00:25:36 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:25:36] S0: post anything. [00:25:37] S2: Yeah. Like that could have been anything related to our portfolio or companies or whatever. So it had to be PC. Like, I don't wanna get canceled. Like it was all professional and like made sure it was on the mark. And so I used that as a playbook to game Twitter and grow. So I had some ideas. Yeah, tell [00:25:55] S0: me more about that. I'm so interested. This is the first time hearing about the, like the reason for your transition is super interesting. So I'm interested. Yeah. [00:26:04] S2: See how you're And like Twitter has been a huge part of my growth. So like I love it, like X now, sorry. But no, like this was a really important part. They open source the algorithms, I'd study that and I'd use it. [00:26:20] S0: You would go into the developer docs and study it? [00:26:22] S2: No, I would read the summaries like a normal person. I'm not reading developer docs. [00:26:28] S0: I'm just imagining you in there like really studying now. [00:26:33] S2: Okay, press command. No, I don't even know what the terms are, but like, you know, like it would show like how they weight certain things. Like, you know, I'm a good writer, so I can understand like what is a good psychological hook. Obviously, like these aren't, I'm not like trying to like, you know, like get you or like [00:26:54] S0: that kind
00:26:54 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea, S1
[00:26:54] S0: that kind [00:26:54] S2: of thing, but I'm like crafting good stories. Like it's all about storytelling, which is the same with startups, which is the same with fundraising, which is the same with anything in life, sales. And so like, I just started to learn how to like tell really good stories in 140 characters or two eighty characters and more specifically in the first line. [00:27:12] S0: Yeah. Where did where did breaking come from? [00:27:17] S1: I don't know, but I've [00:27:18] S2: obviously abused that. And like, I think I get I think I get penalized every now and again for the... Because, like, they specifically said [00:27:25] S1: that they would, like, ban. [00:27:27] S0: Like we're banning breaking. And they're like, [00:27:30] S2: if you use it too much, we're gonna down rank your content. Wow. What? Well, okay. So I'll just use that for funding announcements and stuff. But sometimes I'm just breaking, Paige like, interviews Molly. No, can't wait to post I [00:27:47] S0: guess my, maybe one of my questions there is kind of like the balance of breaking news versus like a more thematic or like timeless content that isn't as grounded on milestones? Like how do you think about in your interviews, a balance of the two? Because I feel like you do a great job of that.
00:27:47 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:27:47] S0: guess my, maybe one of my questions there is kind of like the balance of breaking news versus like a more thematic or like timeless content that isn't as grounded on milestones? Like how do you think about in your interviews, a balance of the two? Because I feel like you do a great job of that. [00:28:07] S2: Great question. And this is a constant battle, whether it's like with scheduling or just like anything. So what I saw very early on with the podcast and what broke it out was timing it with announcements, which goes back to the newsletter. It goes back to all the deals, the funding announcements, which was like a complete obvious. Right? It was like, I overlooked this. But then once I started, like, posting when a company raised funding [00:28:38] S0: put all their resources towards highlighting that interview of yours and be like, everyone, please go watch the Sourcery episode. Yes. But there's also a media storm around it. Oh yeah. Then why like, oh, how do we cover it? And it's like, oh, Molly's interview, like according to sorcery. Exactly. And [00:28:54] S2: like, I'll have all these different outlets to put it out, but like also this is like my hot take. It's like people who do exclusives or like set a day for exclusives for media around an announcement are shooting themselves in the foot. Internet does Guys, not [00:29:09] S0: would take.
00:29:09 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:29:09] S0: would take. [00:29:09] S2: The internet doesn't work like that. Yeah. The internet, you have to post as much as possible, like to some capacity, obviously with quality at hand, like, because there's so many different things going on at all times. It's like every day there's another Anthropic or OpenAI kind of thing that like breaks the internet or a model release or whatever. And so now it's like funding announcements don't really, like you have to give a reason for people to care and sometimes you have to brute force will yourself into the world. Yeah. And so like people have obviously learned this on Twitter and like people are sorry, X and like have gotten in trouble with it or just don't do it well because like the paid partnerships, spam posts, know, it has Like to your team should be reposting it. By the way, like, yeah. So like early on, like I found that this announcement format worked really well because you time it well, it's timely. It's like news, people pay attention. It's novel. It's like, it's something that people haven't seen before and it's important and people love numbers and they love, you know, excitement and FOMO too. Like FOMO plays a big part of this, especially Like, for big that's why people are reading the newsletter and watching these, like what deals are going on, what they missed out on, who raised a round without like, you know, letting them know. So like, that's a big part of it. And so like we started to time in around these things. And so one of the big, like, I would say the best practices for funding announcements,
00:30:37 · Paige Finn Doherty, Molly O'Shea
[00:30:37] S0: please You heard it here. You heard it here. [00:30:38] S2: It is definitely like, sure. If you want to pick an exclusive like Bloomberg or whatever, do that, but like, don't, don't time out the rest of the media market. You're really not doing yourself a service. You can get, you know, wall street journal, you can do all these things, maybe get all of them, but make sure that each one of them is like distinctive in some sort of, but [00:31:00] S0: they all
00:31:02 · Molly O'Shea
[00:31:02] S2: write the same thing roughly. So whatever, but like, you know, it does matter to have, you know, as many eyeballs as something, because it's like with any sort of advertising, it's like, you won't notice that billboard until you've seen it 20 times. Maybe on your fiftieth time, you'll actually notice it and read it. Right. And it's like, so like with news and announcements, it's like, okay, your investors retweeted it. Your co founders did, maybe you had some friends and all this kind of stuff. And so once you start seeing it a little bit more, it's really important. So I get super disappointed. Sometimes this happens where people will ask to do like this upsets me. People will ask to do an interview. No, it's like, it's people ask to do an interview and like, they get really excited and all this stuff and they're like really ready. And like, I put so much time and attention to this. Like Brett's here, we have all this equipment. Like we do all this stuff. We really go out of our way. I only have like so many slots a month to do interviews. They're expensive. It requires editing, requires travel, all this kind of stuff. And so these mean a lot to me. Like I find it, this is my favorite thing. This is my job. Like I love this. And so part of the whole thing is like with the interview, I share all the files afterwards. I share the posts, you know, I share the file before even. And I'm like, there's if any clips you want, let me know. We'll make them like, we'll make sure it's like a really great package for you. And, like, we obviously want it to benefit you. And so get as many people to see it as possible. Right? Like that's the goal. Expand the reach, especially with the newsletter that has investors, LPs, family offices, many high net worth individuals and operators and talent and people that are interested in tech, people that are looking for jobs, like all this kind of stuff. And so just the one thing that upsets me is when like the company doesn't engage once we put it out. That's tough. That happens. Like, it happens. Really frustrating. People request it and it happens with huge companies too, like ones that I admire And we make then like, we'll be strategizing, you know, where we're doing it, coordinate the date, coordinate the location, all this stuff.