<p> Thought leadership. It&#39;s a big topic. You may know of Infarm, the vertical farming company that raised $600 Million before going bust after the Ukraine war drove up energy prices and made their business collapse.</p><p><br></p><p>Regarding their operations can say all you want, the CEO of Infarm was an exceptional fundraiser. But how did he do it?</p><p>One of my close friends worked for infarm and thats how I found out that they actually hired a full-time employee in charge of supporting the founders with thought leadership.</p><p>Raising funds requires investors trusting the team, especially the founders. To me, thought leadership is about scaling yourself. Instead of only relying on one-on-one introductions you create ways for people to get to know you and what you are up to.</p><p>But well... how?</p><p>Lets explore this in the second half of this conversation with Sarah Rall, Director of Communications at Cherry Ventures.</p><p><br></p><p>Links</p><p>Connect with Sarah Rall:</p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahrall/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahrall/⁠</a></p><p><br></p><p>Check out Cherry Ventures</p><p><a href="https://cherry.vc/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">⁠https://cherry.vc/⁠</a></p><p><br></p><p>Connect with the host:</p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmidt-marina/⁠⁠⁠⁠</a></p><p>[email protected]</p><p>Could use some help with your comms? </p><p>Check out <a href="https://www.wearekinetik.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">⁠https://www.wearekinetik.com/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Episode Keywords</p><p>founder thought leadership, startup personal branding, VC backed founders, how to build credibility as a founder, investor trust building, startup media strategy, LinkedIn strategy for founders, founder visibility strategy, raising venture capital, startup reputation management, executive positioning, venture capital communications, Cherry Ventures, Sarah Rall interview, scaling founder influence, startup storytelling strategy, PR for startups, founder brand building, startup communications podcast</p><p><br></p><p>Podcast Keywords</p><p>Scaling Nerds, startup communications, founder communication, science and tech founders, deep tech startups, VC-backed growth, startup fundraising, investor decks, startup storytelling, founder branding, startup marketing, venture capital, thought leadership, media strategy, technical founders, startup growth.</p>