growth stage brand PR agency Archives

LaunchSquad vs Sam Brown: Which Startup PR Firm Is Right for You?

When you compare LaunchSquad vs Sam Brown for your startup PR needs, you are really asking one question. Does this agency understand my world? Both firms have been running startup PR since 1999, have real records, and they operate in completely different industries. LaunchSquad is a tech and consumer communications agency. Sam Brown is a healthcare and life sciences communications agency. Hiring the wrong one will cost you time, money, and six months of explaining your industry to people who should already know it. This article gives you an honest, objective comparison. You will find facts from PRWeek, O’Dwyer’s, Business Wire, and Fierce Pharma ,so you can decide which startup PR firm fits your brand. How LaunchSquad vs Sam Brown Took Different Paths in 1999 Both LaunchSquad and Sam Brown launched in 1999. That shared start date is where the similarity ends. The two firms made vastly different choices about where to focus, and those choices still define who each agency is today. LaunchSquad was co-founded by Jason Mandell in San Francisco. Mandell had previously worked at Schwartz Communications and Cunningham Communications before building LaunchSquad into a 110-person agency. The firm grew up alongside Silicon Valley, close to venture capitalists, tech journalists, and the startup founders who were shaping the future of the internet. Sam Brown healthcare communications agency was founded by Laura Liotta in Wayne, Pennsylvania. She was restless in a corporate communications role and saw the PR industry as ready for a new kind of firm. She named the agency after her grandfather, Samuel Mastrangelo, who performed as “Sam Brown” with his big band orchestra in Atlantic City in the 1920s. LaunchSquad vs Sam firms made the right call for their markets. LaunchSquad grew alongside Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem. Sam Brown grew alongside the biotech and pharma boom. Today, LaunchSquad vs Sam are listed in O’Dwyer’s Top PR Firms database, have teams of 50-plus. And both have quite different answers to the question of which startup PR client they serve best. Read Also: JPA Health vs Hoffman: Which Agency Wins in Tech PR? LaunchSquad vs Sam Brown: What LaunchSquad Offers as a Startup PR Agency LaunchSquad describes itself as a storytelling agency first and a PR agency second. Before pitching any journalist, the team works out what the brand story is. According to O’Dwyer’s PR Firms Directory 2025, LaunchSquad has 110 employees across offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Austin, and Denver. According to PRWeek’s Agency Business Report 2024, the agency reported $18 million in revenue in 2023, a 10% decline from the previous year. The firm projected $19.2 million for 2024. PRWeek also featured LaunchSquad on its Dashboard 25 list of the most innovative PR agencies in the technology sector. In November 2024, LaunchSquad made its first acquisition. It bought Megawatt, a Boston-based content marketing firm focused on cybersecurity, AI, and deep tech. Megawatt brought in $2.2 million in revenue in 2023. The acquisition strengthened LaunchSquad’s content strategy and SEO capabilities for technically complex B2B brands. Client highlights from O’Dwyer’s include Uber, Netflix, iHeartRadio, On Running, Waabi, Cohere, General Catalyst, and Hippocratic AI. LaunchSquad and its clients ASICS and Oyster were named finalists at the 2024 SABRE Awards North America. The agency was also recognized on the PRNews 2022 Agency Elite Top 100 list. These are verifiable recognition points, not self-reported claims. Where LaunchSquad Likely Falls Short LaunchSquad has three real limitations you should know before signing. First, revenue declined. PRWeek confirmed a 10% drop to $18 million in 2023. That was a tough year for tech PR broadly, as startup funding tightened. The firm projected recovery at $19.2 million for 2024, but you should ask directly about team stability and account continuity during that period. Second, healthcare is not a core strength. LaunchSquad has worked with Hippocratic AI, which focuses on AI applications in healthcare. However, the agency does not have the deep clinical communications expertise that life sciences startups need. Managing press around Phase 3 clinical trial results or navigating FDA regulatory language in a press release requires extremely specific skills. LaunchSquad does not list clinical communications as a service. Additionally, senior attention to a large portfolio is a real concern. LaunchSquad serves more than 75 client accounts across a 110-person team. Smaller startups may find themselves managed day to day by mid-level account managers rather than senior partners. Before committing, ask specifically who oversees your account daily and how often a senior partner reviews strategy. Also, because LaunchSquad’s deepest relationships are in tech and consumer media, brands trying to reach financial trade press, life sciences investors, or healthcare journalists will find the agency’s network less useful. The firm is strong where it focuses. Outside that focus, the fit thins out. What Sam Brown Offers as a Startup PR Agency Sam Brown is a healthcare and life sciences PR agency. That focus defines every hire, every client, and every media relationship the firm has built since 1999. Sam Brown has more than 50 professionals serving more than 40 clients from its base in Wayne, Pennsylvania. The agency’s website states it uses only senior-level professionals on all client accounts and maintains exceptionally low staff turnover. That stability matters in healthcare PR, where the trust between communications and science teams takes time to build and cannot be quickly replaced. On September 18, 2024, Blue Matter, a life sciences consulting firm with more than 230 team members and 120 active clients, acquired Sam Brown. This was confirmed by both Business Wire and MM+M. Sam Brown retained its name. Founder Laura Liotta continues to lead the agency and joined Blue Matter’s executive management team to head a new strategic communications division. Sam Brown’s verified client list, from O’Dwyer’s and PR News, includes Corium, JSR Life Sciences, Harmony Biosciences, Tris Pharmaceuticals, NervGen, SR One, and Velia. The agency works with biotech and pharmaceutical companies at all stages, from stealth mode through Phase 3 trials and commercial launch. Its website explicitly describes collaborating

