Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

What happens when a crisis hits your startup and you’re suddenly faced with the need to tell your company’s story to the world? For many founders, communications can feel like an afterthought—until the stakes are high and it becomes mission-critical.

This week, we speak with Ruth Barnett, a seasoned communications expert with an extensive background in journalism and strategic comms for top tech companies like Snap and DeepMind. Ruth recently founded Grit & Ink, a consultancy specialized in helping leaders build resilient communications strategies. In our conversation, she shares why storytelling is a fundamental leadership skill and how to prepare your comms for a crisis before it happens. She also touches on the unique role founders play in defining their company’s narrative, a task that’s crucial for growth but often overlooked.

Exclusively for our newsletter subscribers, Ruth has shared additional insights below.

🎧 Tune in now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube and share your thoughts! Who should be our next guest?

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How to succeed in comms

What you will get out of this episode

In our interview, Ruth Barnett shares:

• Why storytelling is foundational to effective internal and external communications

• How to prepare your comms for a crisis before it hits

• What strategies to pursue when you are facing a real crisis

• That comms is something everybody can learn, including technical founders

• and much more!

Ruth’s insights provide a refreshing perspective on how founders can effectively shape and share their company’s story.

Our main take away’s

1. Balance vision with perspective: As a founder, it’s crucial to stay true to your vision while also understanding and conveying the perspectives of others to build resonance and trust with diverse stakeholders.

2. Storytelling is a leadership skill: Effective storytelling is a vital leadership skill. It is key to know how to communicate the core truth of your business in a way that resonates with your audience, using language they understand and care about.

3. Optimize for quality, not quantity: Ruth’s advice to avoid numeric comms goals underlines that impactful communication is about connecting with the right people—not just reaching a large audience.

4. Use the 80/20 rule for bold branding: Allocating 20% of resources to “magic”—creative and risk-taking activities that don’t directly impact sales—can help build a standout reputation over time.

Additional material on the topic

For those more interested in crisis comms, Carilu Dietrich wrote two nice pieces about Crisis Response and War Room Best Practices and the CrowdStrike Crisis Comms Case Study we were mentioning in our podcast.

How to reach out to Ruth

• LinkedIn

• Website

Exclusive from Ruth

What’s one communications tactic you’ve seen work surprisingly well for early-stage startups with limited resources?

Consistent, relevant, insightful posts by the founder on a platform like LinkedIn. Not only does it start to build an informed community around what you’re doing, it starts to build the communications muscle for the founder and the team - how to be succinct, informative and engaging, which messages connect, how to make it a habit.

What are three essential tools or resources every startup should have in their crisis communication toolkit?

• A plan for who you need in the room and who gets to make the decision (this could save you hours)

• A trusted, independent, honest friend to run your approach past (this could save you from misunderstandings and mistakes)

• For a real crisis, a good lawyer (this could save you from… a lot!). Take their advice, but make sure nothing ever feels like it was written by one. How can startups conduct a quick vulnerability assessment to identify potential crisis areas?

• Honestly the most powerful thing you can do is build a culture where it’s possible to call out what’s broken, what’s risky, what’s untrue - deep down, your vulnerabilities and risks were usually obvious to someone round the table, if you can confront them honestly and early, you’ll save yourself a lot of pain.

Can you share a 30-60-90 day plan for startups looking to improve their overall communications strategy?

• I like to work on a different cadence. Firstly, what’s the big, long-term dream? What does really winning look like to you? What kind of company will you need to be to achieve it? 

• And secondly, what are the near term milestones you’ll need to meet to survive to build that longer term dream and to point you in the right direction to get there at all, like funding rounds, customers or revenue goals?

• If you don’t start from the bigger picture, all you’ll get is tactics, and they may not take you the direction you ultimately need.

For those interested in learning more, are there any resources (books, podcasts, articles, people to follow) you would recommend?

• You can find great storytelling everywhere, great content deconstructing great storytelling is harder to find. I wish there was a definitive podcast on great comms, if readers know of one please let me know!

• For a masterclass in how exec comms, read Lauren Goode’s Wired interview with Jensen Huang - he comes across as candid, informal, interesting, but also nails delivering the fundamental story he wants to tell about NVIDIA.

• For understanding how our brains engage with stories, try Will Storr’s book, The Science of Storytelling. 

• For complex science storytelling (my favourite kind!) written in a way those of us without a few PhDs can understand and enjoy, read anything by the journalists Ed Yong or Tom Whipple.  

Talk to you next week! Until then, connect with us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and YouTube!

🫶 Melanie & Christian

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