Lenny Rachitsky

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 — Brought to you by: • Sprig —Build a product people love • Eppo —Run reliable, impactful experiments • Vanta —Automate compliance. Simplify security. — Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-pr-emilie-gerber — 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 — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — 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 — 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/9094045

Gokul Rajaram serves on the executive team at DoorDash, where he leads the Caviar product line. Previously he worked at Square, where he was also on the executive team and led a number of key product lines, and as a product director at Facebook, where he helped the company transition its advertising business to become mobile-first. Earlier in his career, Gokul was a product director for Google AdSense, where he helped launch the product and grow it into a substantial portion of Google’s business. Gokul also serves on the boards of Coinbase, Pinterest, and The Trade Desk and is a prolific angel investor, having invested in companies like Airtable, Khatabook, and 100+ more. In this episode, you will learn: 1. How to navigate your next career - What should you focus on in order to improve your optionality? - What should you consider as you look for your next career adventure? - Why join winners in a space? - Why should people entering the workforce join mid-stage companies? - Why there are many paths to success. 2. How to build a product development process at early-stage companies - What does the best product development process typically look like at different company stages? - What are some common pitfalls when building these processes? 3. Hiring PMs - When should you hire your first PM? What should you look for? - When should you wait longer to hire a PM? - What’s the number one secret for hiring a product leader, regardless of industry? - How much time should you allocate for hiring as a founder? - How might job titles impact your company’s work culture? 4. How to start angel investing - How did Gokul start investing in startups? What would he have done differently? - What does he look for in a startup pitch? - How much time should you spend as a part-time investor? - How do you find deals as a new investor? Where to find Gokul: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/gokulr References: - Gokul’s current favorite app, Coinbase Wallet: https://www.coinbase.com/wallet - Favorite book, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works : https://rogerlmartin.com/lets-read/playing-to-win - TED talk: TEDxConcordia - Lenny Rachitsky - Losing Serendipity — Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible: • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/ • Flatfile: https://flatfile.com/Lenny • Productboard: https://Productboard.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Welcome to the very first episode of Lenny’s Podcast! Every week, Lenny Rachitsky will interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe