Tech founders should treat journalists like bankers: trained to make you comfortable before shifting critical. Negative coverage isn't betrayal, it's their business model. Build relationships with fair reporters so you have credibility when the hard stories come.
I think the thing that I would advise founders to do now is be, don't be naive in who you engage with, right? The journalists, like bankers, like whoever, they're professionals at making you feel comfortable to talk and to disclose and to whatever. And then all of a sudden you're like, holy cow, I thought this person liked me. It's not. So don't take it personally. It's not about you. Right? It's like, not that this reporter betrayed you. It's their job to write something that gets interest, which clicks, and that has to have a certain edge to it. That's not their fault. That's their business model. Right? Um, so don't be naive. Cultivate relationships with the reporters who actually do write stuff that's fair, balanced, optimistic. Um, so that when you have a balance and something negative comes
