Revision

Rob Alderson was brought into WeTransfer in 2016, when they only had a marketing team. After more than three years as the VP Content and Editor-in-Chief of WePresent, they had expanded to about 200 employees, in four cities, with a full marketing team, and a content team too. Alderson is now a full-time dad and “retired freelancer”. He’s taking some time to see what’s next for him, but is hoping to get back to a full-time editorial position. He spoke with Wonder Shuttle about his time launching WePresent and the tricky parts of getting brands into content. 

So you were brought in to launch WePresent in 2016?

Yes, that’s right. I was brought in because WeTransfer from the beginning has given away 30% of its backgrounds to the creative community. They wanted to dig a bit deeper into those creatives that they were supporting, but they were also very appealingly open-minded about what that might look like. I was asked to come in, figure it out and build something that was going to showcase the kind of relationship with the creative community that WeTransfer as a service has. That is what ended up becoming WePresent, but it took some time to get there.

What do you think of the investment that companies like WeTransfer are putting into content by hiring editors?

I think it’s vital if brands want to do content that they hire editorial people. This isn’t at all a slight on PR or marketing people, it’s a massive skill that’s super important for companies. But the company and the brand is their overarching concern. It’s great to hire editors because we come with this in-built obsession with engaging people, and that’s part of our DNA as editorial people.

Having said all that, the little bit of concern I have at the moment is that maybe too many brands are trying to do content. It’s really important that brands slow down a little bit and work out, “Is this right for us, does this fit in with our overarching business goals, and are we being realistic about what content can achieve for our brand?” Content can have a great role in a brand marketing strategy, but it’s really important to be honest about its limitations. 

Philadelphia startup Crossbeam makes tools for partnership managers, the people at tech companies who are responsible for tech partnerships and channel partnerships. Director of Content Sean Blanda’s task is to build a publication for partner managers from scratch. He’s previously worked at InVision (Editorial Director), I Will Teach You to Be Rich (Editor-in-Chief), and Adobe’s 99U (Editor-in-Chief/Director). He told Wonder Shuttle about his new role and why he’s excited by the (mostly) thankless work of editing. 

Why did you join Crossbeam? Why are they interested in investing in content this early? 

One of the many reasons why I joined is, I love when the business interests of the thing align with the interest of content. Crossbeam is essentially a data escrow service. It has a profound impact on how quickly people can implement partnerships and choose which partner is the most effective. As a result, the more people on this platform, the better it is. That kind of network effect of people adding their data to the platform is hard going at first, but once it gets going, it’s great. 

That kind of philosophy aligns well with content, right? You have to be really high quality at first, you have to take care of your early audience, you have to be useful, you have to serve them. You have to get them on your mailing list or some sort of distribution, and continually wow them and make their life better. I like that alignment, and that’s why they’re investing so early in content. 

Talk to us about this new publication. You’re only a couple months in, how are you going about setting it up and building your team?

It’s like a B2B trade publication; it’s a magazine for people who are partnership managers. But when you look at it, it’s the Crossbeam blog. We’re not dressing it up more than that, but the objectives there are similar.

I have been fortunate, or unfortunate depending on your point of view, to do almost every job in the publishing stack. So I can kind of be the Swiss Army knife to start, and I view my job as setting the framework for scale. I wouldn’t quite know where to put new hires yet, because I don’t know where the levers are. My job is to figure out where the levers are, and what happens when we push them.