Small BusinessMac@work Profiles

Pique Interest: Launch Squad

The press release has been around for a hundred years. “It’s been the main vehicle for disseminating information in the public relations business,” says Jason Throckmorton, a founding member of LaunchSquad, a San Francisco-based PR firm. “For many purposes it’s still a great tool, but we envision other means of getting our clients stories out there, from working directly with bloggers and new media to creating blog, podcast and video content of our own.”

LaunchSquad deals in emerging technology companies and startups. They were recognized by Business 2.0 for their work and they’ve crafted campaigns for HP, Palm, wOz, Wine.com, NewsGator and others. Recently, The Holmes Report, a PR trade publication, ranked Launchsquad as one of the top 15 World’s Fastest Growing Public Relations Firms in 2006. Their clients have cutting-edge stories that are best told with dynamic techniques. “We focus on helping those companies get their stories out to the world,” says Jason Mandell, founding member of LaunchSquad. “We want people to get excited about these new ideas and technologies, and build awareness about them.” To do it, the 30-person firm channels its creative energy through Macs.

“The Macs are really at the center of our business,” says Throckmorton. “They are easy to use, reliable and fun. That drives collaboration and creativity in our office and allows our people to produce better work more efficiently. That’s a big deal and it helps make us competitive in the industry.”

The Macs are also at the center of LaunchSquad’s new strategies. “We’ve started building stories about our clients using new communications channels such as blogs and podcasts,” says Throckmorton. “We’ll use GarageBand to create content that people can listen to on the web to complement or even replace a press release. We’ll also make video content with iMovie, giving our clients even more ways to get their stories told. And we couldn’t do it without the Macs.”

Done Differently

LaunchSquad is 7 years old, but the company office still crackles with the raw energy of a startup. “We do things differently here,” says Mandell. “Everything revolves around teamwork and collaboration. The more people work together around shared goals, the more positive the environment will be.” To enhance the creative flow, LaunchSquad has torn down all the walls — literally. The main workspace is open, employees working side by side without cubes or offices.

“It enhances collaboration,” says Mandell. “You don’t have to knock on someone’s door. We can hear each other pitch stories and have conversations with clients. It facilitates elbow-to-elbow learning.” The firm’s Macs are an essential part of that collaborative environment, a simple tool that doesn’t get in the way of creativity or productivity. “People really enjoy being on a Mac,” says Throckmorton. “They’re intuitive and easy to use. They’re not problematic; there aren’t issues with viruses or technical problems. The Macs take all the hassles away from using a computer. They just help you get the job done, which makes us more collaborative, productive and efficient.”

Easy networking is key to collaboration in any office, and especially at LaunchSquad. The company set up their own network; a cloud of notebooks linked via Apple Airport wireless and simple File Sharing. “We’re a 7-year-old company and for six years we had no central data infrastructure,” says Throckmorton. “We just used basic File Sharing to trade documents, and that comes on every Mac. We have had virtually no IT or networking expenditures and that has allowed us to focus on what we’re doing as a company.”

The company is in the midst of deploying an Xserve as a central repository for their files. The new system will make networking and file sharing even more efficient.