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How do I start my own PR firm?

What is the best job for me to pursue if my goal is to someday start my own Internet company?

  • I have two potential options:1. Staying at the small start-up I currently work at. This company has a good idea, but is not well run and it leads me to believe that it will not be successful. I am learning a lot here, but mainly through observing what not to do. 2. Start working at a big PR firm as the Social Media Coordinator (I'd also work in the research department). Here I would get experience with social media that could eventually help me launch my own company. What is the better path?

  • Answer:

    This question comes up from my students frequently. I'd say that if you are young, don't have a mortgage or children or a lot of debt from school, then you should go ahead and try to do a start-up. You just might be successful or moderately successful and if you are then you're all set to either do the next startup or retire. If you're not successful, then you can always go get a job with an established startup. Tell the story of what you did and why it didn't work out and you'll find you have even better job opportunities than straight out of school. Either way, you'll learn a lot and if you stay in the same sector, have a greater likelihood of success next time (Eesley and Roberts, 2010). Whatever you do, find a position in the exact same area where you'd like to do a startup.  You'll learn important sector-specific knowledge, learn about the market and gain a network in that area. Try not to work at a large, bureaucratic firm as the people who go to work at these firms are less likely to be entrepreneurial and so you will be less likely to find potential cofounders there (Gompers and Lerner, 2005). The typical path is to start at a mid to later stage startup and then gradually work your way back to earlier and earlier stage. I think the answer depends somewhat on whether you're technical or more on the business side.  If you're technical (coder, engineer, etc.) then I'd recommend working in a mid-sized startup, where the team you'd be working with is excellent, and the firm is well-managed and growing rapidly. You're looking to develop skills, find potential cofounders and an idea to work on. If the firm is already starting to spin off people doing startups, even better (as long as that's not because it's starting to tank).  If you wind up working in a larger company, try to work in more of a development (rather than purely R&D) role if possible and take any opportunities to get into technical or product management and get experience leading small teams (Roberts, 1991). If you're more on the business side, try to get some experience in a variety of job positions (Lazear, 2004), again shoot for a startup that's mid-sized and growing rapidly (some of the risk has been taken out and there will be opportunities to move up). If you have to wind up at a larger firm, look for one like Google or Facebook where they are spinning off teams of people doing startups as this helps in your likelihood of finding teammates and raising money (Burton, Sorensen, Beckman, 2002). You ideally want a team where someone has startup experience, where someone has VP or higher senior management experience (Hallen, 2008), where people have worked together in the same firm before, but also have some divergent experiences (Beckman, Burton and O'Reilly, 2007; Beckman, 2006). Sales jobs can also be good because being a founder you have to sell to customers, investors, early employees, etc. and you get the direct customer feedback that can lead to new startup ideas quickly. Another path that has worked well for many (see Larry Bock as a prominent example) is the VC to startup path. Network your way into a position as an associate or principal at a VC firm. You'll see many entrepreneurs pitch, gain knowledge of an area, see what VCs are looking for and potentially be able to jump into one of the startups that they fund or find a wide open area to pursue yourself.  Having VC connections helps in raising money (Shane and Stuart, 2002). The difficulty with this path is two-fold, first while at the VC firm you're not developing concrete operational skills that are valuable in startups so you'll be at a relative disadvantage if you don't have that already.  Second, few VC firms hiring associates/principals. However, this path can work well and is one that I followed. It can be good if you see yourself as more of the idea person on the founding team and find others with skills in execution. You may want to give some thought to whether you see yourself as the idea person or as bringing specific skills in execution, coding or operations to a startup. This can guide your career choices. Being the one who comes up with the idea is fun, but other roles can sometimes be more lucrative in the founding team (Wasserman, 2006). Most importantly find a group of people who you really believe in and who you'd like to potentially work on startups with in the future.  This is far more important than the salary, options or specific job title. Gompers and Lerner. 2005. Entrepreneurial spawning: Public corporations and the genesis of new ventures, 1986 to 1999. Journal of Finance. Roberts, 1991. Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT. Eesley and Roberts (2010) Cutting Your Teeth: Learning from Entrepreneurial Experience. http://www.stanford.edu/~cee/Papers/CuttingYourTeeth.pdf Burton, M. Diane, Jesper Sørensen, and Christine M. Beckman. (2002). “Coming from good stock: Career histories and new venture formation.” In M. Lounsbury and M. Ventresca (eds), Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume: Social Structure and Organizations Revisited. JAI Press: 229-262. Beckman, Christine, M. Diane Burton, and Charles O’Reilly. (2007). “Early teams: The impact of entrepreneurial team demography on VC financing and going public.” Journal of Business Venturing. Beckman, Christine M. (2006). “The influence of founding team prior company affiliations on firm behavior.” Academy of Management Journal, 49: 741-758. Hallen, B. 2008. The Causes and Consequences of the Initial Network Positions of New Organizations: From Whom Do Entrepreneurs Receive Investments? Administrative Science Quarterly. Lazear. 2004. Balanced Skills and Entrepreneurship. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3592884 Shane and Stuart. 2002. Network ties, reputation, and the financing of new ventures. Management Science. Wasserman, Noam. "Stewards, Agents, and the Founder Discount: Executive Compensation in New Ventures." Academy of Management Journal 49, no. 5 (October 2006): 960-976.

