The Path to Narrative-Market Fit—A Conversation with Christine Deakers of Bessemer

Chris Gillespie | April 1, 2022

Christine Deakers leads content and editorial at Bessemer Venture Partners, a venture capital firm with a legacy of working with some of tech’s most audacious founders. Thanks to their access to interesting companies, they publish uniquely intriguing stories, like the one about how in Twilio’s early days, the founders got such an overwhelming number of leads, they unplugged the phone.

In a radical act of candor I find particularly delightful, their investors talk openly about the investments they missed in their Anti-Portfolio.

You simply wouldn’t believe it by the volume and quality of communications they send, but nearly all of it passes through Christine. Naturally, in my quest to understand how top teams are structured to do their best work, aka content operations, I had to invite her to share.

Here, she talks about why brands are mosaics, how she’s come to peace with the untraceable power of dark social, and why if work isn’t fun, maybe it isn’t working. Throughout, I’ve included a few audio clips so you can listen in.

Christine Deakers is Editorial Director at the global VC Firm Bessemer Venture Partners. The conversation that follows has been lightly edited for brevity.

Content operations is orchestration

Christine Deakers: What is content operations? To me, it includes the strategy, the management, the overall orchestration of getting content out into the world to build a relationship with an audience. That includes not just what is being produced and figuring out who is doing the producing, but also understanding how to package content in a way that's going to satisfy your company’s goals.

I think it’s also creating systems and programs that become repeatable, and monitoring analytics to understand how things are performing. It’s knowing how your actions can lead to performance.

Know why you write

Christine: I like to explain what Bessemer Venture Partners offers in three “Cs”: capital, community, and content. I see that third one, content, as its own distinct product. That’s the thought leadership, insights, and research our partners can share with founders, which is partly my responsibility. I help the partners disseminate information.

As a VC firm, we have no shortage of expertise. Our partners and investors already research, generate hypotheses, understand the market, crunch numbers, and analyze. And so it’s really a matter of getting the information they’re already producing out into the world, mostly through our publication, Atlas.

Brands are mosaics—built from many small pieces

Christine: So much of brand building is not just creating a blog or building a website. Brands are built like mosaics in the sense that your readers pick up on what you’re doing in many micro-interactions across stories and channels. You really have to consider how your brand feels on web versus social versus in person, and how you package your unique insights for each channel. Each is its own ecosystem.

Atlas is just one of our many media properties, but I think of it as our central hub. That’s where we publish the roadmaps, deep dives, podcasts, and the videos we produce throughout the year. But when it comes to distribution, I'm thinking about what our goals are for each piece beyond Atlas. Where does our key audience live and how will they find us? Where can I find them? And if I can find them, can I reverse-engineer a path back to Atlas?

"Your readers pick up on what you’re doing in many micro-interactions."

Just because you don’t see it ‘blowing up’ doesn’t mean it isn’t

Christine: One thing about distribution is people always focus on what’s public and measurable. Obviously, that’s a good first goal. Definitely do that. But don’t forget about the way content is shared and spreads. Often, founders share on what’s known as “dark social.” It’s not a retweet. It’s an SMS text. It's a Slack. It’s a forwarded newsletter.

I often hear readers or connections in the VC world saying, “I got this piece from my friend” or “It was blowing up in our company Slack,” and I love hearing that because it reinforces the idea that just because a piece isn't catching fire on Twitter or Hacker News doesn’t mean it isn’t.

"Just because a piece isn't catching fire on Twitter or Hacker News doesn’t mean it isn’t."

Think about your baked-in distribution

Christine: There’s a reason magazines put the big-name stars on the front cover. Those people have a certain power that sells magazines. In the same way, when we’re creating content, our founders are those stars, which drives traffic. But it’s really more than that. Because by virtue of doing what they’re doing, they also have unique perspectives and case studies relevant to other founders in their space. In B2B, expertise and distribution are often deeply connected.

I like to ask authors to brainstorm 15 people who they’re going to send the article to when it’s finished, to get that ball rolling. Going back to our conversation about building products, you want to ignite the network effects of a campaign as quickly as possible, and that often begins by getting content directly in the palms of your target audience.

My goal is to help our investors scale their connections through content

Christine: In my world, attribution is difficult. I don’t know of any CRM that can answer the question of which article contributed what to a deal because so much of that journey is dark, and the conversations that lead to a deal could continue for years. However, I think there are multiple ways people can attribute success to content.

Even if I can’t measure all of it, I think mostly about the top of the funnel and content’s role in driving investor deal flow. It’s my personal mission to help our investors scale their connections through content. I help them “reach out” on a broader scale than they could ever do just through phone calls. I also want to showcase their authority on certain topics, and for our key audience of founders to find value, they must get a lot out of each piece.

