Cotopaxi | How I Built This

Like a ton of entrepreneurs, one of my favorite podcasts is Guy Raz’ “How I Built This.” My favorite episode, of course, is the one generated by our own Jess Smith that featured Davis Smith, the founder of Cotopaxi.

We launched Cotopaxi back in 2014, and we know intimately how much PR has played a part in their success. But it has only been after many commutes to and from work (and a like number of “How I Built This” episodes) that I’ve realized how fundamental PR is to the noteworthy brands that make the HIBT cut.

I figure that roughly 50% of the brand founders mention a PR moment as being absolutely central to their breaking out. AirBnB, 1-800-GOTJUNK, Outdoor Voices, Corcoran Realty, even that leviathan of American commerce, Amazon, all got their start through the good timing and hard work of publicity.

I”m not always a fanboy of PR itself. Though I believe in it to my bones, it’s assuredly not the only arrow in a marketer’s quiver. And PR done wrong can be just as problematic as no PR at all. 

But the sheer prevalence of publicity in these founding stories deserves a deeper dive. PR was so essential to Warby Parker’s rocket launch that Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal were able to find a critical funding source, when they needed it most,  from their distribution partner -- because of their PR success. They didn’t even have to give up equity -- they instead gave PR consulting to the partner.

Barbara Corcoran made her own PR, and therefore is for sure my favorite founder PR story. While still a small, single-office real estate agency, she compiled her (small!) tally of real estate sales, did some rudimentary arithmetic, and wrote up what she called, “The Corcoran Report,” and faxed it to The New York Times’ real estate reporter. Shortly after, the Times ran a story on the local real estate market, citing the “Corcoran Report,” and the business boomed.

In 1994, back when they were still calling it “the World Wide Web,” Fortune Magazine ran a historic feature on a young hedge-funder-turned-entrepreneur named Jeff Bezos. That article, “Amazon: The Next Big Thing is a Bookstore” ran in December, 1996, and helped launch a company that would break out of the first dotcom boom to become the world’s biggest business.

Not every brand needs a PR agency. But PR doesn’t get nearly enough credit in the business world; notably, not one of the founders noted above mentions their in-house publicist or PR firm by name. 

So, here’s to you, fellow publicists. I see you, and I see your work. And so can you, if you listen to “How I Built This.”