Most founders think PR starts with a press release.
That’s like thinking fitness starts with buying fancy running shoes.
This episode of the Ignite Podcast is a long, honest, occasionally funny intervention for anyone who’s ever wondered why their “big announcement” landed with a quiet thud—and what actually moves the needle instead.
Matt Stewart has spent 15+ years inside the PR machine, helping frontier tech companies—from climate to AI to biotech—turn real substance into stories people actually care about. He’s currently the West Coast GM at Method Communications, but more importantly, he’s a professional translator between founders and the outside world.
This blog is for people who won’t listen to the full episode but still want the insight without the fluff. You’re welcome.
The uncomfortable truth about PR
PR isn’t about being louder. It’s about being interesting.
Most founders aren’t boring because their companies are boring. They’re boring because they’re scared. Scared of saying the wrong thing. Scared of annoying an investor. Scared of sounding “too opinionated” in a world that feels permanently one tweet away from backlash.
So they sand everything down into jargon soup.
Media hates that. Readers hate that. Even AI is starting to hate that.
Matt’s core point lands hard: you cannot have thought leadership without actual thoughts. Safe messaging doesn’t travel. Spiky, honest perspectives do.
The irony? The founders who stand out usually aren’t trying to be provocative. They’re just telling the truth clearly.
Why most startups hire PR too early (or too late)
PR isn’t magic. It’s leverage.
If you don’t have:
real traction
a compelling market insight
someone internally who can actually work with a PR firm
…then hiring PR early is like hiring a megaphone before you know what to say.
Matt agrees with a counterintuitive idea many founders resist: PR should come after demand gen and product marketing, not before. You need something worth amplifying.
That said, modern “Series A” means everything and nothing. Some companies raise massive rounds early. Others don’t. The real signal isn’t funding—it’s whether you can consistently offer insight, access, and credibility.
PR works best when it compounds, not when it’s expected to save the day.
The founder skill nobody practices: being quotable
Reporters don’t want your deck. They want your brain.
The fastest way to get coverage isn’t “news.” It’s perspective. Journalists constantly ask:
What’s the market getting wrong?
What’s about to change that no one sees yet?
Why does this actually matter now?
Founders often know the answers—but they hide them behind buzzwords.
Matt coaches executives to slow down, drop the script, and say what they really think. The goal isn’t controversy. It’s clarity. The best quotes stick because they sound human, not approved.
Think less “next-generation platform.”
Think more “here’s the part everyone’s missing.”
AI is changing PR—but not how you think
Yes, AI makes research faster. Shockingly faster. What once took analysts days now takes minutes.
But here’s the risk Matt worries about: everything starting to sound the same.
AI-polished writing often loses friction—and friction is where insight lives. Media doesn’t reward “good enough.” It rewards voice, judgment, and specificity. That last 5% still requires a human who knows what not to say.
AI can draft. Humans still decide.
(And if your messaging feels suspiciously smooth, reporters can smell it.)
What early-stage founders should do before hiring PR
If you’re pre-seed or seed and can’t justify a PR firm yet, Matt offers surprisingly practical advice:
Pick 3–5 reporters you genuinely respect.
Reach out directly.
Ask what they need, not what you want.
Most reporters are happy to give feedback. Some will say “not yet.” That’s still a win. You’re learning how the market sees you.
PR isn’t a switch you flip. It’s a relationship you build.
The hidden PR lesson in crises, stunts, and scandals
Crises aren’t about perfection. They’re about speed and tone.
Matt has handled everything from leaks to executive scandals, and the lesson stays consistent:
Say something quickly.
Don’t panic.
Leave room to tell a better story later.
Media stunts can grab attention, but attention fades fast if there’s no substance underneath. The only thing that endures is a strong underlying narrative.
You can spike awareness overnight. You can’t fake credibility for long.
The real takeaway
PR isn’t about controlling the story.
It’s about earning the right to be part of the conversation.
That means:
having a point of view
being willing to sound human
accepting small risks to avoid permanent invisibility
The founders who win long-term aren’t louder. They’re clearer. And usually kinder, too.
Sometimes the most memorable quote isn’t spicy at all—it’s just honest, delivered by someone who actually means it.
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Chapters:
00:01 – Matt Stewart’s origin story, from college tabloids to tech PR
02:20 – Why storytelling works better than credentials
04:45 – Attention economics, phones, kids, and the cost of scrolling
07:30 – What Method Communications actually does and why PR is hard
10:15 – Making news when you don’t have news
12:40 – Slack-splaining, surveys, and why naming things matters
15:05 – Why founders are afraid to be interesting
18:10 – Thought leadership starts with real opinions
21:20 – When startups should (and shouldn’t) hire a PR firm
24:00 – What founders can do before they’re ready for PR
27:15 – How PR engagements actually work week to week
31:05 – How AI is changing PR, for better and worse
34:20 – Writing, thinking, and why AI flattens voice
37:05 – What Matt is hopeful about with AI and society
40:10 – The underrated role of decency and human behavior
44:00 – Final advice for founders who want attention that lasts
48:30 – Closing thoughts and wrap-up
Transcript
Brian Bell (00:00.974)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Ignite podcast. Today we’re thrilled to have Matt Stewart on the mic. He is a communications leader who spent over 15 years helping frontier tech companies tell crisp stories, can’t talk today, from record setting solar to AI and biotech and now serves as West Coast GM at Method Communications. Thanks for coming on, Matt.
Matt Stewart (00:19.792)
Awesome to be here.
Brian Bell (00:21.57)
So I’d love to get your backstory. What’s your origin story?
Matt Stewart (00:25.49)
Well, I always loved storytelling. In college, I edited the tabloid. I had a lot of fun with it. And then after college, didn’t know, you know, was a bad time. was usual. Yeah, people actually read that. That’s what I learned is that people like spicy headlines and, you know, things.
Brian Bell (00:34.57)
This is a college tabloid, like a gossip, like around college.
Brian Bell (00:42.542)
And the quarterback did this, know, stuff like that.
