Early-stage communication is a product strategy lever, not a press-release afterthought. In my work, I’ve seen the difference a clear narrative makes for founder-led GTM, product discovery, and those early product-market fit lessons that determine whether a company breaks through or stalls. That’s why I was eager to dig into the discipline with someone who’s built communications at category-defining scale.
Today’s episode is with Nairi Hourdajian, the VP of Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma.
Prior to joining Figma, Nairi was the Chief Marketing Officer at Canaan, an early-stage venture capital firm. In 2013, she became Uber’s first communications person and spent the next 3 years building out the function. Before getting into tech, Nairi came from the world of politics. She was a VP at Glover Park Group, a communications consulting firm started by former Clinton officials, and she also served as a policy director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and as a staff assistant to then-Senator Joe Biden.
Our conversation focuses on what a great communications strategy looks like at early-stage startups. As a product leader, I was struck by how directly the comms fundamentals reinforce core product management leadership behaviors: clarify the customer problem, define the narrative tension, and show proof. She broke down the basics for founders who aren’t familiar with this function, and shared advice for thinking beyond just announcing your Series A funding. I layered on how that same narrative becomes the throughline for zero to one B2B marketing — unifying positioning across product, sales, and customer success.
She shares lots of thoughts on crafting foundational messaging for different audiences and shaping the company narrative — with examples from both Uber and Figma, as well as startups she’s advised. I connected this to product discovery: the best message testing mirrors the way we validate hypotheses in product — message pillars, audience-specific proof points, and iterative learning sprints that refine what resonates before you scale paid or earned channels.
Next, we get into the nuts and bolts of building relationships with reporters. Nairi shares her take on handling negative stories about your competitors, and offers tons of tactical pointers on how to prepare for a media interview. I add a product-centric lens: do the pre-brief like a roadmap review — align on objectives, anticipate risks, prepare crisp artifacts (message map, data, and customer evidence), and practice bridging so you can protect the narrative under pressure.
We ended on her advice for assembling the team that can help you shape and execute on your comms strategy — from working with agencies and freelancers, to making your first full-time comms hire. My guidance to founders echoes this: hire for strategic clarity first, channel expertise second. In the earliest chapters, a lean, outcomes-focused comms function amplifies founder-led GTM, accelerates learning cycles, and compounds trust with customers, candidates, and investors.
If you treat communications as an extension of product — a disciplined system for discovering, validating, and scaling the narrative — you’ll see compounding returns. That mindset aligns your story with your strategy, makes every launch a proof point, and turns early momentum into durable market position.
Inspired by this post on First Round.
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