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Option 3: Go find a good startup to work at, and particularly if you are fairly early in your career, don't be too fussy about the position. To me, "good" means a company that is doing something interesting and run by smart, competent people who are not assholes. This is not easy.

David Kaye

The more directly connected you can get to the business, the better. Although working in PR or in social media might give you greater visibility and skills in marketing, most founders of Internet companies have very direct experience in developing product (product management, product development, engineering) combined with some savvy in business negotiations (business development, strategic relationships, partnerships, sales). If your goal is to start at an internet company, my opinion is the position which gives you the most exposure (or ability) to influence actual product development, product management, business partnerships and alliances, or engineering is far superior to social media work. Yes, PR and social media are important -- however, I've found very, very few people who have become the founder of company with those backgrounds, simply because PR/social media/marketing are at the very last things that startups have to do in their big list (ie, figure out who your customers are, develop and architect your product, etc.). Even if this is at a less-than-desirable company, if you can get some hands on product experience (and do your best to influence it towards success, not failure), I would guess that would trump social media if your goal is to develop your own startup. (Playing devil's advocate on that position, if your goal is not starting your own startup, but Internet fame or visibility, go for social media. You may not get the skills to start your own Internet firm, but you probably could start your own social media company).

Benjamin Kuo

Neither, ideally.  One of the things that contributes to many startups' failures, in my opinion, is choosing among a small set of bad options rather than rejecting them all.  It's natural to feel like you should be doing something, so you want to rush decisions.  You hire the mediocre employees, you make decisions that damage the culture, you try to scale with a half-assed revenue model, etc.  You end up making progress, but it's progress towards failure, not towards success. Successful startups, and I would say extremely successful people in general, are more often able to realize that instead of choosing between bad options A and B, they need to find good option C.  And they keep searching, brainstorming, and networking until they find it. I think this applies to you.  You should find a position at either 1) a big, highly-respected tech company where you can build your network with lots of potential co-founders and see how the sausage is made or 2) a well-run startup, like other people have mentioned.  I would also look for a role that's closely connected to the product.  Social media is important, but it's not one of the core roles on most founder teams because it's not fundamental the way building the product is.

Greg Gentschev

If you haven't already, I really encourage you to check out Paul Graham's excellent blog on startups. He goes into great detail on how someone like yourself should proceed:  http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html But of the two options listed, I would suggest #1. Often learning what not to do can be a very valuable experience, especially if you feel you are "learning a lot."

Robert Kandle

I'll be the contrarian.  Search Quora for the startups founded by former Yahoos, Googlers (?), Facebook-ites, or Microsoftys; while there is much to be said for learning by doing, the roster of founders from big companies is endless.  Putting up with the big company politics not only gives you the experience and network you need to excel, it gives you a taste of the alternative.  Some aren't cut out for startups and a great way to build a foundation AND figure out if you are destined for instead the 9 to 5 grind, is to first go big.

Paul O'Brien

Work at place where you sit there and get paid. (Library, some customer service jobs).  They'll keep you alive. While you're there...start coding up your product. ie. start your company now, why wait

Felix Chan

Pick a company where information is transparent so you have visibility and are able to learn.  Pick an excellent founding team.  The work you do isn't relevant.  Pick off projects that are in each department.

Chris Waldron

i started with big company (coca cola) out if school before becoming an entrepreneur. i know others who went straight to start-up. my advice would be to find a "start-up" culture where you are and find a good entrepreneurial mentor. you need an environment where you are measured by objectives (not tasks); a culture of experimentation; somewhere you get good variety in your role etc. etc. Make a list of what you want to learn. If you dont find it in your department (big company) or start-up, look to move-on (you'll know after 90 days). i'm looking for a young "co-founder developer" who has the right fit. it's equally as hard being on the other side.

Phil Hill

I think the best answer ever to an interview question : Q : Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? A : Not here! Set up your own company and work it evenings and weekends. Invest your day job money into your passion. If you are not passionate about it, don't expect anyone else to be either.

Jim Banks

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