Matt Stewart (00:44.524)
And a sense of humor and just having some fun with it. Like it’s like eternal things, right? Like why do we watch TV? Anyway, got out of college, joined the Peace Corps, screwed around, tried some stuff. I thought I wanted to go to law school. I applied, I got in, and I had that sinking sensation on the bottom of my guts that these guys are not having any fun and I want to be weird, want to be weirder. So. I wound up kind of falling into PR as a writer. And I learned that it’s hard to be a writer, especially when you’re 25 and don’t really know that much. Easy to just have a voice mismatch, just not embody the executive. So I started picking up the phone and calling reporters. And I found I was into it. I like just figuring out what makes things interesting. Like what do people actually care about? And how can I help my clients be interesting enough that other people care about them? I had a little existential crisis. was like, tech is stupid. I was working with food. I’m like, this doesn’t matter. And I went and worked as head of marketing and environmental nonprofit, got into climate and climate education. But I missed sort of the cut and thrust of everyday business. So I went back to work at a climate tech only firm for a few years. Then I came to method, where I do some climate tech, I do frontier tech, I do robotics, I do, of course, AI and everything. But really just cutting edge things that I think are really genuinely making the world better, mostly. And in tech, that’s, I think, the best you can ask for.
Brian Bell (02:16.364)
I mean, it’s interesting that you say that. Do you feel like there are tech companies out there that you wouldn’t work with that aren’t making the world a better place?
Matt Stewart (02:24.8)
of course. There’s a lot of tech companies designed to just capitalize on your attention. And I think, you know, what is that? What are we doing on this planet?
Brian Bell (02:30.211)
Yeah.
Brian Bell (02:33.762)
Like if TikTok called and said, hey, we got a job for you.
Matt Stewart (02:36.786)
That’s not my thing. look, I think, look, there’s room for entertainment in our lives and human connection. But I think we can all agree there’s been probably little too much digital connection, not enough human connection. But the good news is there’s so many companies doing great things that are trying to save you time on nonsense and really create more energy and freedom to hang out with your kids or.
Brian Bell (02:51.192)
Yeah.
Matt Stewart (03:02.194)
go get a drink with a friend or climb the mountain or whatever you want to do. So I do think most companies are on the right side, but look, you got to police your attention, man, or else life passes and you spend it all scrolling.
Brian Bell (03:09.634)
Yeah.
Brian Bell (03:14.734)
My wife and I talk about this a lot because we have three kids, a couple of teenagers and a nine-year-old daughter. And my teenage boys are past the age where they can police their own phones. But when they’re under 13, I could control all their screen time, their apps. I could set time limits. I could block apps. Once they turn 13, they can just do whatever they want, other than me taking away their phone, which would be like cutting off their legs or left arm or something.
Matt Stewart (03:20.008)
How’s that going?
Matt Stewart (03:36.541)
Yeah.
Matt Stewart (03:44.104)
Yeah.
Brian Bell (03:44.494)
And so now I struggle. I come out to breakfast and my son’s sitting there and he’s just like AirPods and like going through the reels. And then I stop and think about my childhood. Right. You know, I’m 45 and grew up in the 80s and I’m like, you know, I used to come out and sit at the table and my parents would just have the TV on blaring, you know, Good Morning America or whatever. And they’re not paying attention. Nobody’s paying nobody’s paying attention to anything, even even back in the day. You know, so now we just have our own like
Brian Bell (04:13.326)
We have our own TV screens that are.
Matt Stewart (04:15.014)
least we were communally not paying attention to the same thing. I think that’s a shared experience, at least, right?
Brian Bell (04:18.347)
Yeah, a shared like not paying into, which is funny, like, yeah, the older, the older people in my house, me and my wife and my father-in-law, we, we do the shared sit on the couch, watch the TV, which is our generation, but our kids, it’s hard to get them to sit down and watch TV with us because they have their phones and they’d rather just go to the room and be on their phones.
Matt Stewart (04:43.688)
These are serious. Look, I think comes back to human connection and build. And that’s something you can’t AI, right? You cannot AI a great relationship with your son or your parents or you know, you need to go out and do that if that matters to you. Pretty much every study says like happiness and life expectancy is driven by your social connections, right? So and like real social connections, not. not someone you knew 30 years ago. I’ll never forget what got me off Facebook for first, Cambridge Analytica. But secondly, this guy I went to high school with posted an update of his remodeled kitchen. And I was like, I have not seen this guy in 20 years. I’m never going to see him again. Why am I?
Brian Bell (05:23.596)
I just had to start unfollowing people like that. I’m like, if I haven’t talked to you in person or at least on the phone in say two or three years, a year, it’s probably not worth me following you on social media either.
Matt Stewart (05:35.974)
I mean, I pretty much got off it. I mean, you have to be on it for a few things, but I just really try to... I have little kids, the same thing. I'm really trying to make that work.
Brian Bell (05:41.133)
I want to talk to my grandparents and my parents’ generation on there sometimes, you know.
Matt Stewart (05:48.669)
Yeah, that’s true. They’re often, I feel like, you know, I actually feel like I’m in a sweet spot of, you know, I’m an X-Sami. I’m 46, so you’re world new. And like, I feel like I feel lucky in that, you know, tech was new. We grew up with it, but not like it wasn’t like in our oxygen. And we appreciate not being on tech sometimes. And I think, yeah.
Brian Bell (06:13.73)
We’re kind of a hybrid generation, We’re analog and digital. And so we’re Xenials, kind of late Gen Z. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (06:19.484)
I know how to use a map, you know, know how to use a map, my, you know, I think also like have built up some defenses of like, this isn’t worth it. Whereas I think seniors tend to get more sucked in. I see it, you know, I see it with my parents. just be, they fall for it too. And part of it’s working in tech and just knowing what these guys want, which is monetizing your attention. So sometimes that’s well worth it. You just need to be aware of that. That’s the deal that’s going on. And if it’s low value, do something else. You don’t have to do it.
Brian Bell (06:50.348)
And we don’t even barely watch TV anymore. It’s like YouTube Red, right? We pay for the commercial for YouTube and just on our Roku watch YouTube.
Brian Bell (05:41.133)
I want to talk to my grandparents and my parents’ generation on there sometimes, you know.
Matt Stewart (05:48.669)
Yeah, that’s true. They’re often, I feel like, you know, I actually feel like I’m in a sweet spot of, you know, I’m an X-Sami. I’m 46, so you’re world new. And like, I feel like I feel lucky in that, you know, tech was new. We grew up with it, but not like it wasn’t like in our oxygen. And we appreciate not being on tech sometimes. And I think, yeah.
Brian Bell (06:13.73)
We’re kind of a hybrid generation, We’re analog and digital. And so we’re Xenials, kind of late Gen Z. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (06:19.484)
I know how to use a map, you know, know how to use a map, my, you know, I think also like have built up some defenses of like, this isn’t worth it. Whereas I think seniors tend to get more sucked in. I see it, you know, I see it with my parents. just be, they fall for it too. And part of it’s working in tech and just knowing what these guys want, which is monetizing your attention. So sometimes that’s well worth it. You just need to be aware of that. That’s the deal that’s going on. And if it’s low value, do something else. You don’t have to do it.
