Q&A with Chris Altchek, Mic

Ahead of our New York Braver Conference we spoke to one of our speakers, the CEO and Co-Founder of Mic.

How can marketers be braver?

The first step is putting pen to paper on what your organization believes in, and getting buy-in from top to bottom in the company.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

For a long time, I thought that leaving my job at Goldman to found a journalism company for millennials was a big risk. But what I've realized is that the biggest risks have large impacts on others. At Mic, we took a big risk in 2016 by stepping away from social-media driven content strategies, and fully embracing traditional journalistic values as the core of our strategy. It impacted many on our team, and millions of our readers. We had to believe that building a more trusted brand was worth the costs of walking away from a growing business that we weren’t proud of.

Which business leader do you admire most and why?

Howard Schultz has consistently taken big risks underpinned by his beliefs in building an equitable and positive company. He's willingly put himself in positions that many CEOs would avoid at all costs, discussing difficult topics and leading our country into important, but fraught conversations.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

The willingness to persevere is more powerful than all the resources in the world.

Chris is speaking at our Braver Conference in New York this 14 November 2018. To find out more about this event head here.

Linked In: Chris Altchek