Rachel Colson

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Rachel Colson

Rachel Colson

@Rachel_Colson

Communications at @BainCapVC. Previously @coda_hq and @thisisoutcast. Queso-less Texan in SF. 🤘

San Francisco, CA Katılım Temmuz 2012
1K Takip Edilen297 Takipçiler
Sebastian Herrera
Sebastian Herrera@SebasAHerrera·
🚨 Have not posted on here in awhile! Logging on to share some exciting personal news: I’m joining @FortuneMagazine soon as tech correspondent. I’ll still be based in the SF area, keeping a close eye on the industry's biggest players and most defining trends. Naturally, a major focus of my coverage will continue to be artificial intelligence and the massive infrastructure behind it. If you work at Amazon, Microsoft or any of the leading companies driving this space, I'd love to chat. You can reach me securely on Signal at seb.39. (I'll share my Fortune email address once it's up and running). I’m deeply grateful for my seven years at The Wall Street Journal, where I was fortunate to write about Amazon, Microsoft, AI, cloud computing and other topics. I’m thankful to all of my wonderful former colleagues there, as well as the many sources that helped shape my stories. You can follow me here, as well as LinkedIn and Bluesky @sebasaherrera.bsky.social. Let’s keep the conversation going at Fortune!
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Isabel Steckel
Isabel Steckel@IsabelSteckel·
every marriage has a personality hire and then someone who knows how insurance works
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Rachel Colson
Rachel Colson@Rachel_Colson·
@CristinCulver I love this holistic approach that is informed by the top. Only way to be successful IMO.
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Cristin Culver
Cristin Culver@CristinCulver·
Notion building a Storytelling team is a signal that we’re moving from PR as a support function to storytelling as strategy. But founder involvement is key. You can’t outsource or automate it like an AI agent in the background. The best stories always come straight from the source.
Akshay Kothari@akothari

We merged our internal comms, external comms, social, and influencer teams into one: the Storytelling Team. I’ll be leading this crew at @NotionHQ, focused on telling our story directly to all of you. Excited for this new tour of duty! PS. we're hiring: notion.com/careers

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Cristin Culver
Cristin Culver@CristinCulver·
gmail trying to lead me into Satan's lair.
Cristin Culver tweet media
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Okta
Okta@okta·
@Rachel_Colson Good decision. Good decision. Don't forget, while it may be tedious, protecting your identity is crucial.
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Rachel Colson
Rachel Colson@Rachel_Colson·
I’m just a girl, standing in front of Okta, asking again and again to be verified.
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Bain Capital Ventures
Bain Capital Ventures@BainCapVC·
Partner @merritthummer spoke with @nmasc_ on @theinformation's TITV at #WTFSummit and covered what great investments look like today + how that differs from yesterday. Highlights: 📈 AI market pull has raised the bar for growth, making old playbooks obsolete. Two years ago: growing 2M-6M ARR was good. Today: top decile is $0M-$10M ARR and on track for $40M-$50M. 💕 Look beyond NRR. Average co today is growing faster with lower gross margins and lower-quality revenue than a few years ago. Need two layers: 1) Cos that have exec sponsorship and can win large contracts and 2) End users who love the product. Second piece is missing from some of the fast-growing cos today. 🧩 996 culture is here, but fundamental truths apply. The best recruiting strategy is to get the best people in the door and adapt to what they need vs mandating specifics. 🧱 Critical to build something that won’t get eaten by big tech or labs. Avoid likely paths (e.g. coding automation). Instead, ask: What are the vertical applications that are sizable and could produce big outcomes but narrow enough that big tech/labs won’t pursue it independently (ex: MaintainX has clear moat in manufacturing software) 🚦 Signals to ensure a major player likely won’t copy the startup: Distribution advantage? Access to proprietary data? Specific founder expertise to build a uniquely insightful product that a generalist couldn’t? youtube.com/live/2bRZ9Ie1P…
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Jenny Chao
Jenny Chao@jenny_chao·
Just surpassed 6 months of running my own PR consultancy. Some messy thoughts on how it’s going: 1/ The ability to choose how I spend my time and the projects I work on is the greatest privilege 2/ But going solo is a constant reminder that energy is finite. It’s easy to get trapped in the mindset of not doing enough Wearing so many hats can make it harder to focus. Deep focus doing 1 thing > distracted doing 5 things 3/ Even though comms is trending toward going direct, the market for PR support is still blowing up. Media still has a place in our information diet The incredible founders I’ve supported in this period have been featured in 76 stories in tier-1s and trade publications 4/ People who say PR doesn’t lead to measurable ROI for a business (and is only for awareness and credibility) are wrong. It’s so rewarding to see hard-won coverage lead to a swarm of customer leads, partnerships, and recruits 5/ Tech has made running a business possible. Granola is my lifesaver. Wave makes bookkeeping fun (who would have thought?) 6/ Press releases are BACK, whether we like them or not 7/ This wouldn't be possible with my friends in VC. So lucky that every client has come from word of mouth 8/ P.S. I need to be better about posting on here
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Rachel Colson
Rachel Colson@Rachel_Colson·
For the outsiders, repetition doesn't spoil the prayer!
Allison Braley 🦊@allisonbraley

