The below recap on Mike Farber’s session is courtesy of Arye Barnehama and Laura Berman of Axio:
One of my favorite quotes has always been, “When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say that it happened naturally,” spoken by Lao Tse. This is the job of Mike Farber, the CEO of LaunchSquad, a “full-service” PR firm. Mike, a JD, directs high-growth startups from behind the scenes to sculpt their stories for the public to read, listen to, watch, and be inspired by.
The initial question of the Socratic-style dialogue with Mike began with a basic question of “what is…”, in this case, “What is PR?” The startups in the room pondered, gave answers based off what we’ve read, experienced, and been taught about PR. Soon, however, Mike made the heart of the answer blatantly simple. PR is whom you surround yourself with. It’s a form of validation, a source of credibility, a stamp of approval. It almost reminds me of schoolyard rules. At school, your reputation is based upon whom you hang out with. It is part of human nature to discuss the lives of others, but what people say about you is largely affected by whether you hang out with the "cool kids,” the “nerds,” or the “jocks.” The same rule seems similar to how PR can affect the image of your startup. If you have the NY Times write about you, you can bet that people will believe in the credibility of your business. If you have an article in TechCrunch, you won’t be guaranteed credibility, but you’ll be in with the “cool kids,” of the startup community. So, PR is not just about reaching as many people as you possibly can, it’s also about associating with the sources that you want. The sources for PR that you choose become part of the story that your startup wants to tell, whether your goal is to convert customers, become a thought leader, or launch an innovative technology.
The next step to successful PR is looking at it as an ongoing storytelling and relationship-building process, as opposed to a one-time solution. The ability to continually engage a target audience through social media, online new sources, and hard copy prints allows startups to build their story from launch, to Series A, to reaching $1M in revenue, to achieving any notable milestone. PR is the best way to write a story of success, a story that builds trust in your company, your solutions, and your ability to innovate. Even better, PR is a way to keep your company at the forefront of people’s minds as you grow and succeed, and if you are successful in making your audience care about your company, your successes will feel like their successes, and your story will become theirs. PR is arguably the most effective means of marketing an early company, because the process of storytelling is more engaging and likely much less expensive than other forms of advertising.
So, PR is storytelling. It is working with reporters in order to take a pre-fabricated message and deliver it to the public in such a way that they believe their interest and dedication to your company was completely organic. That is what Mike Farber and his team at LaunchSquad do for aspiring startups who seek to win the hearts and minds of their audiences, and all of us at Summer@Highland benefited from our discussion with Mike.
