Articles by Cristin
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Cristin Culver shared thisRIP "mass reach." We're in the era of "anti-marketing" now. The very brilliant Michelle Blaser 🐝 wrote a story for Inc. Magazine this week on why mass reach is falling out of favor. She let me share some opinions. (Lord knows I have them!) Earlier this month, Charli XCX tweeted that "anti-marketing" is about to become THE THING. More private, more intimate marketing works better. I agree. We're moving away from blasting a message to millions. The future is about being personal with way fewer people. Charli texted her fans and threw listening parties in indie theaters before her album went wide. David Protein, mid PR mess, skipped the Wall Street Journal and went straight to Emily Sundberg on Substack. Tracksuit basically lives inside marketing Substacks instead of running ads. Here's the point I made to Michelle: "Mass attention isn't worthless, but it's becoming less valuable on its own. I'd rather reach 800 or 8,000 people who deeply care about something than 8 million who skim it and forget it five seconds later." I stand by that. A small audience that believes you beats a huge one that's just scrolling past you, every time. Reach is a shallow vanity metric. Creating trust and belief are the new core KPIs. 🔗 Link in comments!
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Cristin Culver reposted thisMy biggest takeaways from Jean-Denis Greze, co-founder of Town: 1. Experience buys you a 5–10% better shot, not a different game. Network, easy fundraising, knowing how to scale a team — all real, all marginal. "Are you cut out to be a founder? I don't think you find out until you try to do it." 2. Every startup is just convincing humans to want a thing that doesn't exist. That collapses founder anxiety into two things you control: what you sell and how you sell it. "There's no law of physics. It's literally just humanity." 3. A working business isn't the same as a winnable one. His tax product hit high six figures in 12 months with happy customers — but businesses switch preparers once a year, so word of mouth couldn't compound. Check what your market's shape permits before you grade execution. 4. A correct technology bet is worthless without a go-to-market bet attached. They were more convinced than ever that AI could automate tax prep. What they lacked was a reason automation would win them the market faster than it shrank the market. 5. If you no longer believe, staying is the dishonest option. The hard part was the engineers, the partners, admitting failure. But if the founder doesn't believe, keeping people there is what's actually unfair to them. Then run it clean — long severance, help finding jobs. 6. Ship the ugly version to twenty people and let retention tell you. Town launched as a blue "sign in" button on an unstyled page. Twenty people stayed, one running 200 workflows a day. That was enough to redirect the company. Polish came after retention. 7. At a big company, take the important job nobody cool wants. At Dropbox, cool was the desktop client; getting people to pay was not. Easy wins, no exec wrecking your roadmap, a board that loved the revenue. Then make it fun — his team became Team Cash, in red tracksuits. 8. Collect peers in your exact cohort instead of mentors above you. People at your growth rate, comparing real notes, beat looking up to anyone you don't know. Same for your board: the value is the intro to the founder who made this call last year. 9. Under-betting is the real risk when the market moves this fast. A peer told him to stop playing one move at a time and assume the next three all work. "I need to be more overconfident than I am today if we're really going to win." Full conversation: https://lnkd.in/dYfjR4p7
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Cristin Culver shared thisThe best PR strategy is sometimes just making a really good product and putting it in the hands of really smart people. Case in point: Casey Newton used Town before interviewing founder Jean-Denis Greze for Platformer. And instead of spending the interview asking the very boring "so what does Town do?" questions, they got right into the nitty gritty of about how much the product can learn and do quickly, how much we should actually trust AI, privacy, failure modes, and what happens when software starts maintaining the knowledge of a company for you. This is the dream. You can spend months agonizing over messaging, talking points and the perfect pitch. Or you can get the product into the hands of the right person and let them arrive at the interesting story themselves. Anyway, good reminder that the product is still your best piece of comms. https://lnkd.in/grdxnFBn
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Cristin Culver reposted thisCristin Culver reposted thisDrop everything you're doing and add Town to your AI stack. The last time a product felt this magical to me was ChatGPT in 2022. I found Town through their funding announcement a few months ago. Firms run by friends of mine were in the round, so I went down a rabbit hole. I hold agentic AI to a pretty high bar. The startup landscape is full of products like Granola: incredible at handling one slice of a workflow, but still only one slice. True agentic AI should be able to take on the full scope of work. Very few products clear that bar. Town does. Think OpenClaw, but one-click easy and on steroids. I'm not exaggerating when I say we now run all of Perceptive on it - it's our fund's agentic orchestration layer. It has streamlined more of my work and life than anything since ChatGPT. Kudos to Jean-Denis Greze, Tony Vincent and the Town team on building a killer product.
