Founding Communications Lead

listenlabs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision

Learning stipend

Wellness stipend

AI tools stipend

Private chef in SF office

Flexible time off

Annual offsites and events

Equity ownership

Job summary

Listen Labs is hiring a Founding Communications Lead to shape how Listen shows up in the market across customers, candidates, reporters, analysts, and the tech community. You’ll work with the Head of Marketing and leadership to build Listen’s communications foundation, from media relations to executive storytelling and announcements, while shaping internal and external narrative.

This senior IC will replace agency functions and build the communications function from the ground up, with min.

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years in communications, PR, media relations, journalism, or related roles.

Responsibilities

• Own Listen’s communications strategy across media relations, exec communications, company announcements, employer brand, and core narrative.
• Develop Listen’s narratives, talking points, and stories for press, customers, candidates, analysts, investors, and internal teams.
• Drive media relations across tech and B2B media, identify stories, shape angles, prepare pitches, and build reporter relationships.
• Create high-quality communications materials: press releases, media kits, fact sheets, bios, briefs, messaging guides, interview prep.
• Prepare executives for media moments, customer conversations, events, and tough questions to stay clear and on message.
• Shape executive thought leadership: founder narratives, bylines, op-eds, speaking opportunities, social posts, POVs.
• Partner with leadership on major announcements: product launches, funding, customer momentum, research, events, milestones.
• Build employer brand to attract elite technical talent by storytelling about team, ambition, velocity, and ownership.
• Support awards, analyst briefings, and stakeholder communications to strengthen credibility.

Skills

Storytelling

Media relations

Executive communications

B2B SaaS experience

Crisis/reputation management

Writing across formats

Stakeholder management

Tools

Meltwater

Cision

PR analytics

Job description

TL;DR We’re hiring a Founding Communications Lead to shape how Listen shows up in the market — with customers, candidates, reporters, analysts, and the broader technology community.

Listen is building the future of AI-powered customer understanding, and we need someone who can help polish and amplify the story we tell about ourselves. You’ll work directly with our Head of Marketing and leadership team to build Listen’s communications foundation across media, executive storytelling, announcements, employer brand, and internal and external narrative.

This role is for a sharp, polished, high-judgment communications professional who knows how to turn company momentum into clear, credible stories. You’ll help us earn attention from tech and B2B media, prepare executives to tell the story well, and make sure our message is consistent across every important audience.

This is a senior IC role with high ownership. You’ll likely replace much of what a PR agency would traditionally do, while building the communications function from the ground up.

Min. 5–8 years in communications, PR, media relations, executive communications, journalism, or related roles. B2B SaaS communications experience is important. Agency PR or journalism experience is a plus.

Background

Listen Labs is the world's fastest AI research platform, built so every company can understand what their customers want, why, and what to do about it. Our AI conducts in-depth interviews, analyzes conversations, and delivers executive-ready insights in hours, not weeks. Born out of a Harvard research project, Listen is trusted by teams at leading brands like Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, Sweetgreen, Replit, and Nestlé to bring real customer voices into their biggest product, marketing, and growth decisions.

Company highlights:

• World-Class Team: Founded by serial entrepreneurs — Alfred (Bemlo, YC W22) and Florian (IOI medalist, ICPC World Finalist) — and built with talent from Google, Meta, Tesla, Amazon, Jane Street, and X, alongside Bain, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Sequoia-backed startups like Applied Intuition, Scale AI, and Rippling. Over 30% of our team are former founders, and multiple are competitive programming medalists.

• Hypergrowth: Since launching, Listen has grown annualized revenue 15x and completed over 2 million interviews — backed by $100M in total funding led by Ribbit Capital, with Sequoia, Conviction, and Pear VC participating.

• Traction: Already serving 15% of Fortune 100s. Enterprise wins and expansions across Anthropic, Microsoft, Nestlé, Perplexity, Sweetgreen, and more — with teams telling us research that used to take six to eight weeks now happens in days.

What You’ll Do

• Own Listen’s communications strategy across media relations, executive communications, company announcements, employer brand, and core company narrative.

• Develop Listen’s key narratives, talking points, and stories we use with press, customers, candidates, analysts, investors, and internal teams.

• Drive media relations across tech and B2B media, identifying the right stories, shaping compelling angles, preparing pitches, and building trusted reporter relationships.

• Create high-quality communications materials, including press releases, media kits, fact sheets, executive bios, briefing documents, messaging guides, and interview prep.

• Prepare executives and spokespeople for media moments, customer conversations, events, and tough questions so they can stay clear, credible, and on message.

• Shape executive thought leadership, including founder narratives, bylines, op-eds, speaking opportunities, social posts, and public-facing POVs.

• Partner with leadership on major announcements, including product launches, funding news, customer momentum, research reports, events, and company milestones.

• Build Listen’s employer brand for elite technical talent by telling the story of our team, technical ambition, product velocity, and culture of ownership.

• Support awards, rankings, analyst briefings, and stakeholder communications that strengthen Listen’s credibility in the market.

Who You Are

• You are an excellent storyteller with strong instincts for what makes something newsworthy, credible, and memorable.

• You have real communications experience, ideally in B2B SaaS, tech, AI, enterprise software, or a high-growth startup environment.

• You are polished and high-judgment, with the ability to work directly with founders, executives, reporters, customers, analysts, and candidates.

• You can write clearly and quickly across many formats: pitches, announcements, founder posts, talking points, bylines, internal notes, press materials, and executive narratives.

• You are comfortable operating as a senior IC and building a function from zero to one.

• You care about both external reputation and internal clarity — because great communications should help the world understand the company and help the company understand itself.

You Might Be a Fit If

• You’ve led communications, PR, executive communications, or media relations for a high-growth B2B SaaS or technology company.

• You’ve worked at a strong PR agency and want to move in-house to build the function from inside.

• You’ve been a journalist or worked closely with journalists, especially in tech, startups, business, or enterprise software.

• You’ve helped turn company milestones, product launches, founder ideas, or customer momentum into stories that earned attention.

• You are excited by the idea of building the communications foundation for one of the fastest-growing AI companies in customer understanding.

Life at Listen

• Health, covered: Full medical, dental, and vision. FSA/HSA and life insurance are available too.

• Competitive compensation: Backed by world-class investors including Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Conviction, and Pear VC — we hire the best and treat them accordingly, with meaningful equity ownership.

• Annual Learning Stipend: Books, courses, conferences, coaching, language lessons — almost anything that makes you sharper.

• Annual Wellness Stipend for your health and headspace: Gym memberships, race fees, massages, ergonomic gear, and more.

• Monthly Stipend for AI tools: A dedicated budget for the software and GPU credits that make you faster.

• Fed, daily: A private chef serves lunch and dinner in our SF office; NYC and London teams get daily meal credit.

• Flexible time off: A take-what-you-need vacation policy.

• We celebrate together: Company offsites (Hawaii this Summer!) and events like our annual holiday party — every win is a team win.

• Room to grow: As an early member of the team, you'll own end-to-end processes from scratch and grow alongside the company.