Communication in an early-stage startup - what do I have to watch out for? with Boris Radke, Head of Communications at Omio

Why communication is clearly more important than founders think:

You can listen to the full podcast interview here.

Communications expert Boris Radke on consistency, transparency, and why you can't repeat yourself often enough.?

Head of Corporate Communications at Zalando, Chief Information Office at ProSieben and Head of Communications at Omio:?These are just a few of the stations on Boris Radke's resume.

"I founded my first company in 2002 and then landed in the Berlin start-up scene around 2008. There I worked with the first players [from the start-up world],"

recalls the communications expert. Even though he is currently no longer working as a founder but as head of communications, his field of activity is still broad: for example, in addition to his full-time job at travel provider Omio, he is still active in many areas of the start-up scene as a board member and mentor. In his opinion, startups can't start early enough to address the issue of communication:?

"From my point of view, communication is the topic of every founder from day 1,"

Boris Radke clarifies. Because communication is far more than PR, social media and LinkedIn. Because the topic also includes aspects such as internal communication with employees, discussions with investors and contact with customers:?

"Actually, communication simply says that you have to think about who your stakeholders are from day one. These are usually the employees, customers, investors and, depending on the business model, banks. The typical mistake I see startups make over and over again is that they don't understand the need for a holistic approach [in communicating with all stakeholders]."

To put it another way, communication is not just about press releases or Instagram posts, but also about things that seem banal at first glance, such as a uniform logo or the choice of colors for PowerPoint presentations. Boris Radke has learned from experience that you can't start early enough to introduce clarity and uniformity here:?

"The bigger you get, the more complicated it becomes to maintain consistent messaging. That's why you should introduce holistic communication and consistent messaging right after you start. You can prevent a lot of problems by taking a holistic approach from the start."

For the communications expert, this clearly starts with communicating with your own employees:?

"For me, the starting point of any communication is internal communication,"

reveals Boris Radke. Because only if they understand what the company stands for, what hurdles it has to overcome, and where the journey should go, can these goals be achieved.?

"The second point is communication with investors. Already here you should start to understand if what you communicate to your investors is very different from what you tell your employees."?

Once you have established consistent and transparent communication in your relationship with employees and investors, you should start looking for public stakeholders:?

"I'm a big fan of Twitter," explains the communications strategist:

"You should look to see which public stakeholders are talking about your industry and build a direct line to two to three opinion leaders."

After all, these are also relationships that need to be initiated early on and cultivated over the long term.?

In addition, he advises founders against putting too much emphasis on themselves:?

"You have to teach a lot of people that your own ego should not be the motivation for agreeing to an interview. Because that's how you make yourself vulnerable."?

Also, don't be afraid to say the same thing over and over again:?

"Communication ends up having a lot to do with rituals and a lot to do with repetition. I try to teach every founder that you can't stop repeating yourself. If you're intelligent, you often find it hard to have to tell the same thing in every interview. But the best ones are the ones who always give the same answer."?

After all, even if you can't hear your own answers anymore, 90 percent of the people who hear, see or read an interview or press release probably haven't.?So if you want your message to really resonate, repeating the same statements is not only desirable, it's necessary. This also applies not only to communication with the press, customer service or marketing, but also to communication within your own company.?

In short, the earlier you establish communication that is as holistic as possible, the less trouble you will have later:?

"The core of communication consists of three parts: Content Messaging, Data and Design. You have to have these three parts under control and think in a controlled and centralized way,"

is how Boris Radke sums up his advice to young entrepreneurs in one sentence.?

Curious now??

If you want to know why good companies don't need employer branding and what we should learn from American companies when it comes to communication, then listen to the podcast...

You can listen to the full podcast interview here.

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