Brian Bell (06:50.348)
And we don’t even barely watch TV anymore. It’s like YouTube Red, right? We pay for the commercial for YouTube and just on our Roku watch YouTube.
Brian Bell (07:05.976)
Like put a Tesla like buried somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bell (07:17.229)
it’s like the Apple. Yeah, car flake. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (07:20.36)
was not easy to find it. I like, I actually need the World Series. I’d like to listen. I don’t get much alone time. I like, I’m going to check in. It’s pretty funny how the old way is hard. Anyway.
Brian Bell (07:33.986)
Well, let’s talk about what method does. What’s the 30 second elevator pitch?
Matt Stewart (07:38.759)
Yeah, we’re a top tech PR firm. help companies elevate their profiles, become more famous, and try to demonstrate they deserve it. They’re delivering. They’re making the world better, stronger, faster, cheaper, more useful. So we work with everything from Series A to Salesforce in terms of scale, focused on enterprise, B2B. I think those tend to be more interesting stories, honestly, and harder to tell. But yeah, fundamentally what we do, we got a couple of things. It’s my fourth PR firm. It’s the best one.
Brian Bell (07:51.214)
Yeah.
Matt Stewart (08:06.984)
A couple of things that set it apart, we have active senior involvement. a senior leader, I pitch media, I talk to reporters, we do things. There’s no bait and switch, which is pretty prevalent among agencies who have someone senior come in.
Brian Bell (08:17.582)
Oh yeah, you pay them five or 10 or 15 grand, disappear. And they’re like, yeah, I pitched it.
Matt Stewart (08:20.912)
Never see them again. They have no idea what’s going on. Yeah. So we really don’t do that. We have a top content team, former reporters, former New York Times leaders, fast co-editors. We have a new and earned business media specialist groups. They just talk to reporters all the time. That’s everything from Wall Street Journal to podcast hosts like yourself or Substack writers or, know, TBPN and all these new ways that people get information.
Brian Bell (08:48.31)
And those guys are really a phenomenon. Like they record four hours a day, five days a week. It’s like 20 hours of content. Talk about a long form podcast. Like you can’t even get through that. Sometimes I’ll just tune in. I’ll just listen for a little bit. like, I don’t know who’s listening to this stuff for like four hours a day. Like, how do you even get through that?
Matt Stewart (08:51.122)
Yep.
Matt Stewart (09:05.42)
People love it too because they’re easy. mean, they ask, it’s layup questions. They’re not grilling people on.
Brian Bell (09:13.888)
No, yeah, they’re kind of tech bro-y and they’re kind of like just hanging out. So Sam, like, yeah, like what’s AI doing, you know?
Matt Stewart (09:18.228)
They’re having, if you want that vibe, I think that’s great, you know? But a lot of clients want to be on that because it’s seen as just hanging out with your friends. I think that is fun. It is fun to hang out with your friends. A couple of other things we do that’s interesting, we have a new B2B influencer group. So influencing the people who influence everybody else on a B2B level. this, we actually had no proof this worked for a while. It sounded great conceptually.
Matt Stewart (09:47.599)
But now we do have evidence that we are reaching a ton of people to influencers. So I think it’s a very new territory and going to be increasingly influential. And now we’re also gearing up around AEO, so improving your LLM search results for a company, which is how people are finding out information. Which podcast should I listen to? Which platform should I look at? Where should I go for dinner tomorrow? I’m in Palo Alto. So all of those trying to figure out how we can build authority to influence it. It’s early days on that, but I think we’ve got some interesting findings and it’s a nice head start. So trying to make all that work for, we offer some design, but really ultimately being interesting telling your story. One more thing I think is valuable, we have a in-house research team. So we’ll go out and do surveys or analyze data and really try to make it as fascinating as possible, starting with the headline and.
Matt Stewart (10:38.684)
reverse engineering the data. We don’t actually reverse engineer the data, but we try to get as close as possible. people want headlines that are clickable and demonstrate you’re interesting. And that’s something you can always control. You can’t control when you’re going to have a big partnership or when you’re going to get funding. But you can control when you put a survey out. So that’s a really helpful resource.
Brian Bell (10:59.298)
Yeah, any fun stories over the years that you’d like to share about PR, particularly with startups?
Matt Stewart (11:07.112)
Hoo, boy. I mean, did a survey. This actually wasn’t my team, but one I really liked during the pandemic was we did a survey around communications, and we came up with this term, slack-splaining. So I’m going to mansplain slack-splaining. which is people were not picking up the phone. They weren’t talking. So they would type out extensive instructions on how to do something in Slack to the point where it was a little too specific. And then they would soften it with an emoji. So that was the softening element. was like, it. Ha, ha, ha. And that became crazy. Yeah, exactly. So that picked up. We do a lot of cool market research. We just did something for bamboo HR.
Brian Bell (11:44.32)
as one does. Slightly smiley face.
Matt Stewart (11:54.857)
on I think something like 3 % of the workforce was going to call in sick to listen to Taylor Swift’s new album. I’m not a Swiftie. know people are hanging up right now. Yeah, don’t go after me.
Brian Bell (12:08.098)
No advocate skipping work to listen to Taylor Swift.
Matt Stewart (12:17.288)
I thought like, you could just have it on the background. You know, that’s fine too. But that was unfortunate. People are really into like, how is the workforce evolving? And I think some of those stories really touch a nerve. My favorite story is the ones where you don’t really have news and you make stuff up and you kind of get creative creating a milestone, using your relationships with reporters that you’ve hard fought over the years and creating a moment. those research is a good place to bring that to life.
Brian Bell (12:45.602)
Yeah. So you’ve coached dozens and dozens of founders and startups and PR and media. What are some do’s and don’ts and common mistakes, things that get right, things that get wrong?