Your brand has many audiences, but they also roll up into two key groups: Insiders + Outsiders. Insiders are believers. They're customers, employees, investors. They're your "base," to borrow a politician's lens. They know you and follow you closely. They want to see you constantly pushing out new material, be that product launches, content, or something else. Outsiders are *barely* paying attention to you. They need to hear you say the same thing over and over and over until you are almost hoarse. Then they need you to say it again, a different way. Only then can they decide if they want to join. Too many startup brands are using outsider material on insiders and insider material on outsiders. What do I mean? When you're talking to a new audience, you need a simple message and the willingness to repeat it. This is why "drain the swamp" and "yes we can" worked so well (regardless of your politics). This is why for YEARS Facebook's execs said "making the world a more open and connected place." You also need to retain your base and keep them engaged in your movement. The pace of your new product and feature launches keeps those existing customers from churning, and keeps your team from leaving. They want to feel progress, momentum. They want to know about your new ideas since they've already bought into the existing premise. But outsiders don't care about this yet. They don't know, or aren't bought in on the original premise. If all of your marketing is launch, launch, launch and no "why should I care?" it isn't effective. And the same is true in the reverse. Email marketing? Insiders. SEO / GEO? Outsiders. Social media? Mostly outsiders, but gotta do both. Niche podcast? Maybe mostly insiders, but gotta do both. Mainstream media? Outsiders. The broader the channel, the more outsiders you have to cater to. So don't skimp on the core messaging. Say it loud and proud and repeatedly. Just like your mom said growing up when you were embarrassed: "no one is paying as much attention to you as you think they are."

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Matt
Matt@Matt_Schulman1·
Shoutout to the five or so reporters who participate in 90% of all PR-industry panels. I honestly don't know what we would do without you.
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resham ☻
resham ☻@Reshusaur·
heard someone yell ‘kubernetes’ at the beach. thought i was having a stroke but it was just their dog’s name. only in sf.
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Allie Garfinkle
Allie Garfinkle@agarfinks·
Term Sheet is hitting the airwaves! After years in your inbox, our newsletter is coming to life in a brand-new format—introducing the Term Sheet Podcast! First up: @WillHurd, Chief Strategy Officer at Chaos Industries. Listen/watch episode 1 here: lnkd.in/gF5GAsN5https:…
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Cristin Culver
Cristin Culver@CristinCulver·
It brings me great joy when my clients get on texting terms with reporters. My job is many things, but helping bridge relationships and then getting out of the way feels core to what comms can and should do. Wild to think how many PR people feel the opposite.
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Carly Martinetti
Carly Martinetti@PRcarly·
BREAKING: @muckrack analyzed the citations for a MILLION realistic user prompts into LLMs and if you’re a PR pro, you NEED to know the results and implications: BACKGROUND: Per @PatrickCoffee's WSJ article from yesterday, although only around 5.6% of U.S. [desktop] search traffic went to LLMs last month, that’s more than QUADRUPLE what it was in Jan 2024. And this trend will only accelerate. BACK TO MUCK RACK’S FINDINGS: • 37% of results cited content NOT owned by the company/product in the search • 27% cited news sites/journalistic publications • 2% cited social media/marketing content and only 1% citing press releases And get this: A key difference between AI-generated search results and traditional SEO is that paid marketing and sponsored links rarely populate (per @emayhawk reporting at @axios) Let me repeat that: AI is completely ignoring all that sponsored content masquerading as real journalism. WHAT THIS MEANS: Brands have spent the last decade buying their way into "earned-looking" content. Native advertising. Sponsored posts. Advertorials pretending to be editorial. And then AI came along and said: "Yeah, we're not citing any of that." Meanwhile, outlets that have never “sold out their editorial souls” such as Reuters, AP., FT, etc., are the ones AI trusts. One more wild stat, per the report: 96% of what AI cites falls squarely in PR territory. Not marketing. Not advertising. PR. THE NEW REALITY: The brands winning in AI search will be the ones who earn their citations through genuine third-party validation… NOT those who buy them through increasingly “sophisticated” paid placements. We're not just seeing a new type of SEO; we're seeing the revenge of EARNED PR and REAL journalism. And if you ask me, it's about damn time.
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Cristin Culver
Cristin Culver@CristinCulver·
@Rachel_Colson They only care about utility and it’s so frustrating. I always click into the style-focused recommendations and it’s like…the most unstylish shit you’ve ever seen but it will withstand 450 washes without falling apart.
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Cristin Culver
Cristin Culver@CristinCulver·
Wirecutter reviews are great if your only goal is “function.” Like sure, this is the best swimsuit if you want to win a triathlon, drive off in a Subaru, and never be perceived again. nytimes.com/wirecutter/rev…
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