Startup comms runs at a permanent fever pitch.
Every launch is momentous. Every setback is the end of the industry. Every rival is a fraud, every partnership is historic, and every week is the most important week. 
The volume knob has been snapped off at eleven.
The problem is that attention is a fixed budget, and too many players in the industry insist on spending it all at once.
When every message is maxed out, your audience loses the ability to rank them. The press can’t tell what’s important and what’s just a routine Tuesday update. Partners can’t separate a real crisis from reflexive outrage.
If everything is loud, the audience becomes deaf. Yell about everything, and the people who need to hear you will discount you by default. The day you have something to say, no one will care. You will have already set your baseline to “ignore.”
Contrast is a more effective way to get — and hold — attention. The loudest take may win the short game — X engagement, virality, a good day on the timeline — but winning the long game means winning over people — that is, specific people. They may be regulators, reporters, institutional partners, long-term customers. People who can help you achieve outcomes. They’re hungry for more than just the hype and “vibes.” And they have long memories for who cried wolf.
Don’t be silent. Be selective. Decide, intentionally, which moments are worth the fullest expression of your voice:
- Ration the superlatives. Save “historic” and “first” for things that actually qualify. Spend them like they’re scarce. To your audience they are.
- Let proof do the work adjectives can’t. In the show-me era, numbers beat press releases. Traction speaks louder than words.
- Pick your outrage. Not every bad headline deserves a response. Reacting to all of them will get you nowhere. Crybabies don’t win fights.
- Build a quiet baseline. Your loud moments need somewhere to stand out from. Silence gives signal contrast.
Being loud doesn’t mean being heard. In a market where everyone is shouting, the most powerful positions belong to those still capable of discerning when it’s time to speak up. Raise your voice rarely, and people will hear you when you do.
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Paul Cafiero is a communications partner on the a16z crypto marketing team.
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