Marathon Strategies Review: Elite Growth-Stage PR Specialist

If you are reading this Marathon Strategies review, you are likely to deal with a communications challenge that feels bigger than a press release can fix. You may also need growth-stage PR support that goes beyond earned media. Marathon Strategies are built for exactly that kind of work. The firm combines political campaign speed, original research, and communications strategy into one integrated approach. It serves corporations, nonprofits, trade associations, and growth-stage companies facing complex reputational challenges. This is an independent review. It is not sponsored or affiliated with Marathon Strategies. You will find verified facts from O’Dwyer’s, Inc. Magazine, PRovoke Media, PRNewswire, and the Financial Times, so you can make an informed decision. Marathon Strategies Review: Who Founded the Firm and Why It Matters Phil Singer founded Marathon Strategies in 2008. Before launching the firm, he spent a decade in political communications. He served as national press secretary for Senator John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. He then held senior communications roles at Senator Chuck Schumer’s office. After that, he became national spokesperson and deputy communications director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. That political background shapesed how Marathon approaches every client challenge. Political campaigns operate under enormous time pressure. Messages need to land fast, the opposition is always watching, and research matters as much as storytelling. Today, Marathon Strategies has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., and in Albany. The firm has 67 plus employees, with an annual revenue which reached $10.8 million in 2025. In O’Dwyer’s PR Firms Directory 2025, Marathon ranked #39 on the Top PR Firms list. Its website describes the team as ‘campaign operatives, PR experts, researchers, journalists, digital and data experts, graphic designers, brand managers, government aides, lawyers, and TV producers.’ Raymond Hernandez, who leads Marathon’s investigative research practice, spent two decades as a reporter at The New York Times. Liz Benjamin, who manages the Albany office, hosted ‘Capital Tonight’ on Spectrum News for years. Marathon Strategies Review: Services Marathon describes its mission as delivering ‘influence at speed with intelligence.’ Its core service areas, according to O’Dwyer’s and the firm’s own website, are: Public affairs: national, local, and international campaigns that shape legislation and regulatory decisions Reputation and issues management: building and protecting brand credibility for companies facing scrutiny Research and investigations: original proprietary research used to support campaigns and generate earned media Digital advocacy: targeted digital campaigns across paid, owned, and earned channels Creative campaigns: video production, graphic design, and branded content from an in-house studio Crisis communications vs. 24/7 rapid response for companies facing reputational threats Core Services for Growth-Stage PR Clients What separates Marathon from most growth-stage PR firms is its in-house structure. The firm operates with an investigative research team, a newsroom, and a creative studio under one roof. That means Marathon does not just pitch stories. It builds the research first, then creates the content, and then places it with journalists and policymakers simultaneously. According to the firm’s O’Dwyer’s profile, Marathon is ‘not afraid to offer honest, candid counsel and big ideas even if they are outside a client’s comfort zone or may not be the popular opinion.’ Directness is either a strength or a concern, depending on what kind of agency relationship you want. Additionally, Marathon launched a new practice area called DefendED in early 2024. According to POLITICO, PRovoke Media, and O’Dwyer’s reporting on the launch, DefendED supports higher education institutions facing political scrutiny, campus crises, and reputational challenges. The practice includes risk assessments, crisis playbooks, plagiarism reviews of academic leadership, and 24/7 communications support. Phil Singer told POLITICO that colleges are facing ‘a perfect storm of scrutiny’ they have never experienced before. Marathon Strategies review: Verified Campaign Results An objective review needs real numbers, not vague claims. Below are three verified Marathon campaigns with independently confirmed outcomes. The Cleaning Coalition of America During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marathon built the brand and communications strategy for the Cleaning Coalition of America from scratch. According to Marathon’s published case study, the campaign raised Coalition’s name recognition by 371 percent. It drove 40,826 new visitors to the coalition’s website, a 1,200 percent increase in users from the three months before launch. Additionally, Marathon served 23,284,244 total impressions to target audiences across aviation, commercial real estate, healthcare, and education, exceeding the Coalition’s goal by 20 percent. The Buy Safe America Coalition Marathon ran the communications campaign for the Buy Safe America Coalition, which advocated legislation to protect consumers from counterfeit and stolen goods sold through online marketplaces. According to Marathon’s LinkedIn page and the Buy Safe America Coalition’s own press room, the campaign educated lawmakers, media, and the public about the scale of the problem. The INFORM Consumers Act was signed into law on December 29, 2022, according to Loss Prevention Magazine. The law requires online marketplaces to verify the identity of high-volume third-party sellers. Marathon was nominated for the Innovation SABRE Awards Persuasive Content category for this work, according to their LinkedIn announcement. Corporate Verdicts Go Thermonuclear Report Marathon’s original research report, ‘Corporate Verdicts Go Thermonuclear,’ was published in March 2023 via PRNewswire and received independent media coverage from Transport Topics, The Center Square, and state-level outlets across Texas, Illinois, and Louisiana. PRovoke Media named it one of the standout entries in that year’s top Agency Thought Leadership category. The report found that the median nuclear verdict against corporate defendants rose from $21.5 million in 2020 to $41.1 million in 2022, a 95% increase, while the number of verdicts doubled. The 2025 edition found 135 nuclear verdicts in 2024 alone, totalling $31.3 billion. Marathon Strategies Limitations An honest review does not stop at strengths. Here is where Marathon may not be the right choice for your brand. Consumer lifestyle brands: Marathon is a public affairs and corporate communications firm. If your brand needs coverage in Vogue, Bon Appétit, or TechCrunch’s product reviews, Marathon’s media relationships are not designed for that world. Consumer lifestyle PR requires a very different set of journalist contacts and storytelling approaches. Pure product

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