If you’re here, you might’ve come for tips and tricks of the PR trade, and for that, I’m sorry. Not because I haven’t loved sharing best practices from my 18 years in PR, but because that’s no longer Off The Record’s focus.

Why? Because I’m done masking behind “teaching” by “telling” and better at teaching by showing. But this shift is largely inspired by my real-life startup clients, some of whom I’ve worked with multiple times over the last two decades. They’re technology startup founders, CEOs, CMOs, and VPs of marketing. They’re heads of communications departments. They’re in charge of brand, reputation, MarComm, and this is where I come in: they’re in charge of PR.

As I said, I’m better at “showing” (and writing) than I am at telling. This shifts how I want to use this platform, while still serving as a source of information for technology startup founders and C-suite executives who are looking to learn a thing or two about PR. And no, we’re not here for me to sell you on PR.

A lot has changed for me in 2026. Five short days into the year, my mom lost her battle to lung disease and dementia. I started a new gig, dipping my toes back into the agency world.

I went back to school and am now ankle-deep in my Master’s program at Washington State University (Go Cougs!), my alma mater, where I met my husband 22 years ago.

So off with the masks. These are my stories from the trenches of technology startup PR. Real (mostly unfiltered) PR moments from the last two decades.

I’ve thought about which story I should start with, so I hope you enjoy this doozie that I like to call:

“Worse than a kissing cam scandal.”

This was a long while ago, definitely before my son was born, and he’ll be 11 in August. I was working as a PR Director at a mid-size agency. It was a normal day in the office until my boss’s boss flagged me into a virtual meeting with a very cryptic message: “I need you to deal with something.”

As a fan of crime novels, I immediately thought we were about to hide a dead body. In many ways, it was worse.

This is a crisis PR situation.

One of our startup clients had recently hired a new CEO, a charismatic, highly connected entrepreneur who was already well known throughout his area and within the startup and investment circles. His reputation was a major reason the company brought him on in the first place. He had the kind of profile investors loved: polished media presence, strong founder story, deep networking relationships, and a track record of scaling businesses quickly. The company positioned his arrival as a turning point for growth, and we had spent weeks helping build visibility around the leadership transition through media outreach, investor communications, and thought leadership opportunities.

Then everything imploded almost overnight.

Just weeks after stepping into the role, a single report in his local newspaper (which you can no longer find online) surfaced that the CEO had been charged with killing an endangered species during what was publicly being referred to as a “hunting trip” involving several other executives and business leaders from the region.

Even now, I’m intentionally keeping “hunting trip” in quotation marks because the details surrounding the event were sensitive, and frankly bizarre enough that the reality sounded worse than speculation. The story quickly became the kind of thing reporters obsess over: wealthy executives, secrecy, power dynamics, potential criminal behavior, and a company with fresh venture funding suddenly tied to a scandal no one could have anticipated.

What made the situation particularly horrid was that the startup itself had absolutely nothing to do with the incident. The alleged actions happened before the CEO joined the company, yet because he had become the public face of the brand almost immediately after being hired, the company was now being dragged directly into the controversy.

Internally, the atmosphere shifted from excitement to chaos in less than 24 hours.

Investors worried the company would become permanently associated with the scandal. The company and its employees feared public backlash or professional ties to the situation. Leadership was divided on whether to defend the CEO publicly, distance the company immediately, or stay silent altogether. Some executives wanted to disappear completely until the story passed. Meanwhile, we knew we were moments away from journalists pushing for comments before facts had even fully surfaced.

The challenge wasn’t just preventing media stories. It was navigating an ethical, legal, and reputational minefield in real time while emotions inside the company were running high. And unlike many startup PR crises that revolve around product issues, layoffs, or funding rumors, this one was a deeply personal, emotionally charged scenario that made every decision significantly more delicate.

So what did we do? Subscribe and stay tuned for Part 2.

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Unfiltered Plug: If you’re a technology startup needing PR, get in touch. Check out lab.Comms, 18-years of startup PR services at www.lindsbcomms.com.