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Cristin Culver reposted thisCristin Culver reposted thisThank you to The Wall Street Journal for covering the launch of Base Core and our $1B Series D. The U.S. is undergoing a foundational shift in energy demand, and traditional power generation can't scale fast enough to meet it. Meeting demand this fast calls for new technology that works alongside the grid and adds capacity where it's needed most. Base Core does just that: one of the largest home batteries on the market at 39.2 kWh, designed and built by Base in Austin, and engineered for rapid deployment at scale. This new capital will go toward bringing Core to more homes, expanding nationally, and hiring exceptional talent. The Series D is led by Ribbit Capital, Addition, Valor Equity Partners, and JPMorganChase's Strategic Investment Group, with participation from Altimeter, D1 Capital Partners L.P., Sands Capital, Coatue Management, Layer Global, and Energy Impact Partners . Base’s major existing investors are re-investing, including Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, Trust Ventures, CapitalG, and more. https://lnkd.in/gURK5uxP
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Cristin Culver shared thisPissing people off is a great marketing tactic. I’m obsessed with this microdrama happening on Instagram this week, where a basket shop in Nantucket put up a “No Influencers” sign, and every influencer proceeded to lose their mind and post about it. From influencers with 1 or 2+ million followers, down to the micro influencers. The sign has become THE main character on IG this week. It's kicked off conversations about equity, the patriarchy, etc. Wild stuff. And I personally think it’s brilliant marketing by this 100 year old shop. They’re getting millions (billions?) of awareness impressions for the cost of a wooden sign. They’re also being very clear about who they’re for and who they’re not for. It’s not making everyone happy, but that’s the point. They don’t want these faux customers in the shop anyways, and now that's very clear. Also, now millions more people know where they can go in Nantucket to shop for an artisanal basket, without dealing with the selfie-stick crowd of influencers. Win-win. 9 times out of 10, criticism is free marketing. Piss more people off, it might be your best marketing play ever :)
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Cristin Culver reposted thisCristin Culver reposted this"I'm pretty good at outsourcing things," TaskRabbit founder Leah Solivan, who's now a venture capitalist, told me in a conversation about how she was offloading much of her logistical and organizational work to Town. The startup's AI personal assistant - and its cute, customizable avatars - have become Silicon Valley's favorite new productivity tool. It's catching on outside the Bay Area as well, with entrepreneurs who own plumbing businesses and T-shirt printing companies. My latest in Inc. Magazine: https://lnkd.in/g_-xBhdrHow Town Became Silicon Valley's New Favorite AI ToolHow Town Became Silicon Valley's New Favorite AI Tool
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Cristin Culver posted thisOne thing I tell founders a lot as we strategize on comms: Awareness isn't reputation. What builds awareness can be reductive to your reputation. What builds reputation often won't maximize awareness or go viral. Know the difference.
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Cristin Culver reposted thisCristin Culver reposted thisPower, especially reliable power, is the new gold. Austin startup Base Power Company, led by CEO Zach Dell, is betting big on it. Base partnered with Austin Energy and just rolled out a home battery system in Austin that gives homeowners backup power during outages while also helping support the grid when demand spikes. Zach and I talked about how this system works, how much is costs compared to what's out there now and how it helps the grid. Because in Central Texas power outages are just a part of life. TECH THIS OUT.... #TechThisOut #Austin #BasePower #Resilience #TechNews Capital Factory Gabriel Federman
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Cristin Culver liked thisCristin Culver liked thisAt Town we just opened two new foundational roles for experienced engineers to help us make Townies as smart, fast and scalable as possible. What these roles focus on: - Measuring and improving the full agent trajectory: model selection, routing and eval systems. Building the layer that helps all of our engineering team continuously improve Townie quality, speed and cost. - Building the context retrieval and data layer Townies reason over, so that no matter what task you're doing, your Townie has the right information at its fingertips, fast. The roles are in person in downtown SF (potentially open to NYC as well). If either of these sound like you or someone you know - please reach out to me!
