 20 hats, I don't have the time to manage an agency. Like, isn't the point of outsourcing it to just not think about it?”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, exactly. I think the biggest tip I give people that ask me about this is 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 just completely go downhill and then the expectations and the relationship just starts to sour.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And if it's early stage, PR can be very helpful because it makes everything else easier. So it makes hiring easier. It makes fundraising easier. It makes everything easier. But there's. Almost never a direct correlation was like, I did this interview in Fortune and therefore I got these customers. It's just not how it works.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I always start with what are you trying to achieve? So if you are there because you're trying to get users, PR is not the only lever you should be pulling, obviously. But if you are trying to get funding or you're trying to get acquired or you're trying to get someone else's attention, PR is a good lever to pull, but you don't necessarily need an agency to do that.”
2018-09-27 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: How to Manage a PR Agency · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source