Matt Stewart (13:01.0)
You know, I think the hardest thing I run into is people are a little scared of being interesting. You know, we’re all, it’s kind of a cancel culture out there and people don’t want to piss off Trump or anybody who might invest in them one day. So they’re ratcheting back the taking a stand and just feel like they need to hew to the line a lot of the time. A lot of these, the executives I work with are salespeople. So they’re used to selling, they’re very good at telling their company story, but they can devolve into jargon pretty quickly. And they have They’re often not as good as just pulling back and being as interesting that for something that might run in the New York Times or Fortune or be something you remember tomorrow. So a lot of what we work with is just getting them to calm down a little bit and just tell us, you know, what they really think of the world. What are people? mean, there are a couple of go to questions. You know, what is what is the market getting wrong? What are you super fired up about? Why are people saying no to this? You know, what are your predictions for next year? What’s going to surprise people? Those tend to get people cooking a little more than you follow up on the threads that can get you there. And that gives you real insights that come out of the world. had a guy at Lightspeed India had really strong feelings on Trump’s H1B new $100,000 cost. And he was on H1B for 15 years and said, I never would have gotten it today. And he didn’t. take a position on is this a good policy or bad? He really just deconstructed like, hey, Silicon Valley is going to follow the money, going to follow the talent. People in India, wherever, the money will go there instead. And it was a pretty thoughtful and honest piece, especially from somebody who’s been there. We flipped that into a bunch of stories, got a fortune by line, turned it around real fast. So just helping the ones who are willing to be interesting go a long way. And that sounds basic, but you can’t have thought leadership without the thoughts. And you’ve got to get comfortable enough to take a small risk and say something that might annoy someone.
Brian Bell (15:05.645)
Yeah, I think that’s good advice. We just had Udi from Gong, was the CMO there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they’re great. And he talked about the four buckets of marketing that you have to hire kind of in order. I’m going to probably butcher it, but demand, you got to get right. And then it’s probably product marketing. And then it’s like comms, social media comms, stuff like that. And then there’s PR last. Why do you think it’s PR last? it, know, when you’re like a seed
Matt Stewart (15:10.414)
I know, Woody. Gong was a client for Fears. That’s fun. Yeah.
Brian Bell (15:35.254)
stage startup, you don’t need to hire a PR firm usually. Like at what point should a founder start thinking about engaging the services of Method and you in particular?
Matt Stewart (15:46.441)
Ah, it’s work to get a PR firm to get in full operation. we’re not inexpensive. I actually agree with Uri on that one. You need to have someone who can help us get resources, who can connect us with executives. It’s funny. What is a Series A these days? It can be ginormous. Anywhere to $10 to $2 billion. I mean, it’s insane.
Brian Bell (16:07.854)
Yeah, I mean, anywhere from 10 to 50 million, you know. Well, yeah, yeah. I’m talking about the money raised, not the valuation, but yeah.
Matt Stewart (16:16.828)
Yeah, I mean, we did a 200 million series A for one password in 2019. That was six years ago. mean, Miriam Maradi’s new startup had two billion series. I mean, she’s unusual. But there are big series A’s now. So I’m not as prescriptive as I used to be. But I’d say you need 30 to 50 million in to make a PR firm.
Brian Bell (16:25.548)
Yeah, that’s crazy. Two on 10. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (16:38.504)
One, bring them on and you can pay them what they’re worth to ensure they’re motivated to do a good job for you. And then on top of that, you have someone who can give them what they need. They need hot takes, they need resources, they need someone to approve stuff. When I was in house with that climate nonprofit, we had a PR firm and I was terrible. I did not get back to, I was too busy doing other stuff and we probably shouldn’t have done it. Because we didn’t give it the love it determined. And so you need someone at least has like I don't know, a third of their job, half of their job devoted to helping that PR firm be successful.
Brian Bell (17:12.342)
Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Do you work with any VC firms?
Matt Stewart (17:14.332)
Yeah. A whole bunch work with Lightspeed. For them, we just announced funding for their Series A and seed round investments. We work with Lightspeed India, which we support their partners, work with Westbridge Capital, which is an India-US cross-border venture firm, work with Salesforce Ventures. We work with National Grid Partners, which is a corporate arm of the international utility, work with Toyota’s growth fund called Woven Capital. And we work with Dell Technologies Capital. And actually, we also work with Bloomberg Beta. So a lot of corporate venture firms in there. But yeah, I’m intimately talking to VCs all the time.
Brian Bell (17:49.462)
Okay. Yeah.
Brian Bell (17:49.462)
Yeah. And how does it differ between like a fast growing startup to a venture capital firm?
Matt Stewart (17:59.835)
It’s funny, I just spoke about this last week. I was at a Raise Global, which is a big event where GPs present to LPs on what they’re, you know. Yeah, yeah. And I did a comms workshop. So the biggest thing is you don’t have much news as a venture firm. know, when you raise around, which happens every couple of years, maybe, maybe more, maybe less, someone gets promoted. One of your portfolio companies has a big day. They go public or they have a big round or get acquired, and you can’t control any of those things usually. So it really is important to be super interesting. A lot of meeting reporters who, and they love meeting venture partners, go out for coffee, get lunch, whatever. That turns into a lot of hot takes. We got two clients recently in the Wall Street Journal talking about the role of forward deployed engineers. That’s a major trend right now in AI to get companies to actually use them. And they had really practical advice on how you can put those to work and be successful. So you really got to be cutting edge, front end, fascinating, and be willing to invest in getting to know reporters and be like, that guy was cool. Would he weigh in on this deal I’m saying? That really is a lot of it. I think a lot of content as well, creating your own content. You know, the VC world, there is a social element. They’re all fighting to get the deals, right? I their big thing is access to cool deals. And so you want to be on the founder’s radar. And you also want to be when they Google you, you’re interesting and smart and are worth engaging with. So they’re more important than ever to be spicy and personality driven. think, know, Andreessen’s changed the process on that a whole lot. Hat tip to them for really making that a whole different environment. I think it’s made the world more interesting having these. You know, Vinod Khosla, I mean, he, first time I saw him. probably 2012, he was mostly a climate guy back then. he was, I remember what he said, take more shots on goal. We need to take more shots on goal. Some of them will work. Plenty of them won’t, but for in climate, we’ve got a big problem. We’ve got to take more shots on goal. And I was like, that is kind of obvious in hindsight. But back then, people weren’t thinking that way about investing in these sci-fi technologies like carbon capture. So I think just being interesting. And the cool thing is they’re always talking to people. They always know what’s coming next.
Matt Stewart (20:26.85)
They have a lot of exposure and just synthesizing those ideas. The world needs that, you know.
Brian Bell (20:32.302)
Yeah. So if for the early stage founders listening out there that aren’t ready to engage the services of a PR firm, you know, if they’re pre-seed, you know, they have only raised a million or two, like what should they be doing on PR? Assuming they got their demand gen straight and everything’s kind of growing, like what should they be thinking about to kind of prep themselves for that series A and B and for engaging you guys in, you know, a couple of years down the line?
