Communicator Spotlight: Tom Channick of Scale AI
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Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Scale AI
Scale AI made headlines after Meta took a 49% stake in the AI app development company and poached its co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang to serve as its chief AI officer.
- As head of communications, Tom Channick is tasked with telling the story of Scale's next phase, with former chief strategy officer Jason Droege taking the reins as CEO.
Why it matters: Channick's team is working to embrace the past while explaining what's next for the company.
What they're saying: Channick says Meta's investment is "a big vote of confidence."
- Since Wang departed, it has "created an opportunity that very few companies have, which is, how do you tell the story of the next chapter?" Channick says. " And so that's a big focus of the communications team."
- "What we're focused on is, how [can] the communications team be like a vessel to tell the story about where we're going, so that we aren't just defined by our past."
Zoom in: One way they are doing that is by taking control of the outbox, he says.
- "Can we tell more stories than stories that come into us? That's a metric that we measure," says Channick. "You don't want to play kids' soccer," i.e., chasing the ball and leaving the rest of the field — proactive storytelling — uncovered.
- "As a leader, it's about making sure that you have people that can feel insulated from the inbox so they can focus on actually telling the stories you want to tell."
Catch up quick: Throughout his career, Channick has bounced between supporting tech startups and working at Meta.
- He started working in the agency space before joining the ad tech company Sharethrough.
- Channick also led communications at the crypto company Ripple and did two stints at Meta, where he supported business products and advertising.
- "If you think about advertising technology, you think about social media and how businesses utilize it," he says. "And you think about blockchain, crypto and now AI. ... The through line is, how can you take complex ideas and create clear narratives that drive growth and drive trust and drive understanding?"
What to watch: The modern media mix that's needed to break through with your most important audiences.
- "You can't just do one of them," he says. It has to be a thoughtful combination of social, niche media and mainstream media.
Best advice: Embrace the 70-30 equilibrium.
- "There is going to be 30% of work that you may not love, but you have to do as part of your job. If 70% of work gets you out of bed in the morning and is work you're excited to do, and 30% is work that you just have to do, that's the perfect equilibrium," says Channick.
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