So I’ve Joined A Startup

Earlier this month I announced my departure from VentureBeat, a job that afforded me the ability to cover many of the tech industry’s movers and shakers, along with up-and-comers. Since then, I’ve kept my next steps a secret, but not anymore. In a first for me, I’ve decided to join the startup scene: I’m now a senior editor for the customer communication platform Intercom.

Working as part of the content team, my responsibilities will be primarily focused on producing a “thing” (TBD) that will benefit startups and early-stage founders. After six years in operation and hundreds of millions raised, Intercom has quite a bit of knowledge that it wants to share — it even created a book highlighting some of its insights called Intercom on Starting Up.

As a senior editor, I’ll still be writing (obviously), but as part of a startup, I get my hands dirty since I’ll now be able to build something — what that will be remains to be seen. Yes, Intercom does have a blog right now, but this is going to be something bolder than what it has done before and I’m excited to give it a shot because the company’s not just about customer service — it has its proverbial hands in many areas, including marketing automation, knowledge base, customer success, and a very interesting platform play similar to Salesforce.

Sure, in a way I’m doing content marketing, but it’s not really about selling Intercom’s goods and services. The company is already doing a bang up job on its own and based on what I’ve seen so far, customers are digging it. Intercom has a mission of helping businesses talk to their customers like they’re human beings and the content has to follow that model. It’s already putting out articles that entrepreneurs and customers will find interesting, but they’re not doing a hard sell. If you look at Intercom’s stuff, it’s likely you won’t see a blatant push to buy a product.

I’ll still be living in San Francisco, working out of the company’s office downtown and would love to hear from you, your pitches, and what you have going on. Let’s grab coffee or tea?

My new email address is ken@intercom.com. Stay tuned for more details and be sure to check out the Inside Intercom blog where I’ll be sharing additional information next week.

Oh, and yes: Intercom is hiring. 🙂