Sam Blum is a senior writer for Inc. Magazine. Sam's coverage meets at the intersection of technology and culture with a focus on founders and venture capital.
During the episode, Sam talks about the relationships he's built with PR professionals and the right kinds of information he needs from sources. He answers a handful of questions from our audience and more.
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Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
[00:06:36] BB: I think that leads us to an audience ask that we have here from Yuki Klotz-Burwell.
I hope I got that right. She is asking or he is asking, “What have your favorite founder stories been and why?”
[00:06:50] SB: I mean, Sam Bankman-Fried, right? I mean –
[00:06:55] BB: That just writes itself.
[00:06:57] SB: Yes. I mean, I'm not – my favorite founder stories look – we cover founders but
I'm not enamored with the founder story or whatever. I mean, I think some people have
interesting backgrounds and have done cool things founding companies. But, yes, I'm trying to
think what my favorite founder story is and if I actually have one.
[00:07:22] BB: Do you have one? Yes. Or are there elements perhaps of a story where you're
like, “Okay. If you want to pitch me CEO or a founder, here are some of the things I'm looking
for.”?
[00:07:33] SB: Yes. I mean, here's the thing. I don't want to be pitched founders necessarily. I
want to be pitched knowledge and expertise. Look, I don't care about someone's business. I'm
not – I work at a magazine that writes about people's businesses and their success, of course.
That’s part of what we do. I care far more about how someone's knowledge and experience can
better inform a story I'm writing and our readership. It’s not some hero's journey to selling your
[inaudible 00:08:12].
[00:08:13] BB: Yes. “I started this.”
[00:08:14] SB: Making a big exit. That's not necessarily what I'm what interested in.
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[00:12:01] BB: Okay. For the ones you mentioned earlier, you were like, “Oh, the decent
relationships,” how did any of those get started? Was it just purely like, “Oh, you clearly know
what I write about. So, yes, I'm going to answer your email.”?
[00:12:13] SB: Yes, I think so. Right.
[00:12:15] BB: Okay. Tell us more.
[00:12:18] SB: I think keeping things brief and kind of direct is really valuable, right? Time's
limited. I really appreciate airing on the side of being direct and not really being cute about
anything. That's not to say I don't –
[00:12:37] BB: Not cute.
[00:12:39] SB: Love all things cute. But for the sake of time and –
[00:12:45] BB: Yes. Cute’s not – was cutting over there for you. Yes.
[00:12:49] SB: Yes. Cute’s not cutting it with you publicists.
[00:12:52] BB: Okay, forget the cute.
[00:12:54] SB: Yes. Being direct and kind of be like, “Hey, I have some useful data. I have some
PhD who wants to talk to you about AI. I have a finance professor who just wrote a book about
this.” That kind of thing would be valuable. Or, “I have someone who started this company that
is an insurgent in a new area that's making waves and has some interesting things to say about
whatever topic.” Yes. Like I said, it's about pitching –
[00:13:26] BB: Knowledge.
[00:13:27] SB: Right. It's about sharing the knowledge.
[00:13:30] BB: Let's just say you get someone, “Oh, wow. It's a double PhD person with AI
degrees up the wazoo, doing something in quantum physics.” How do you keep track of that
source? Do you have some filing system? Clearly, it's not your inbox I'm going to say. But how
do you keep that person in the back pocket, if you do?
[00:13:49] SB: I say their number, and I don't know. I mean, don’t really –
[00:13:51] BB: Okay Well, you say their number. Oh, you're like punching their cell phone.
[00:13:55] SB: I mean, I prefer to do phoners, for sure.
[00:13:57] BB: Okay, okay. Phoners, great. Good to know.
[00:14:02] BB: That leads me to, Sam, a fun little quick question session here. We have so
those rapid-fire questions. Let us know the answers to these. The first one you already
answered, video or phone interview. It sounds like you want phone.
[00:14:15] SB: Yes.
[00:14:16] BB: Perfect. Bullet points or paragraphs in pitches?
[00:14:20] SB: I don't know. I don't care, I guess.
[00:14:23] BB: Okay. That's great. Why do you not care? Because if it's direct, you're good with
that?
[00:14:28] SB: Yes, yes, for sure.
[00:14:31] BB: Okay, okay, okay. Then that's easy enough. Images attached or Dropbox zip
file?
[00:14:38] SB: I mean, if I'm not expecting images, I probably don't want them in either format.
[00:14:47] BB: In any format. Okay, noted. Email or DM?
[00:14:50] SB: Oh, email.
[00:14:52] BB: Does it – people would DM you, though, on random crap.
[00:14:55] SB: Some people might but not on random crap. If I ever get an Instagram pitch, I'm
blocking whoever sends it immediately.
[00:15:02] BB: Oh, good to know. One follow-up or multiple?
[00:15:07] SB: I mean, my heart goes out to the publicists who will seemingly have
conversations with themselves in my inbox and write eight emails following up about something.
I'm like, “What are you doing? You look insane.”
[00:15:22] BB: Yes, I agree. Yes.
[00:15:24] SB: Like I said, I can sympathize with what you all do. But I would say one follow-up
is probably enough.
[00:15:33] BB: One and done. That sounds about right. I agree. Okay. Direct or creative subject
lines? I know you harped on this, but let's be even more clear.
[00:15:42] SB: I mean, look, if you can –
[00:15:44] BB: Not cute. We got that covered.
[00:15:45] SB: Throw something creative in there. Whatever that means, go for it.
[00:15:52] BB: Okay. Press release or media kit?
[00:15:55] SB: No preference.
[00:15:57] BB: No preference. Time you usually read pitches?
[00:16:00] SB: Zero seconds. No, I'm kidding.
[00:16:05] BB: Time of the day. Like, “Hey, in the morning I like to look at it and then at the
evening. At three o'clock, I do that.” No?
[00:16:10] SB: No. Dude, my inbox is absolutely insane. I get 10 or more emails an hour, and I
don't have time to look at most PR pitches. I'd say that I read news mainly in the morning, and
that might make it a higher likelihood that I will see your pitch. But I can't really guarantee that.
There's no time throughout the day when I'm allotting time to read PR stuff.
[00:16:44] BB: Okay. This is good to know. Speaking of, and normally I don't dig into this, but
curious because you prompted it, what's your news digest? How do you get up to speed on
what's going on in the world?
[00:16:56] SB: Well, I used to look at Twitter before it became what it is now.
[00:16:59] BB: Oh, God. Yes, the dumpster it is.
[00:17:01] SB: Yes. I mean, I don't know. I've always been kind of weird, though, in the sense
that I just go to home pages. I'll check out The Guardian and the New York Times and
Bloomberg and all the mainstream sites and WIRED I read a lot. Yes. I don't really listen to
podcasts. Maybe I'm –
[00:17:21] BB: Okay, not a pod person. Got it.
[00:17:23] SB: An outlier like that. I don't know. Yes, but mainstream sites. I mean, I'm a big fan
of GQ's long-form magazine.
[00:17:34] BB: Oh, they do a great job.
[00:17:36] SB: Rolling Stone, that kind of stuff, so yes.
________
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