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Cristin Culver liked thisCristin Culver liked thisCome join me in the foxhole at Flock! Yes, it's a huge challenge. And we're in the news + cultural zeitgeist in what feels like every minute of every day. But it's also never boring, you'll have the best and most supportive colleagues, and did I mention it's never boring? https://lnkd.in/gUBujQjT
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Cristin Culver reacted on thisCristin Culver reacted on thisWhen I started at Anduril, the communications team was just me. There was no team to keep connected, no question of how information moved across time zones and no need to think very hard about how people built relationships with one another. That is obviously very different now as Anduril comms has grown considerably, now 18 people(!), spanning Orange County, Washington DC, Boston, London, Tokyo, Taipei and Sydney. But because we spend basically all day on Slack, Zoom & email, it is surprisingly easy to feel more connected than we actually are. Last week we brought the team together in DC for our annual offsite, and I was reminded that being in constant communication and actually feeling connected are still different things. While the full day of "work" was very useful, arguably the more important part was simply having enough time together when nobody was trying to get through an agenda. We had happy hour, a lovely dinner, made fresh pasta in a cooking class and took a boat ride to close out the week. Mostly, we just had time to talk and have fun with people we otherwise know largely through screens. When the team was small, a lot of this happened without much effort. Now that we are bigger and spread across several countries, it requires more intention and I left the week thinking we probably need to protect that time even more as we continue to grow. Huge thank you to the entire team for making the time to be together, and especially to everyone who traveled to DC to make it happen. Also kudos to Jeremy Rembulat for planning the most productive and FUN offsite. Wouldn't have happened without you! Stephanie L. Davis, APRᐩM, Jackson Lingane, Brandy Stacks, Jack Beyrer, Chloe McFarlane, Campbell Bright, Karen (Chih-Jou) Chen, Olivia Kuzman, Rachael Dean Wilson, Katie Dufficy, Jamie Hunziker, Julie Harrington Kristen A. Easterday, A.A.E.
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Cristin Culver reacted on thisCristin Culver reacted on thisdifferentiation is overrated there aren't that many truly novel ideas in the world the trick is to do something you believe in fully, because that can be felt & then to repeat it over and over (and over), so you get compounding returns
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Cristin Culver reacted on thisCristin Culver reacted on thisListened to the YETI founders on "How I Built This" this morning, and there's a naming lesson in there I bring up with founders all the time. Brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders knew what they wanted the name to do: evoke toughness and cold. They were building a cooler to survive brutal conditions, and the name had to feel the same way. About 10 names made their shortlist, including Sherpa, Tundra, and Yeti. The mythical ice monster of the Himalayas fit the brief, and the founders liked the way it sounded and thought its four letters would look good on a hat. But the name YETI almost didn't survive testing. When they put their shortlist of names in front of about 20 of their family and friends, YETI got mixed reviews. Some thought it was too cartoonish. Others thought it was gross — a hairy, smelly Bigfoot-like creature. The brothers walked away more confused than when they started. Two weeks later they went back to the same people with one question: which of the names from our shortlist can you remember? All 20 said YETI. The best names are usually polarizing. So rather than optimizing for likeability, go for memorability. Not everyone loved YETI, but it did the job the founders gave it (evoking toughness and cold) and people remembered it. As Roy put it: "That was all the validation I needed. Whether they liked it or not, it struck a chord, and that's marketing 101." P.S. Sherpa and Tundra didn't go to waste. Both ended up as names for YETI cooler lines.
