Communicator Spotlight: Allison Braley of Bain Capital Ventures
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As Bain Capital Ventures' first marketing partner, Allison Braley splits her time between promoting the firm and its portfolio companies.
Why it matters: Braley has used her personal brand to bring more awareness to both.
đź—Ł What she's saying: "Smart entrepreneurs look at someone who is able to build a presence for themselves and feel a higher degree of confidence that they'll be able to do it for them too," Braley told Axios.
- "When I started out 15-20 years ago, having a personality and sharing it was not a positive, [but] now, we've finally allowed communications professionals to be filled with real opinions ... and I think more comms people will end up trending in that direction over the coming years."
đź“ŤHow she got here: Braley got her start in agency world, supporting public relations for consumer tech clients.
- She has since held in-house communications roles for Conde Nast, ZocDoc, Zoosk and The Information. Prior to joining Bain Capital Venture in 2022, Braley led communications and marketing for early-stage venture capital firm Playground Global.
- Zoom in: "Earlier in my career, I was very much a comms person and even more of a media relations person. Obviously, the role of communications has evolved considerably and as part of my process of evolving, I ended up taking on more brand and content work, which included community building and working with influencers and led to me taking on a marketing title."
- Yes, but: "My specialty is brand communications and social content. It's not growth marketing, and so I need a strong growth vice president under me to to be successful."
💡Every CEO should know that "communications is not transactional work — it's about long-term relationship building," says Braley.
📱What she's watching: The next big social media platform.
- "There's obviously been a lot of turmoil in the social media space, so I'm keeping my eye out in 2024 for new entrants that could make a big difference in growing our audience — which is made of up of founders and entrepreneurs."
🍽 Content plate: Braley is known for her "Succession" recaps, but since that series has come to an end, you can catch her binging "The Great British Bake Off" and "True Detective."
🧠Best advice: Don't come with problems, come with solutions.
- "That advice changed the trajectory of my career," she added.
