Visual summary of operating lessons from Aaron Zamost.

Lessons from Aaron Zamost

Aaron Zamost led communications at Square through its 2015 IPO and later ran its People organization, following his time in public affairs at Google and YouTube. He is best known for defining "Silicon Valley Time," a framework that maps the predictable media cycles that build up and tear down tech startups. This collection details his approach to corporate messaging, media relations, and why communications should report directly to the CEO.

Part 1: The Strategic Role of Communications

  1. On executive placement: "I actually think communications deserves a seat on the executive team as a direct report to the CEO." — Source: [First Round Review]
  2. On the problem with marketing: If a communications lead reports to the CMO, they aren't truly on the executive team where the biggest business decisions are made. — Source: [First Round Review]
  3. On preventing disaster: Countless corporate blunders could be avoided simply by having someone with an eye for reputation sitting at the table. — Source: [First Round Review]
  4. On unique skills: The best communications people have skills the rest of the leadership team lacks, specifically the ability to see the second- and third-order effects of decisions. — Source: [First Round Review]
  5. On the Amazon method: Instead of starting with a press release, start with a list of the hardest possible questions and take them down rabbit holes to see where the narrative will go. — Source: [First Round Review]
  6. On issue spotting: Great comms leaders operate like lawyers; they can walk into a fire and instantly identify the one fact that matters more than everything else. — Source: [First Round Review]
  7. On the matrix: Elite communications operators "see the world in code" and can bend situations to their will because they know exactly how the public will react. — Source: [First Round Review]
  8. On team composition: A leadership team should be a "team of rivals"—a group of people who compliment each other and make the CEO better. — Source: [First Round Review]
  9. On unconventional backgrounds: Many of the best communications leaders were originally trained as lawyers, policy experts, or financial reporters, giving them a different structural approach to problems. — Source: [First Round Review]
  10. On speaking truth to power: Someone in the room needs to have the authority to tell the CEO when an idea—like laying off 900 people over Zoom—is incredibly damaging. — Source: [First Round Review]

Part 2: The Problem with PR Agencies

  1. On agency value: "I think 99% of PR agencies provide little to no value to the companies that hire them." — Source: [First Round Review]
  2. On wasted capital: Founders frequently wake up seven months into an agency contract, having spent over $200,000, with nothing to show for it but long coverage reports that omit their own company. — Source: [First Round Review]
  3. On internal reliance: Square went public and spent nearly a decade in the United States without ever hiring a PR agency. — Source: [First Round Review]
  4. On exception one: Hire an agency when your startup explodes with product-market fit overnight and you physically cannot scale to handle the inbound media requests. — Source: [First Round Review]
  5. On exception two: Agencies are necessary when leadership commits a horrendous error and you need specialists to navigate a massive corporate disaster. — Source: [First Round Review]
  6. On exception three: Use agencies for international expansion to test foreign markets before committing to full-time local hires. — Source: [First Round Review]
  7. On exception four: Bring in external help when you enter a completely new vertical, like Hollywood or music, and need an existing Rolodex. — Source: [First Round Review]
  8. On bad tactics: Most agencies rely on brute force, sending identical press releases to BCC lists with embargo times the reporters never agreed to. — Source: [First Round Review]
  9. On the volume game: Pitching executive bios to random reporters hoping to break through purely on volume is a failing strategy. — Source: [First Round Review]
  10. On universal dissatisfaction: The agency business model is fundamentally flawed because virtually every startup eventually becomes deeply unhappy with their firm. — Source: [First Round Review]

