On May 1st, Stefan Fountain has stepped down as pr.co’s Chief Executive Officer. pr.co’s co-founder and Chief Product Officer Jeroen Bos is to become pr.co’s new Chief Executive Officer. With this new shift in responsibilities, Padraig McKee is appointed to oversee the pr.co product as Director of Product, and Sjors Mahler is appointed to head up the commercial team as Commercial Director.
Jeroen Bos, who’s been with the company since 2012, officially took over the baton from Stefan Fountain on May 1st.
I’m grateful for Stefan’s hard work over the last six years; building a fantastic team and bringing pr.co to where it is today. Stefan’s managed to secure our seed funding round, which has allowed us to build a stronger product and grow into the powerful brand we are today. Stefan’s incredible teambuilding skills proved vital to us: our team is a dynamic, highly talented and tight-knit bunch working on a unified mission with insatiable enthusiasm. Most importantly, under Stefan’s leadership, we have become a company where people, product, and purpose are leading. As a result, we have a team, brand and product that our customers love working with. I’m proud of the fact that many B-corporations and socially conscious brands choose pr.co to share their journey.Jeroen Bos, CEO pr.co
“When I started this adventure six years ago, my goal was to build a healthy business with happy customers, a purposeful mission and solid commercial results. After seven years, I realised we accomplished that mission. I believe businesses benefit from a leadership change in such a situation and am excited to hand over the baton to Jeroen, “ Stefan says. “Jeroen is a gifted product builder, and has worked on pr.co with extraordinary grit for almost nine years. Without Jeroen, pr.co wouldn’t be the company it is today— it’s fantastic to see him continue this journey.”
I look back at a terrific adventure, with pr.co growing into a solid, mature brand. I’m continuously amazed by the team we have built— an extremely talented and passionate bunch. They’re not just in it to build good software— they’re changing the industry and the role businesses play in society.Stefan Fountain
Under Jeroen’s direction, pr.co will focus its efforts on changing the way communications teams collaborate with journalists. This means expanding the platform with powerful products, and creating online content to help brands succeed in a new era of communications.
“PR has a PR problem”, Jeroen says. “In the past two decades mass email-distribution, newswires and other low-effort strategies became more prevalent. This is damaging our industry and credibility as PR professionals— pr.co can’t ever be a part of that. I believe in an approach where brands focus on building real relationships with journalists and their stakeholders.”
We are entering a more transparent, honest, and less intrusive age of communication. The pandemic has accelerated this development:
Our roles as communicators change continuously but have changed exponentially since the start of the global pandemic last year. With the absence of events, and real-life interaction between brands, media professionals and their audience, brands have had to (and will continue to) redefine their communications strategy, messaging and the required tools. Technology is the key to helping brands adapt to these changes.Jeroen Bos, CEO pr.co
As pr.co’s lead product designer, Padraig’s signature can be discovered in virtually all pr.co’s products and features. In addition to improving the way we help our clients do traditional, targeted outbound PR, Padraig and his team will be developing products to help our customers increase Inbound PR.
Since PR’s inception, outreach has been at the core of its activities: PR teams seek the right media professionals to persuade them with a resonating pitch. Most often via email. With journalists stating that only 1% of their stories originate from press releases and pitches, we overlook a crucial component of a successful PR strategy: inbound PR. My team and I will work on new features that empower our customers to capture and manage inbound leads to grow their media list and increase newsroom ROI. Additionally, we will enhance our customers’ newsrooms to incentivise media professionals to get in touch with our customers and help both parties to build fruitful, and long-lasting relationships.Padraig McKee, Director of Product pr.co
Sjors Mahler joined the team in 2015 as pr.co’s first commercial employee, and will now head up pr.co’s marketing and sales team. Over the last six years, Sjors has developed and executed a commercial strategy which has resonated with fast-growing scaleups, and led to partnerships with many exciting and international brands. One of Sjors’ drivers has been increasing pr.co’s social impact, with donated newsrooms through our NGO program at its core. Social impact will remain central to pr.co’s commercial strategy: a true balance between purpose and profit.
A good media relations strategy requires more than a newsroom and good software: success is dependent on a strong PR skills. It's our mission to help our customers succeed, and therefore we want to help our customers grow that skillset. Last year, we started bundling knowledge from our clients, and communications experts. Our events, magazine, articles, and resources are read and attended by CMOs at some of the biggest brands in the world. We help our customers connect with these bright minds in the industry and use the power of community to become better communicators.Sjors Mahler, Commercial Director pr.co
About PR.co
PR.co builds (corporate) websites and software for the world's fastest-growing companies, including Just Eat Takeaway, WeTransfer, Remote, Dolby, and Polaroid. PR.co takes the spin out of public relations by equipping organizations with the right software, knowledge and partners to communicate transparently and build relationships based on trust, as consumers increasingly expect companies to operate ethically.
With PR.co's websites, journalists, customers, investors and other stakeholders get an in-depth view of an organization's mission, values, actions and developments. The PR.co platform helps organizations publish news, manage their international PR strategy, manage their contacts, do outreach and stream events online. In addition to technical support, PR.co customers get invaluable content support through one-on-one consultations and master classes from PR experts.
PR.co has donated their services to dozens of NGOs, including the Dutch National Food Bank Organization, the Dutch Council for Refugees, and ReNature.
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