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That's what our founder, Mike Ermolaev, says every time someone asks about his vision for how Outset PR operates in the industry. And really, if you started out doing things differently from every other founder, how can you be surprised when you stand out?
Especially when you've built long-term partnerships with companies like Dash, XPANCEO, Icons8, and GoMining, it turns out that maybe you were meant to go off the beaten path. And when your PR agency gets written about by CNBC and Cointelegraph, it feels like there's nothing wrong with looking a bit geeky.
Today, with over 2400 media outlets at our fingertips, we have a whole range of PR services to offer. This allows us to effectively promote our clients’ projects across the USA, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. And yes, we’re just getting started.
But how did it all actually begin? If you’ve ever wanted something so badly you’d sacrifice everything for it, then you’ll understand how we felt as we worked non stop to grow Outset PR into a full-fledged, in-demand agency. And even when we chose to stick with our passion for unconventional work approaches, we didn’t have to sacrifice a thing!
Except for our own nervous system, but hey, that's minor stuff.
It wasn’t just the non-trivial approaches, though; the team Mike Ermolaev brought together was also key to the agency's rapid growth. Mike spent years in public relations, partnering with pros from all over the Web3 world, until one day, like Captain America, he rallied his most trusted allies:
You wouldn’t believe the stuff we've been through in less than two years since launching the agency! From facing the threat of disappearing with a snap of Thanos' fingers to promising success, we are just happy to be where we are today and to share our story.
That’s what Mike would say if you asked him to sum up the process of building a dream team in one sentence. And sure, building that kind of team isn’t something you can rush, if your goal is to identify the most trusted brains and bring them together to create something new.
For Mike, patience was never a drag; instead, it was a virtue that helped him perfect the craft. Since 2017, Mike has been evolving in the crypto PR field, picking up experience at different companies and staying in touch with the most talented people he has met along the way.
Everything went smoothly until the end of 2022. By then, Mike worked at Kikimora Labs, but when the FTX bankruptcy scandal hit, it caused a market meltdown, which ended up costing him and his teammates their jobs.
Pretty motivating time to start a new endeavor, isn't it?
But sometimes, you’ve just got to play the hand you're dealt. Still, the professional relationships stayed strong. With the solid track record Mike had earned from all his hard work, he figured he’d take a much-needed vacation and then try creating something of his own.
That’s how the idea for Outset PR came to life in November 2022. Fortunately, the network Mike had built up helped us immediately connect with Münzen – a young but rapidly growing operation providing crypto payment solutions for businesses. But let’s be real, the start wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.
Remember that whole "could disappear with the snap of Thanos' fingers" scenario? Yes, our early days felt a bit like that. Things got complicated when we mutually decided to part ways with one of our two key clients in June 2023. Since then, our planning horizon was never more than two weeks. If we didn’t find new work within that time frame, the whole dream of starting a PR agency could’ve just vanished.
Because rushing things would lead to sloppy work, which wasn’t our style.
On top of that, we didn't even have a website for the agency, which made sales a real uphill battle. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Eventually, the series of one-time projects we took on gave us a much-needed financial boost. As finding new clients became the top priority, we decided to invest a chunk of those funds into creating a website. That’s when designer Dmitrii Efanov joined us and put in the dedicated effort to craft the masterpiece you see in front of you.
Still, we had to dig deep and stay tough during that period. As Mike recalls from back then:
Mike was constantly looking for work for his team. This juggling act went on for a few months until Outset PR started reaping the benefits of a fruitful partnership with StealthEX, an instant cryptocurrency exchange platform. Providing PR support for them has been incredibly inspiring, and this collaboration has turned them into our dear friends while encouraging us to explore new opportunities.
Those opportunities came through our network, leading us to team up with our friends – SEO and traffic experts with experience in token sale promotion. Our combined skills resulted in the development of an exclusive technology that enables us to draw in traffic on a wide scale today, and our successful lead generation campaigns brought in long-term partnerships with businesses like BlastUP and CYBRO.
That’s how our traffic acquisition efforts have grown into the agency’s standalone service. Business started booming, and we knew we had to expand the team.
This kicked off a new chapter for Outset PR.
Since the early days of the agency, a lot of our business processes and ways of working have gotten more polished. But even with that, we've managed to keep our team's friendly vibe and strong trust in each other just as they were.
After everything we've been through together, this team is Outset PR: Yana Zavyalova, Alina Chepurchenko, Anastasia Anisimova, Alice Frei, and other passionate PR talents. When Mike took a moment to look back on our journey, he summed it up perfectly with a thought that has become our mantra:
If the answer to the question “who is Mike Ermolaev” was “someone who really likes talking to people,” that would, in a sense, be spot-on.
This trait has been a big part of Mike’s life long before Outset PR was even a thought. Back in the day, with his degree in Oriental and African Studies serving more as a morale booster than a career path, he realized his best shot at making a living was to rely on his ingenuity and chatty personality.
Before becoming the glue that holds Outset PR together, Mike found himself in some truly bizarre situations. Picture this: you land your first PR job in Web3, not because of a PR background, but because of a deep passion for music (don't ask how that happened). You end up loving it so much that you basically do a year’s worth of work during your two-month probation period. That’s exactly what Mike did in 2017. Think he made it to the end of his probation?
Nope. He had pretty much run out of things to do.
It might not have been obvious to Mike at that time, but it was a big hint of what was to come. So, it’s no surprise that he quickly went from being the Head of PR and Content at FutureComes to co-founding the TOPOS Digital Communications agency in 2020. Rather than listing all the remarkable cases he has been a part of, let's just say one of them involved crafting a successful response to a crisis caused by none other than Elon Musk’s negative tweet about a client’s product.
How do you like that, Elon?
But when you're trying to make a name for yourself in the crypto world, one major challenge is dealing with the industry's love for anonymity and a mountain of NDAs. Being naturally open, outgoing, and extremely passionate, Mike wasn’t about to play by those rules. Having seen firsthand the power of networking, he realized that building valuable business relationships gets a lot easier with a strong personal brand.
That’s why Mike didn't just aim to be the face of every project he worked on; he made it his mission to share his insights on the major happenings in crypto space. Before long, he became a well-known columnist and interviewer, regularly contributing to leading crypto news outlets. To name a few, he provided weekly crypto analytics for Cointelegraph Spain and Cointelegraph Brazil, wrote op-eds for FXStreet, and launched the popular "Crypto Opinion with Mike Ermolaev" series on Benzinga.com.
Pretty impressive for an Orientalist, huh? Goes to show why the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" still rings true.
Like you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, here at Outset PR, we prefer to break away from the norm. We know that real value, innovation, and impact often lie beyond what meets the eye or defies standard expectations. And this knowledge is exactly what guides everything we do:
We believe everyone should pursue their passion. We’ve found ours in Web3, AI, crypto, blockchain, and DeFi. Working at the intersection of these disruptive and dynamic technologies, we’re convinced that being conventional is a no-go. So, we always bring the most modern and effective approaches to the table.