Part 3: Crafting the Message

  1. On onboarding: An early-stage comms hire should not pitch reporters immediately; they should spend their first few months entirely focused on crystallizing the company's message. — Source: [First Round Review]
  2. On the grandparents test: "I really do subscribe to the belief that you should be able to describe things in a way that your grandparents would understand them." — Source: [First Round Review]
  3. On the messaging hierarchy: You must master a simple sequence: first explain what the company does, then how it does it, and finally why it does it. — Source: [First Round Review]
  4. On jargon: Technical language that successfully sells software to IT buyers is terrible for explaining the company to the public or the press. — Source: [First Round Review]
  5. On simplicity: Square Capital reduced the highly complex mechanics of loan APRs to a simple promise: "every time you take a payment, a little bit goes toward your balance." — Source: [First Round Review]
  6. On mission: The "why" of the company elevates the narrative from a purely functional pitch to an aspirational one that makes people want to root for you. — Source: [First Round Review]
  7. On overconfidence: Because everyone can talk and read the news, everyone assumes they know how to do communications—usually to their detriment. — Source: [First Round Review]
  8. On aggressive editing: The person reviewing your statements and blog posts should be deleting text, not adding to it. — Source: [First Round Review]
  9. On finding the narrative: The best way to learn how to message the product is to read customer case studies and talk to the sales team about why users love it. — Source: [First Round Review]
  10. On persuasion: Communications is not just passing out facts; it is actively persuading the public to perceive the company in a way that accomplishes business goals. — Source: [First Round Review]

Part 4: Navigating the Media Landscape

  1. On customer acquisition: "If you are reliant on communications for customer acquisition, your marketing team is broken." — Source: [First Round Review]
  2. On the limits of PR: Pitching local newspapers about a platform feature is never the most direct or reliable way to drive user growth in a city. — Source: [First Round Review]
  3. On outdated tactics: The era of securing fawning press coverage by giving a reporter an office tour to look at glass conference rooms and snacks is over. — Source: [First Round Review]
  4. On volume expectations: A startup shouldn't expect a steady drumbeat of coverage; it is completely normal for early-stage B2B companies to get very little press. — Source: [First Round Review]
  5. On building relationships: Instead of sending press releases, founders should simply take relevant reporters out for coffee to understand their interests. — Source: [First Round Review]
  6. On targeting: Find the reporters who genuinely cover your niche—whether it’s fitness, pets, or enterprise software—rather than blanketing the top tech publications. — Source: [First Round Review]
  7. On expanding strategy: Modern communications requires using non-traditional media relations, like owned editorial channels, content marketing, and targeted influencers. — Source: [First Round Review]
  8. On adversarial press: Tech leaders incorrectly assume the media is out to get them, when in reality, reporters are just no longer willing to write standard corporate puff pieces. — Source: [First Round Review]
  9. On comms as a bank: Communications functions as a reputation bank account you make deposits into, not a performance marketing engine. — Source: [First Round Review]

Part 5: The Art of the Interview

  1. On the Kissinger rule: Approach media interactions with the mindset: "I hope you have questions for my answers." — Source: [First Round Review]
  2. On maintaining control: You must answer the reporter's question, but you are not obligated to answer it exactly the way they want you to. — Source: [First Round Review]
  3. On being quoted: Every single sentence that leaves your mouth must be one you are fully comfortable seeing isolated in print. — Source: [First Round Review]
  4. On humbling CEOs: "The greatest way to make a person humble in understanding of the unique role and skills of communications is to make them give an interview and record them." — Source: [First Round Review]
  5. On efficient practice: Founders don't need $10,000 day-long media bootcamps; they just need 30 minutes of targeted practice twice a week. — Source: [First Round Review]
  6. On elevating the narrative: Technical founders must learn to stop retreating into product specifications and start opining on bigger-picture industry topics. — Source: [First Round Review]
  7. On tough questions: You will never know your actual response to a brutally hard question until you force yourself to answer it aloud during practice. — Source: [First Round Review]
  8. On discussing competitors: It is acceptable to talk about competitors as long as you punch up at massive incumbents, rather than punching down at smaller startups. — Source: [First Round Review]
  9. On providing value: Unless you are a celebrity founder, you have to actively provide compelling insights, otherwise reporters have no reason to speak with you. — Source: [First Round Review]
  10. On the ideal balance: A successful interview requires sounding authentic and unguarded while firmly refusing to be derailed from your core message. — Source: [First Round Review]

