GraphIQ.ai
A comms program from zero, in three months
Mandate Sole communications seat at an early-stage data startup, spanning comms and marketing; the founders wanted proof, not promises.
01 — The client
A data startup with no comms function, no press, and a name shared with an older, unrelated company.
02 — What wasn't working
Pitches got opened within minutes. Nobody wrote back. I asked why five times. The answer wasn't the pitch. Reporters had nothing to check us against. There was no trail. So I built one.
03 — Two kinds of email, two different jobs
The newsletter
The newsletter earns trust. A four-minute read for existing clients that still works when forwarded to a stranger. Three fixed sections, so readers know what they're getting. Every data story ends with a workflow readers can run themselves.
The trial emails
The trial emails drive action. One ask per email. The series splits by role and by whether the reader has gotten value yet, and stops the moment they do. Technical readers skip the marketing and go straight to the documentation.
Same channel. Opposite rules.
04 — One story, told eight ways
Posting a blog once doesn't mean anyone understood it. So each big piece ran as a 14-day LinkedIn cycle, built on the client's framework:
- Day 0 — the full argument
- Day 2 — the sharpest line, alone
- Day 4 — one piece of proof
- Day 6 — the best case against us, then the answer
- Day 8 — a checklist worth saving
- Day 10 — the link
- Day 12 — a real reader's objection, credited
- Day 14 — one direct ask
I set the publishing rules. One cycle at a time. Only the last post asks for anything. Day 12 needs a real comment, so if none comes, it's skipped. No faking engagement.
Three founders posted alongside it, each from their own angle, each approving their own words.
05 — A call I'm proud of
I built a fully researched pitch, checked against six competitors. Follow-up showed the story was thinner than it looked. I pulled it before it reached a reporter.
A pitch you can't stand behind costs more than a missed one.
06 — What I left behind
Every link tracked, a measurement system the team can run without me, and a quarterly plan built as one story: problem, fix, proof, stakes.