Matt Stewart (20:56.552)
You know, the thing is, people ask this at RAYS, you what can we do? We can't afford you guys or a firm, but what can we do that's useful? And I said, you know, think about the top three to five reporters or outlets you think you should be in. And then reach out to them. You can usually find those contacts. and asked us to catch up and ask what they need for a story. The thing I find with early stage founders is they're just laser focused on making sure the product works, the business works. We have some semblance of customer list. They're just trying to get a team together. And they're very inward focused on the company. And news is market focused. You want to deserve to get into a story. You got to. not just talk about, they're going to be like, 50,000 other companies do that or say they do something similar. So I think when you reach out, all these guys are good pitchers, right? Because they've gotten a company off the ground. They need to figure out where does that fit in the market? And then they need to just talk to people. And most reporters love hearing from founders. It's just a lot of work to manage those relationships. So that's why I just say pick three to five. Try to talk to them, and most of them will give you feedback. Doesn't that sound like whatever? Let me know when you have news or whatever. At least you'll be on their radar. I always say there's a couple key questions you can ask when you're talking to reporters. What do you need for a story is great. They usually just tell you. If they say not a good fit for me, just say, who would it be a good fit for? can go a long way and reach out to someone else and say, oh, know, Brian said I should give you a buzz. Warm introductions go a long way. And then just, you what do you think? Any thoughts? What would make this work? They'll tell you.
Brian Bell (22:50.034)
You've talked a little bit about this, about all the services you provide, imagine I'm a series AB founder, ready to engage you guys and I sign you guys up. What does that engagement look like? What's the onboarding process? And then what is kind of the week after week or month after month kind of look like for us as a call it an AI fast growing startup?
Matt Stewart (23:12.22)
Well, most people when they reach out to PR firm to get going, have a precipitating event. Something is about to happen and it's newsworthy. And usually the investor said, you better get a PR firm or make the most out of this way. Now is a good time. It's typically funding, but it can be a big partnership or something else. So one, you come out of the gates and crush that one. Now you want to get your messaging down. You've probably thought about that for investors. But is it PR appropriate? We have a whole production we can do that would interview a whole bunch of people. Most people don't have time for that these days. We can do that if you want to and are happy to. I think it's really valuable. But we typically do an analysis audit of what you have and then kind of force it into PR lens and try to come up with sound bites and make things snappy. Usually just kind of get that on the fly talking to executives on the way. Press releases are written by committee and they're rarely going to win the Pulitzer for poetry, but they are useful in digesting the messages that really matter.
Brian Bell (24:14.274)
Has the press release ever won a literary prize?
Matt Stewart (24:17.532)
That would be so fun. Shouldn’t we apply? I mean, I feel like there’s got to be a couple out there worthy of it. That’s good tip.
Brian Bell (24:20.366)
There’s got to be something, there’s got to be one that’s worthy of some literary award.
Matt Stewart (24:25.512)
I mean, if Bob Dylan can win the Nobel Prize, why not try? know, I think that’s a great idea. We should totally try for that.
Brian Bell (24:29.356)
Right. Yeah. Yeah, is there a governing body of PR that gives out awards for really good press releases? You should call it the method of word, and you guys should start this.
Matt Stewart (24:45.384)
That is a great idea. Well, people always ask, is the press release dead? And some businesses don’t issue press releases anymore. They just kind of put a blog post up, or they kind of, you if you Google, you sneeze, people pick it up, because it’s Google. It affects a lot of people. Yeah. I think press releases are a useful exercise just to get everybody zeroed in on the story, right? So if we’re kicking off, let’s zero in on the story.
Brian Bell (24:59.5)
Yeah, yeah, the press is going to cover you just because you’re Google, right?
Matt Stewart (25:12.166)
And then we go pitch that out. We usually get something if it’s big enough to hire a PR firm. We just tap our relationship and try to make the most of it. We’re all about quick wins. Most early stage companies don’t want to just sit around. And usually when we’re dancing with a client, we just start pitching them before they start. We’ll get them interviews before we’ve even pitched, gotten going with them. It’s pretty common just to show them what we can do and that we’re not just, we’re not coasting on reputation. And then we’re always talking to clients and trying to, I was just on a call before now with a new hire. We’re trying to see what’s interesting about him. And we went through this process where at first he was just giving us the company line and then we pushed him a little and he got way more interesting. And we’re going to pitch that out. And it’s prediction season coming up. Can we pitch out some predictions for 2026? He had some good thoughts on the AI market. And just creating news along the way. I mean, here’s what works. CEO is going to be in New York. Let’s pitch some meetings. We had a biotech CEO in Boston. We got five interviews. Someone’s going to a conference, pitch the media, go in there. It’s a lot of old fashioned, connect with people, get to know them, show them you’re interesting, you’re worth covering. And we used to do six month plans and these huge, and you can’t predict six months anymore. I that’s gone. What you can do is get all the pieces in place to pitch constantly. can create your own campaigns. You can activate customers. And you can really gear up effectively for major events and synchronize everything so it comes at once. We have some reports coming out. Social is going to blast that day. We’re going to have a story lead. It’s all going to work together. But yeah, it’s kind of an ongoing. You just got to trust the process that we are scrappy and hungry. to create something interesting all the time. And we don’t rest on our laurels on that. I always say if you’re unhappy, you always fire us. Our goal is to make sure you don’t want to fire us because you’re happy with your results. So any PR firm should really do that.
Brian Bell (27:14.562)
Yeah, makes sense. Do VC firms typically announce every investment or just the notable ones?
Matt Stewart (27:24.242)
So the announcement is usually the company’s day. mean, the startup, it’s your day. You should crush it. The reason for Lightspeed, we work with them, is because a lot of these companies don’t have a, to Udi’s point, I hope Udi’s listening, by the way. I feel like he’s with us now, is that they don’t have a PR firm. They don’t have any resources. They don’t know anybody.
Brian Bell (27:48.401)
so Lightspeed’s actually doing this on the start us behalf. Hey, we just wrote a 10, 20, whatever million dollar check. This is really exciting. Look at this great thing.
Matt Stewart (27:55.061)
We throw this in as part of the deal. The method will go. And sometimes they do have their own PR firms. And usually once their series beyond, they have someone. And sometimes a series A can be really big. We just did a 90 million one. They didn’t have a PR firm or person, so we helped them. It can vary, but it is usually the company’s day. And if we get a partner in to do an interview, great.
Brian Bell (28:01.816)
Gotcha.
Matt Stewart (28:24.562)
Really the goal, the goal is that the company is successful and they’re on the map. And they’re happy with that. Yeah, they’re happy with that. The partners are just there to help and validate them and help escalate however they can.
