💡

InsightHunt

Hunt the Insights

E

Emilie Gerber

Episode #91

Founder & CEO

Six Eastern

🎯Product Strategy⚡Execution

📝Full Transcript

18,696 words
Emilie Gerber (00:00:00): No one ever gets this tactical in PR. There's just so much theoretical conversation and examining the big blunders, but at the end of the day, if you're a startup that wants to get coverage for your company, you need to know actually the steps to take to do it. Lenny (00:00:13): You mentioned a bunch of amazing companies you've worked with, Ram Perplexity. Most products won't have this interesting of a story to tell. How do you help find something that is a nugget? Emilie Gerber (00:00:21): You can get so in the weeds with your own messaging that you want to set up this massive problem statement, you want to make it a huge trend story, but if you're very straightforward and you're pattern matching, it's generally actually going to work. Lenny (00:00:32): So I asked you to bring some examples of pitches that are great and also examples of pitches that could be better. Emilie Gerber (00:00:39): I want to read one to you and then I want to see if you can tell me what this company does. Lenny (00:00:44): Deal. Today, my guest is Emilie Gerber. Emilie is the founder and CEO of Six Eastern, a PR agency that has worked with over 100 tech companies, from stealth startups to publicly traded companies, helping them get press, build awareness, and level up their PR and comms strategy. 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, Emilie shares so many golden nuggets of advice on how to get press that I lost count. (00:01:23): We talk about which publications to target depending on your market and story, how to craft your pitch and your outreach to reporters, how to actually reach reporters, and also how to craft your product story for people to pay attention to what you're doing, why warm introductions to reporters aren't actually th...

💡 Key Takeaways

  • 1For B2B products, the value of PR is second-order validation (hiring, investor confidence, sales enablement) rather than direct user acquisition.
  • 2Stop pitching 'Category Creation'; reporters ignore it. Instead, pitch an 'Incumbent Takedown' story where you anchor against a known giant (e.g., 'We are doing what Salesforce does, but X way better').
  • 3Warm introductions to reporters are overrated; a concise, targeted cold pitch (3 sentences) is often more effective because it respects the reporter's time.
  • 4Target publications based on specific goals: TechCrunch for funding, Axios for deals/M&A, Business Insider for pitch decks/founder journeys, and VentureBeat for AI/Technical news.
  • 5Avoid 'marketing speak' in launch materials. If you can't read your press release out loud to a friend without sounding like a corporate bot, rewrite it.
  • 6Leverage podcasts and newsletters as core media channels, often yielding higher engagement than traditional tier-1 publications.
  • 7When pitching funding, keep it clinically simple: Amount raised, lead investors, and one sentence on why it matters. Do not bury the lead with a long vision statement.

📚Methodologies (3)

🎯 Product Strategy

A positioning framework that anchors a new product against a well-known industry giant. By defining the product in relation to an incumbent, you give the reporter immediate context and inherent conflict, which drives story interest.

Core Principles

  • 1.Identify the 'Household Name': Find the massive incumbent your product competes with or improves upon (e.g., Salesforce, Bill.com).
  • 2.Define the Specific Wedge: Articulate exactly one way you are better or different, rather than listing every feature.
  • 3.Put the Conflict in the Subject Line: Use the formula 'Company X taking on [Incumbent] with [Specific Approach]'.
  • +1 more...

"A lot of companies want to position themselves as category creators, and I actually hate that. It doesn't work... It doesn't land with press... Instead, it's actually really great when you can talk about how you are doing what X household name does, but better."

#'incumbent#anchor'#narrative
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⚡ Execution

A high-velocity, high-respect outreach method that prioritizes brevity and relevance over relationships. It assumes the recipient is busy and makes the 'ask' impossible to misunderstand.

Core Principles

  • 1.Sentence 1: The Hook. State exactly why you are emailing (e.g., 'Reaching out with a Series A funding exclusive for [Company Name]').
  • 2.Sentence 2: The Value Prop/Data. Provide the hard news or the contrarian insight (e.g., 'Raised $8M from [Investor] to solve [Problem]').
  • 3.Sentence 3: The Call to Action. Ask a simple, binary question (e.g., 'Do you want the exclusive?').
  • +1 more...

"I'm of the belief that [relationships] do not matter as much as many people think it does... I think cold outreach done well is just as effective."

#'3-sentence'#pitch#execution
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⚡ Execution

A content creation framework for launch materials that strips away corporate speak in favor of human language and visual storytelling. It prioritizes clarity and shareability over formality.

Core Principles

  • 1.The Read-Aloud Audit: Read the launch text out loud. If it sounds like a robot or a marketer, rewrite it.
  • 2.Visual-First Format: Instead of a text-heavy press release, create a slide deck, a visual memo, or an interactive blog post.
  • 3.Answer Three Questions Simply: What does it do? Who is it for? Why is it different? (Answer each in one sentence).
  • +1 more...

"Since exiting stealth in May, we've witnessed a 700% increase in organizations using our product... You could have had one customer, now you have seven. I've never seen reporters include that in their stories."

#test'#launch#asset
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