CMAND was co-founded by Chelsea Allison and Megan Stinson, who were the inaugural heads of marketing and comms at Plaid. They started CMAND after working with several big-name agencies – they became hungry for a comms partner that 1) understood the speed and rigor at which startups operate and 2) took it upon themselves to deeply understand the business and how comms can be a strategic lever for brand building, recruiting, and go-to-market. I joined in 2022 because I also shared this desire for a place to do tech startup comms work that supports out-of-the-box thinking. We are a comms firm for builders – and we love chasing after big wins and helping early players punch above their weight when it comes to earned media. We’ve worked across myriad verticals including fintech, frontier tech, AI and robotics, future of work, insurance, telecomm, retail and more. The throughline of everything we’ve worked on is *compelling stories*.We do everything under the “earned” umbrella: media relations, conferences and speaking opportunities, awards, podcasts, etc; we also have an owned/paid content practice.

- Led media strategy for a variety of clients in the VC/startup world. Clients included Menlo Ventures, Ripple, Volansi, Google, Fenwick & West, and more- Co-hosted webinar in Summer of 2020 with over 50 different in-house and agency PR pros on how to execute a successful funding announcement