Work Sample: Personal, Inc.

Problem: Consumer data – the bits of information that each of us leave behind as we browse, shop, read, and pass the time online – has long been scooped up by companies, analyzed, and used to create stickier ads and products. As the saying goes, if the product is free, you are the product. 

Tech startup Personal, Inc. was founded with the mission to enable the individual to own their data, control their data privacy, and benefit economically from allowing companies to access their personal data. When the company was created in 2010, this idea was revolutionary, foreign, and frankly, confusing. Personal needed to generate consumer interest and awareness, raise the issue with policy makers, and create and test a beta product to demonstrate traction and feasibility.

Solution: While the engineering, product, and UX teams focused on building the platform, my marketing and communications team – which I helped grow to a group of five – concentrated our efforts on media relations, social media, event marketing, thought leadership, and public affairs. Our goal was to generate awareness and conversation about an issue that many did not believe was a problem, while creating momentum for future funding rounds.

Results: In the company’s first year, I managed its public debut at pii2011, the Privacy Identity Innovation conference, which hosted 250 of the industry’s top experts and awarded the company its Audience Choice Award out of 12 innovative startups. 

Through a concentrated media relations campaign leading up to the company’s beta launch in November 2011, I developed relationships with top tier journalists and analysts to pique their interest in this emerging topic. The resulting articles in the New York Times, as well as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, AdAge, AdWeek, The Washington Post, TechCrunch, Mashable, the Harvard Business Review and others validated the importance of the shifting mindset about consumer data and Personal’s leadership role in this space. 

My team also developed a series of videos focused on developing the company’s brand, telling the data privacy story, and product demos, and secured multiple speaking opportunities for the CEO at SXSW 2012.

During my tenure at Personal, the company successfully raised more than $30 million in venture funding.