The Coldharbour advantage
The traditional PR agency model may not be right for you.
So you think you need a tech PR agency? Perhaps so, but are you getting value? In the traditional agency structure, junior staff are allocated more hours, leaving many clients feeling short-changed. Where is the senior strategic counsel for which you hired an agency in the first place?
Senior attention guaranteed.
Our structure guarantees senior attention at all times. No junior staffers, just experienced communications professionals. Strategy and delivery. And our minimal overhead means you get more bang for your buck.
Strategic rigor.
Failure to plan is planning to fail. We do not start to execute a communications program without first agreeing a robust plan, based on strategic insights into your business, your market and your audiences. And at the end of each project, you'll benefit from a detailed assessment of program performance, using all available metrics, enabling us to optimize future success.
A de-risked approach.
Our content-first, holistic approach reduces the risk inherent in any program that relies solely or mainly on pure media relations, so you can be confident of reaching and engaging your audiences, and deriving a return on your investment.
Flexible engagement model.
Brand communications deliver results over time, but unlike most PR agencies, we encourage project scopes, further reducing risk and building confidence in our approach.
Lead Consultant
Jon Meakin
Jon has almost 30 years of communications consultancy experience, gained on both sides of the Atlantic, advising C-suite executives of mature enterprises, founders of early-stage startups, and everything inbetween.
He has spent the past decade in technology communications, first running the PayPal business across the EMEA region, then moving to San Francisco and leading the West Coast team for global PR firm, Grayling, and North America for emerging tech agency Clarity.
Over that time, Jon has worked with scrappy start-ups and mature enterprises alike, advising ambitious founders and seasoned C-suite executives in B2C and B2B tech firms.
In late 2022, Jon founded Coldharbour Communications, a consultancy focused on providing content-first brand communications services to technology businesses and the VC ecosystem that supports them.
Additionally, Jon is an active member of the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and served on the international board for six years. As the founding Chair of AMEC's Agency Group, Jon is focused on embedding best practice measurement and evaluation methodologies throughout the agency world.
A frequent judge of communications and creative industry awards, Jon also speaks at professional conferences around the world, on topics including crisis management and measurement and evaluation.
British-born, Jon lives in San Francisco.
Client testimonials
Software.com
Software.com
Software.com
“We worked with Coldharbour on the development and launch of our report on the impact of remote work on software developer productivity.
“Jon helped to hone our message and made us a part of the conversation, as AI was beginning to dominate the discourse.”
Geoff Stevens
Co-founder, Software.com
HG Ventures
Software.com
Software.com
“Coldharbour supports us with content, social media and press relations.
“We think of Jon as a key member of the team. We value his counsel and he always delivers.”
Jon Schalliol
Head of Finance and Operations,
HG Ventures
Upright
Software.com
Upright
“We hired Coldharbour to support us through our rebrand in 2023, and Jon has provided valuable input on our narrative and market positioning.
“We had not previously invested in PR, and Jon established our comms function from scratch.”
Lauren Hoffman-Noark
Director, Brand, Content and Creative, Upright
What's in a name?
Lead Consultant, Jon Meakin explains why he chose to call his consultancy Coldharbour Communications, and what the name means:
Before I moved to San Francisco, I spent many years living in London, mainly in and around Brixton. Brixton is famous for many things, from the Clash song, to the riots of the early 1980s, to the amazing West Indian food scene, courtesy of the population that settled there from the late 1940s. It sits at the crossroads of a number of streets that date back to Medieval times, including Coldharbour Lane.
Coldharbour Lane was itself immortalized in song by Tom Robinson, and by Alabama 3, whose album Exile on Coldharbour Lane included the song that became the theme to The Sopranos.
But none of these musical connections are why I chose the name.
A ‘cold harbour’ was once the name given to a place of safety for weary travelers, usually an uninhabited shelter, often along a well-known route.
Aside from my abiding fondness for Brixton, I liked the idea of a communications consultancy providing a place of safety and security for clients.