Brian Bell (28:27.436)
Right. Company gets a bunch of customers and partners. Yeah.
Brian Bell (28:37.9)
Yeah. So you’ve been in this game for a really long time. How is AI changing PR, if at all?
Matt Stewart (28:46.312)
I think my research has gotten so much faster and better. I did some analysis of kind of geeky. I wanted to find out how many miles. a client has this group of utilities that gets together. I was like, well, how many square miles does this utility cover? And what’s their total revenue? And how many people are served by these 150 utilities? There’s no way you would know that, right? And I just thought, you just would guess. know, there would just be billions or something. You know, it would just be nonsense. And I asked ChatGPT and in five minutes, I had a a defensible answer, right? That was still a range. Yeah, what’s funny, I mean, it kind of me on ChatGPT because I like Claude and Claude broke twice. Then I tried Gemini and it broke twice. Then ChatGPT gave me the answer in five minutes. So I’m currently on ChatGPT, but I feel like we all rotate.
Brian Bell (29:15.406)
Yeah, take an analyst days to go figure that out. Yeah.
Brian Bell (29:28.49)
using like ape research or pro or.
Matt Stewart (29:43.945)
That sort of research, getting smart on industries. I tend to work in really complex areas. I was brushing up on protein engineering today and it’s pretty geeky and it’s very helpful to have them map it out for you and then explain it to me like you a 10-year-old. Then I really do get it. That is incredibly helpful. The thing I worry about is just, It’s funny, one of these clients, my clients said, did you chat to EPT this messaging? Because we have come up with some messaging, like human messaging. And then we put it into a briefing doc. And she’s like, they don’t quite feel as human. And I think we did. And I think people are doing that. It’s losing its edge. It’s kind of a little too polished. There’s not enough human. And I worry about that. I worry about people not knowing what good writing is, so they won’t be able to critique. It’s like people don’t know how to use Map. They don’t know their own neighborhoods. They just Google Maps to get anywhere. So I think it’s important that we are criticizing the AI and remain critical of that. First draft, sure. I actually don’t think AI should be used for notes. I think you should pay attention and write your notes down. And I think when I am writing notes, I am lasered in on the conversation where I’m not multitasking. So a lot of
Brian Bell (31:06.126)
do a hybrid. I have Fireflies in there listening, and it’s very helpful later when I’m doing due diligence. And I’m like, what did they say? What did that founder say? But then I’ll jot down some notes, too. So kind of a hybrid. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (31:17.512)
Yeah, for diligence, think that’s right. For the interesting parts, just gets everything gets bogged into the same thing and often misses the essence, you know, and like, feel like you got to pay attention really be in it, you know, like in this conversation right now, we’re not multitasking, we’re here. And like, I think that’s a richer conversation that has more takeaways. So I’m on guard against that. But there’s so many things you can do to do first drafts and, you know, all the documents we provide our clients with. and the tech keeps getting better and better, I think we have to remain skeptical of the final product and not just sign off on it. And I worry about that with junior staff that isn’t skeptical enough.
Brian Bell (31:56.045)
Hmm. When it’s interesting, right, because the writing is getting pretty good. You know, we’ve been with AI now for a few years, and I could see it. It’s not as good as the best human writers, but it’s probably better than the average at this point. You know, you just take the average college graduate and put it on the average chat GPT response. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (32:10.342)
Yeah. I mean, it’s funny what you know.
Matt Stewart (32:16.904)
Well, that’s a whole bigger conversation about the state of education. like, I mean, there’s a lot of slop in there. It gets things wrong. It’s confident in that it makes you feel like it’s right. But sometimes it’s wrong. But you’re right. have a VC who says, moving from this environment of my pants are handmade to my pants are mass produced. And taking that approach to content. Content is not. going to be necessarily handmade for everybody anymore. It’ll be mass produced by AI. And for most people, that’s perfectly fine.
Brian Bell (32:45.42)
That’s interesting. Yeah. Yeah, the fast fashion phase, think is what Sam Altman calls it. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (32:53.096)
Exactly. for you know, for most people, that’s fine. You know, like for those of us reading Nobel Prize winners, we want the human touch. You know, it’s like McDonald’s is great for a lot of people. You know, they they love it. And I think that’s a lot of people wouldn’t go out for go out for lunch if there weren’t a McDonald’s, you know, they’re eating a sandwich at home. So I think that is where we are. And a good
Brian Bell (33:07.308)
Yeah, but some people want to go find dining and that’s fine.
Brian Bell (33:15.331)
Yeah.
Brian Bell (33:18.678)
Yeah, but maybe it gets up to the level of like Costco eventually, right? It’s like everything’s pretty good for a pretty good price, you know?
Matt Stewart (33:25.328)
Yeah, I don’t think we’re ever going to get to Michelin star territory, right? Like, I think that’s very hard to do. But it’s getting good enough for people who aren’t as refined on it. And you know, I have to check myself with this. Like I live my life in words, and I’m a word snob, for sure. And most people aren’t, you know, they want to get the language that speaks to their job and hits it on the nose. And that’s fine. That’s good enough.
Brian Bell (33:31.619)
Yeah.
Brian Bell (33:44.002)
Yeah, I spent 1 % effort to get like 95 % of the way there. And that’s good enough for a lot of people. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (33:52.425)
Good enough for a lot of people. we have, it’s actually not good enough for media though. I mean, media is that last 5 % and you know, they are tougher, way tougher. And that’s not to say.
Brian Bell (33:56.599)
No, yeah. Right.
Brian Bell (34:04.728)
That’s why like doing the podcast, actually, it’s so natural, because you’re just talking to somebody, right? And you’re sitting down and writing is hard. I’m writing a book right now. And it’s just it’s hard to sit down and write for an hour or two. It’s lot easier for me to talk to somebody for an hour than it is to write for an hour for me.
Matt Stewart (34:17.06)
Especially with three kids.
Matt Stewart (34:21.732)
It’s hard to stay focused, but I actually think those feelings of flow when you’re really doing something is like some of the greatest joys of life. know, time stops and you’re digging into an idea and you’re like, what am I really trying to say here? And you finally catch it. You know, there’s so many distractions. It’s hard to lock it out as well. think like a human kind of puts the pressure on to be present in a way that writing doesn’t. You know, lot of the great writers are emphatic, don’t have the internet anywhere near you if you want to get some stuff done.