If our editorial system is working, connections between investors and founders should always feel natural. People should feel like they’ve already met our investors because of their content. And when an investor connects with a founder by sharing knowledge, it creates a deeper, more trusting conversation.

"People should feel like they’ve already met our investors because of their content."

Know the big questions you are responsible for answering

Christine: What is quality? I think of it this way. Founders are obsessed with finding their “product-market fit,” where the product fits the buyer so well it’s sort of obvious. I think about that in terms of being a content creator. I’m trying to achieve narrative-market fit, which I see as deeply understanding your market of readers to figure out what questions they have that you can answer, and finding what fits.

In building a media platform, that’s one of the most important things: knowing what questions you are responsible for answering, and which ones you are credible enough to do so.

Here’s an example: One of our key focuses at Atlas is roadmaps, which are deep-dive articles into new categories of technologies our investors are passionate about. These roadmaps are the summation of hundreds of hours of conversations with founders, experts, and builders in that ecosystem, all around the world. It’s the intersection of what founders most want to know, and what Bessemer is best at, encapsulated in an article.

"I’m trying to achieve narrative-market fit, which I see as deeply understanding your market of readers to figure out what questions they have that you can answer."

Aim to thrill a small but highly engaged audience

Christine: When building a specific media brand, like you are in venture or B2B, be ambitious, but don't assume your blog is going to compete with The New York Times. Follow the same strategy vertical SaaS companies do—start by serving a niche and expand into adjacent audiences over time through new products. The expansion only goes well once you’ve established that initial trust and foothold in one place first.

I would always recommend, to any brand, to nail down a very narrow value proposition for a specific audience, and answer the questions only they have. From there, you can plan for your next act. What else can you create to serve your audience and broaden your scope and influence?

A team of one is never just one

Christine: Right now, the official editorial and content team is just myself. However, I operate within the marketing team, led by a stellar CMO, VPs, an events team, and many other talented team members. Plus, I have the immense privilege of working closely with our internal network of experts—our partners and investors—all of whom teach me something new each day. And I’m so lucky to get to work with a handful of excellent freelancers and designers which includes Fenwick. A big shout out to Riviera. You all are awesome!

The key to scaling our footprint as a media “platform” has been encouraging investors and partners to see themselves as content creators. Developing content is very natural to VCs. Being a strong storyteller is core to being a great investor. Our investment team authors most of our articles. I’m there to help them usher those ideas out into the world, and my approach varies with each one. In studying different mediums, I’ve seen how the best editors, film directors, and curators are deft and surgical in how they shape and influence content. I love focusing on structure, strategy, UX, and overall impact—being an invisible hand without leaving my own fingerprints.

Sometimes, that means starting from a blank page. Other times, I’m more of a strategist focusing on editing, rewriting, and thinking through different approaches so we satisfy both the investor and the reader.

My ultimate North Star is that our investors create things that feel authentic and we produce content that is generous, insightful, and enriches the VC and startup community. It’s the only way we’ve been able to grow to over 1.5 million reads per year in a relatively short time. I cannot emphasize what a team effort it is and I love how Atlas illustrates Bessemer’s nature—unique perspectives from all corners of technology, all across the globe.

"Produc[ing] content that is generous, insightful, and enriches the VC and startup community … is the only way we’ve been able to grow to over 1.5 million reads per year in a relatively short time."

Free your experts to select their preferred medium

Christine: I believe every investor should find some sort of channel where they can communicate and be their most authentic self. And at the same time, not feel pressured to play on channels that aren’t authentic to them. They don’t have to build a blog and publish twice per week. Many opt for Twitter, because it feels lightweight.

Whoever your experts are, encourage them to use their preferred channel as a playground to talk about things they care about. I always remind my investors they don't have to boil the ocean. If it feels like work, they’ll come to dread it. If they keep it fun, it becomes a habit.

Here’s my starter kit for experts: Keep an “ideas” note in your note-taking app. Jot down everything as it arises. Revisit it at the end of the day and if you can repackage it into a tweet, send it. Start small. Find the fun. Repeat.

If work isn’t fun, perhaps it isn’t working

Christine: One thing that I've learned throughout my life and career is that you really have to let things be fun. Sometimes people focus on the drudgery versus the parts that are delightful. That's something that I've been trying to embrace more in my career. We all work hard. Some tasks may be tedious. But if something is fun, you’re more likely to want to do it and create the habit around it. Especially when it comes to building a brand online. Share ideas you love, and do it because you like them.

A question I’m asking myself: How do I scale quality?

Christine: As you bring on more team members, how do you maintain the quality, the consistency, and the speed? And despite the growing pains? I've managed teams and I just know that's always the hard thing—adding people to do more, but then also being able to juggle and anticipate the challenges and complexity that brings. That's what’s top of mind right now.