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Cristin Culver reacted on thisCristin Culver reacted on thisWe are honored to be recognized as a 2026 Intelligent Applications 40 winner! 🎉 The #IA40 recognizes the 40 most important private companies in applied AI. Thank you, Madrona, AWS Startups, Microsoft, Google for Startups, NYSE, Delta Air Lines, and McKinsey & Company for the recognition. See the full list of winners, explore this year’s insights, and request an invite for the #IASummit happening in Seattle on Sept. 30: https://lnkd.in/gsdk7seP
Experience & Education
Volunteer Experience
Projects
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Barbie Lists Her Iconic Dreamhouse on Trulia
See projectVia a relationship with Josh Altman, real estate agent and TV personality on Bravo’s ‘Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” Trulia landed the exclusive listing for one of the most iconic homes in America: Barbie’s Dreamhome. As part of a Mattel marketing campaign, Barbie was ‘putting her home on the market for the first time in 41 years.” In conjunction with Mattel PR, I managed and executed PR efforts in support of this campaign, including drafting messaging and website copy, media relations…
Via a relationship with Josh Altman, real estate agent and TV personality on Bravo’s ‘Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” Trulia landed the exclusive listing for one of the most iconic homes in America: Barbie’s Dreamhome. As part of a Mattel marketing campaign, Barbie was ‘putting her home on the market for the first time in 41 years.” In conjunction with Mattel PR, I managed and executed PR efforts in support of this campaign, including drafting messaging and website copy, media relations, and spokesperson duties.
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Trulia Celebrity Homes
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See projectIn August 2011, I created a luxury and celebrity real estate blog, titled “Trulia Luxe Living,” as a way to insert the brand into conversations about celebrity and luxury real estate. Beginning in 2011, I concurrently wrote the celebrity section of the Trulia blog, where I sourced, wrote, edited and published more than 750 posts. It went through a rebrand and integration into the larger blog in October 2014. During my tenure, the blog property had 2 million+ unique visitors. These posts were…
In August 2011, I created a luxury and celebrity real estate blog, titled “Trulia Luxe Living,” as a way to insert the brand into conversations about celebrity and luxury real estate. Beginning in 2011, I concurrently wrote the celebrity section of the Trulia blog, where I sourced, wrote, edited and published more than 750 posts. It went through a rebrand and integration into the larger blog in October 2014. During my tenure, the blog property had 2 million+ unique visitors. These posts were syndicated to Forbes, AOL Real Estate, Huffington Post and others, further expanding the reach of the content, the SEO value and Trulia’s brand awareness. Related to this work, I was often quoted as a celebrity and luxury real estate expert in outlets such as Life & Style magazine, E! Online, Forbes and many more.
Honors & Awards
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2014 Sabre Award - Most Innovative In-House PR Team
Holmes Report
Awarded the prestigious Sabre Award for "Most Innovative In-House PR Team"
http://in2.holmesreport.com/2013/12/the-2014-in2-sabre-awards-the-shortlist/ -
Lamda Pi Eta Communications Honor Society
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Organizations
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Bar Method
Instructor
-Chicagoland and Silicon Valley studios
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Junior League of Chicago
Member
-Development Council Member Committee co-chair
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Junior League of San Francisco
Provisional Member
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Stanford StartX
PR Advisor/Mentor
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Michelle Garrett
How can YOU stand out to get more opportunities to be featured in the media? By making it easier for reporters to work with you, you'll already be ahead of the game. If you’re ready to help reporters out by being an expert source, here are some tips to help you earn more press coverage: 1) 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮: Post your contact information in your social media profiles. Make sure it’s a current email address that you monitor frequently. It’s also wise to feature a dedicated press/news area on your site. Here, you can post contact information, press releases, previous press coverage, visuals like logos and executive headshots, and background information. Bonus: Posting press releases on your site can help you show up in search (traditional SEO or AI-driven/GEO). 2) 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞: If a reporter contacts you, be sure to prioritize your response. Reporters are often on deadline and can’t wait days for you to reply. They may move on to another source if you’re unresponsive. Further, be responsive to follow-up questions. When a reporter asks for more from you, get back to them as soon as possible. If you need time to gather the information they’re requesting, communicate that. Deadlines are everything to a reporter, so be sure to let them know if you think you’ll miss the timing you originally committed to. 3) 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥��𝐰 – 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 – 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚: Reporters really appreciate it when people like, comment and share their work. It helps them and their work be seen - which in turn would help YOU be seen if they cover you or your company in a story. Increased visibility benefits you both. Help them help you. 4) 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬: Publications are also in need of imagery. If you can provide high-quality images to accompany a story, you’ll have an even better shot at being prominently featured. I offer visuals EVERY time a client has the opportunity to be included in a story, whether or not the reporter requested them. Nine times out of 10, at least one of the photos I've sent appears. I also send along captions, as that provides yet another branding opportunity. If you can send video content, I’d suggest including that, too. #PRTips #PublicRelations
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