Matt Stewart (34:51.494)
To me, it’s the opportunities. There’s always something else. It’s like, don’t sleep with your phone in your bedroom. actually pull that off. My wife doesn’t. Just because I feel like you got to have that clarity of thought at times. But it’s funny, I just got a fortune cookie recently. And I was talking to somebody yesterday. Writing is thinking slowly. And great. Yeah. Yeah. And.
Brian Bell (35:12.566)
And deliberately. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (35:15.77)
It’s you know, you faster the faster you type but it is it is definitely a powerful medium. And there are boring parts. There are parts where you’re stuck where things don’t flow. know, plenty of people write by dictation to maybe that’s your answer. You know, maybe maybe you should have a conversation. Yeah.
Brian Bell (35:32.143)
That’s how I write actually. So I will actually have a conversation with Judge GPT. I’ll be like, Hey, I need to write this chapter of the book and we’ll talk for 20, 30, 40 minutes. Sometimes I’ll just be driving in the car to the Bay area because I drive to get back to San Francisco. Right. And I’m like, yeah, I to write this book. this it knows about my book because it has memory on me, which is awesome. And I’m like, yeah, what’s the next chapter, right? it’s this. Okay, great. Interview me, like act as my ghost writer and interview me for this like chapter. And it’s a really effective way to like get a draft out.
Matt Stewart (35:57.011)
Wow. Wow. That’s great. That’s great. Yeah. mean, honestly, what’s the difference between that and actual Ghost Rider? Pretty much nothing. You’ll need to make sure it pops at the end. mean, think that’s the... Exactly. Well, that’s easy. Yeah.
Brian Bell (36:02.894)
in my words, with my quotes. Anyway, what are you excited about over the next?
Brian Bell (36:17.282)
Yeah. No, I want to write the most boring book ever created. That’s my goal. This is a boring... This should be the subtitle boring. Do not pick this up. Just kind of poke fun at myself, you know? Written by the most boring VC that you’ll ever read.
Matt Stewart (36:27.72)
A lot of them is out there, don’t worry. is fierce. That would be... There was a guy who put out a book once, I think the name of the book was winner of the national book award. I thought that was pretty funny. I didn’t read it.
Brian Bell (36:47.022)
New York Times national bestseller. That’s the name of the book.
Matt Stewart (36:50.896)
Yeah, exactly. Call it that. Can ChatGBD come up with this? I’m not sure. Maybe. Yeah, we’ll see.
Brian Bell (36:57.44)
I’m not sure, maybe. What are you excited about over the next three to five years?
Matt Stewart (37:06.368)
I think the great promise of AI is solving some true societal problems. And right now we’re working on the logistics and we’re writing books and we’re optimizing workflows. society faces huge challenges. We got a lot of people dying too young. We got climate change. We’ve got people whose careers have been changed or driven out, industries vanquished. Inequality, you know on on the brink of war in a lot of places or my wife’s Ukrainian, you know in war How do we solve these problems man? These are big ones that we don’t think about all the time except. you know It’s too expensive to buy a house for pretty much anybody in the Bay Area who’s under 40 We got real problems. I I Think it’s a great idea. You know, I think we got to be looking at that more. We got to get more creative
Brian Bell (37:44.557)
Mm.
Brian Bell (37:55.567)
I think you got a brand new house out here at East of Sacramento for 600, 500. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (38:04.888)
But I am looking forward for AI to tackle those real problems. And I think it’s going to be tough. I was talking to VC once and he said, what’s the return in solving poverty? couldn’t believe he said that, but that was a, it should be, we’re going to need some social prioritization on some of these things that don’t necessarily.
Brian Bell (38:24.802)
Well, the GDP is just everybody’s output times the number of people. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (38:28.508)
I know, but if you invest in that company, how do you make money directly? That’s what they’re thinking. And it’s unclear. somebody gets customers somewhere, sure. But how do I get customers for inventing and rich GPT or whatever? These are hard questions. And it’s one of those where I’m not sure the VC model fits all of that.
Matt Stewart (38:57.384)
We are seeing some good breakthroughs, I think, in health care already. This is a long resistant industry to innovation. I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, but every doctor I’ve had in last year or so is recording with their phone. They’re actually paying attention, and the notes are way better. I think that’s a good
Brian Bell (39:12.93)
Yeah. have a startup, NoTex. Shout out to NoTex, a portfolio company. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (39:16.604)
Shout out to NoTex. And that’s a big improvement. So I think we’ll see more of that. And that’s what I’m hopeful for, that the best of AI will be solving these what seem like intractable societal problems that a lot of us sort of given up on. Or it’s the dirty work of going to city council meetings and organizing your neighbors and stuff that busy tech people usually don’t do because we’re busy raising kids and doing our jobs. So I’m hopeful for that.
Brian Bell (39:45.807)
That’s awesome. Let’s wrap up with some quick fire, hitters. That’s what I have in my notes, quick hitters. What’s a one-pager do you wish every founder brought to you in the first agency meeting and what should never be on it?
Matt Stewart (39:52.111)
No.
Matt Stewart (40:02.088)
the most interesting soundbite list that you dream of and cut out jargon, cut out leverage, cut out impacted by speak like a human synergy. Welcome to the evening.
Brian Bell (40:13.88)
synergy. The next generation platform.
Matt Stewart (40:22.647)
Yeah, pioneering, you know, it’s hard. It’s hard to fight. mean, look, jargon has a you’re in the tribe, if you can speak, you know, some acronyms, depending on your industry. But then there’s just crutch words. And try to avoid those as much as you can. Media hates it. And so do most smart readers.
Brian Bell (40:43.692)
Yeah. A time you advise a client not to announce and what happened next.
Matt Stewart (40:49.768)
So sometimes reporters will come to us and be like, oh, we heard about a leak, or we heard about a funding round, or can you confirm? And they’ll get all nervous, like, oh, they found out about something. We better announce it right away. And just do nothing. Most of the times, it depends on the situation. But most of the time, they run an OK story with nothing confirmed and missing a lot of details. And then you can tell the story again in a month or two with all the details and with some extra punch. So you get two rounds. Don’t stress if a reporter comes to you with something you don’t want them to announce because it’s not going to that great a story if they don’t talk to you.
Brian Bell (41:28.428)
What’s the most underrated metric for comms and how do you instrument it?
Matt Stewart (41:34.525)
Well, comms is notoriously tough to instrument, just so know. But we work with Salesforce, and then shout out to them. They do an amazing job of analyzing their metrics. And they really look at weighted share of voice. So what are the areas I want to be known for compared to my competitors? And that’s expensive and hard to, they’re pushing the boundaries of recording tools. There’s one I like called Signal AI. A lot of people, clients don’t, it’s work. It’s work to get it going. But I think that is a very powerful metric. It’s a real view of where you stand in the landscape.