Part 6: The "Silicon Valley Time" Hype Cycle

  1. On predictable arcs: Startup narratives follow a cyclical, 12-hour clock dictated entirely by the press and public perception. — Source: [Backchannel]
  2. On the beginning: At midnight, a startup is flying under the radar, building quietly while nobody outside the company knows or cares. — Source: [Backchannel]
  3. On the morning rise: As the clock moves forward, the company raises funding, gains momentum, and the media begins to champion its potential. — Source: [Backchannel]
  4. On the apex: By mid-afternoon, the startup is heralded as the greatest company in the industry and is treated as if it can do no wrong. — Source: [Backchannel]
  5. On the inevitable turn: As evening approaches, the media narrative violently turns, and critics emerge to declare that the product actually sucks. — Source: [Backchannel]
  6. On the bottom: By 11:59 PM, the company is widely labeled a complete mess, setting the stage for either failure or a narrative rebirth. — Source: [Backchannel]
  7. On ignoring the hype: Founders should never let mid-afternoon praise inflate their egos, because that adulation is just a temporary phase of the cycle. — Source: [Backchannel]
  8. On surviving the downfall: When the media cycle turns negative, leaders must ignore the noise and focus entirely on their product and team. — Source: [Backchannel]

Part 7: Managing Internal Communications and Crises

  1. On employee respect: "If you treat employees like adults, for the most part, they will behave like them. So tell them the truth." — Source: [First Round Review]
  2. On layoff transparency: When conducting layoffs, provide direct context, explaining exactly which investments the market can no longer support. — Source: [First Round Review]
  3. On accountability: The CEO must explicitly take the blame for bad macroeconomic outcomes, simply stating: "This is completely my fault as the CEO because I call the shots." — Source: [First Round Review]
  4. On being human: Soften the blow of bad news with humane gestures, like extending healthcare, accelerating stock vesting, and letting departing employees keep their hardware. — Source: [First Round Review]
  5. On the ultimate metric: The definitive sign of a healthy culture is when an employee can say, "I can express a contradictory opinion and feel I have been heard." — Source: [First Round Review]
  6. On stock drops: High attrition during a market collapse is often driven entirely by the falling stock price, not by a failure of internal communications. — Source: [First Round Review]
  7. On gauging sentiment: A good comms leader can accurately measure the trustworthiness of leadership simply by observing the tone in the company's internal Slack channels. — Source: [First Round Review]
  8. On internal spin: You cannot successfully spin your own employees; they have access to the exact same information you do and will recognize corporate talking points immediately. — Source: [First Round Review]
  9. On preventing self-inflicted wounds: The primary role of crisis comms is stopping terrible ideas before they happen, ensuring a company never fires hundreds of people en masse on a video call. — Source: [First Round Review]

Part 8: Leadership, Culture, and Operations

  1. On dual credibility: A great leader maintains respect at the "adults' table" on the executive team while retaining the trust of the "kids' table" across the broader company. — Source: [First Round Review]
  2. On speaking up: "Leadership team of companies are people who have to represent the company and be willing to speak out on things, you know, respectfully outside of their lane." — Source: [First Round Review]
  3. On imposter syndrome: It is natural to feel out of place when sitting among legendary tech executives, but that feeling shouldn't stop you from voicing your perspective. — Source: [First Round Review]
  4. On giving feedback: The most valuable executives are those who are never afraid to give direct, respectful feedback to their peers and the CEO. — Source: [First Round Review]
  5. On decision authority: You should fiercely debate topics outside your specific area of ownership, as long as you respect who ultimately holds the decision-making power. — Source: [First Round Review]
  6. On disagreeing: Vigorously debating an idea and then fully committing to support the final decision is a beautiful and essential business practice. — Source: [First Round Review]
  7. On executive value: CEOs crave the communications perspective precisely because it offers a lens on reputation and public risk that the rest of the business lacks. — Source: [First Round Review]
  8. On writing culture: Taking a colleague's sprawling statement and aggressively editing it down to its core message is a vital act of leadership. — Source: [First Round Review]
  9. On intellectual honesty: Good leaders recognize that while they might not be the final decision maker in every room, they still have an absolute duty to shape the discussion. — Source: [First Round Review]