Brian Bell (42:07.598)
Share a voice so you would say, like a keyword like CRM would be theirs. And like when people talk about agent force, yeah. Like what’s our share of voice in the media on agentic AI, basically. How often does our brand show up in articles about agents?
Matt Stewart (42:15.566)
Agents. Agents is theirs now. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (42:26.663)
Matt Stewart (42:31.524) And you know how offers are branched up and we have customers and we feature our customers actually using it. You know, those are all very, that’s what they want to know and analyzing things like that is very valuable. You know, as an early stage company, that’s hard to do. And often you don’t deserve to be in I mean, Salesforce does deserve to be in the same agent conversation as Microsoft or Adobe, a lot of their competitors, they deserve to be ahead of it. And they are by most metrics. But yeah, think early stage founders need to be realistic that you probably don’t deserve to be in same conversation as Salesforce. I mean, you just don’t have the market cap. They’ve been around for whatever, 20 years, 20 plus. So just being honest about where you stand and then just trying to get some headway. I mean, if you’re from zero to one, you want to just get visible and then build off that. And then you can really start. Then your competitors come more into focus. Then you can start beating them.
Brian Bell (43:26.464)
What is a founder quote you still think about and why did it work?
Matt Stewart (43:32.837)
I have some founders who really focus on being spicy and interesting and they workshop their sound bites. But it’s funny, man, the thing I think about the most is I have this one long time founder I’ve worked with and he is just such a nice person. And I was with him for a New York Times on-site interview over the summer. And we’re at Starbucks on the way to the interview and he walked a woman with a baby was fumbling with her coffee. So I put the coffee in the tray for him. He walked her to her car. And I feel like man, courtesy and just being a gentleman or gentle lady or whoever goes so far these days and people just don’t do it. I don’t know. He’s a remind.
Brian Bell (44:26.722)
Here lady, here’s your coffee.
Matt Stewart (44:28.296)
Yeah, but I mean, little things like that, just being courteous and polite. I think class goes a long way. You know, I’ve heard a lot of I think we’ve got a little less sound bitey in recent years, know, shots on goal. That wasn’t a founder. But that one still stands 20 years later. To me, to me, that’s a big thing. Can you remember something 20 years later? mean, Peter Thiel, right? We asked for 160 characters or flying cars. We got 160 characters, right? Those are good and think helpful reminders. But ultimately, I think what carries you is who you are. So just try to be a good person.
Brian Bell (45:07.266)
Yeah, love that. A crisis drill with teams that changes behavior quickest.
Matt Stewart (45:15.29)
So think what some are, I’ll take this in a sort of different angle. My teams often don’t, you we have this era of people I work with at the agency who they’re so scared of messing up. You know, we have a cancel culture and they just are, you know, we have a tough job market. They want to keep their jobs and do good work and that’s all awesome. But I think it leads them to agonizing and overthinking what they’re doing a lot rather than just kind of working on it. And I find that when I workshop a problem, it’s often not a crisis, but something we’re working on, I’m like, let’s just do it together. And we share a screen and they see me do it. And they could see how I screw up a ton and self-correct and I’ll reread and like, it’s terrible. And, you know, change things. So watching leaders self edit, I think is really important for a crisis situation. The biggest thing is calming people down, but also responding quickly. I think those are the two, you can’t get paranoid or crazy about it.
Brian Bell (46:17.196)
Yeah, what’s the biggest crisis you’ve ever dealt with in your career?
Matt Stewart (46:22.536)
I mean, leaks are always conceived as crises. We’ve had like DOE investigations. had a, this wasn’t my client, but met that situation with Entrada a few years ago where the CEO sent out a note to all of his friends that the Jews were behind COVID and all this racist nonsense. And, know, they fired him like the next day and came out quickly with a strong opinion and that worked, you know, and, uh, you know, astronomer, right? That was a big thing this year. I have a good friend who works over there. Um, excuse me. Remember the cold play thing. Okay. Yeah. That this, yeah, the CEO was a cold play. turns out I there with someone who was his wife and she was like the V the HR officer.
Brian Bell (47:04.162)
What happened? What happened at astronomer? yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.
Brian Bell (47:17.254)
Yeah, that’s so great. Classic.
Matt Stewart (47:25.432)
All of a sudden, people have heard of astronomer, right? And they had, you know, they waited a little too long, I think, off the gates. I’m sure that was just getting people. They wound up, they wound up, they wound up making a ton of lemonade. Yeah, they made. I mean, they made a lot of lemonade with whole Gwyneth Paltrow. Do you see the Gwyneth Paltrow video they did? OK, so they so basically they waited a day and a half to like respond, which was too long in this news cycle.
Brian Bell (47:37.762)
They should have just owned that whole thing. Come work at Astronomer, where you have coworkers with benefits, you know, and just like, just own it.
Brian Bell (47:45.153)
No, what happened there?
Brian Bell (47:54.2)
So what’s the backstory? What happened?
Brian Bell (48:02.487)
OK. Yeah. Well, OK, for anybody who is like living under a rock, here’s the story.
Matt Stewart (48:06.95)
Yes, this was like over the summer. Coldplay has some I’m not a Coldplay fan, him and Taylor, not a fan, but they’re they’re playing some song and they shine a light on lovers in the crowd. And it’s the CEO spotlight CEO with with his arms around the HR lady and they both like go hide. They both go hide and it’s it’s a you know. it’s a fun video.
Brian Bell (48:18.734)
Yeah, the kiss can.
Brian Bell (48:26.786)
Head of HR. Well, it’s their facial expression that it’s like, yeah. Yeah.
Matt Stewart (48:36.328)
And they’re not married to, they’re married to other people, right? And I’m not one to judge in any of these situations, but they didn’t, you they were not a.
Brian Bell (48:43.35)
Yeah, maybe they’re married and separated, who knows.
Matt Stewart (48:46.01)
up to them, whatever works for them. But that was a big deal and the whole world was buzzing. They waited a day and a half just to kind of put a bland, boring statement out, holding statement out. I’m sure that was just like a lot of people had opinions and one person wanted to do this, one person wanted to do that. So just get something out quickly that says we’re aware of the situation, we’re addressing it, more to come. I mean, you could just have take that copy paste, put it out there. You know, we’re getting to the bottom of this and then respond.
Brian Bell (49:30.000)
to change the narrative. Yeah, or tell a good story.
