#16 Adi Raval, comms @ Shield AI, Lime, TaskRabbit and a former wartime journalist
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Hot off the Pod 🔥🎙️ Adi Raval: Head of Comms at Shield.AI
Listen to our latest episode, my conversation with Adi Raval, Head of Communications for Shield AI, a venture-backed AI company focused on national security.
Adi's work in comms has spanned some of the best and brightest teams in the world: he served as Head of Communications for TaskRabbit, which was acquired by Ikea. He led global media relations at the Bechtel Corporation, one of the largest engineering and construction firms in the world. What's more, he spent time as a Senior Crisis Communications advisor for Lime. His comms experience extends to public service. Adi served as the Communications Director for President Obama’s Power Africa initiative, a unique public-private partnership designed to deliver clean energy to countries throughout Africa.
Adi began his time in government as a U.S. diplomat based in Afghanistan. In a different lifetime, Adi also spent 12 years as a journalist with BBC and ABC News, including as the bureau chief BBC Iraq.
Read on for excerpts from the podcast!
Can you detail your path in journalism? What precipitated your move to public service?
After college, I joined ABC News, working the overnight shift, making less than $20,000 a year. I covered the presidential election of 2000, then moved down to DC to cover the 9/11 Pentagon attack. At that moment, I really felt quite powerless. I really started to question my mission, thinking that just being a journalist wasn't enough, in terms of providing strong societal benefit.
Flash forward a few years, and I had traveled the world for ABC News, based in Baghdad for the war and in Egypt. That sense of not doing enough, this lack of fulfillment, really began to gnaw at me. So in 2005, I joined the BBC because I was looking for more leadership experience. People thought that I was making the wrong decision because I took a big pay cut to join a public broadcaster. But I had realized that American journalism dovetailed towards following entertainment news. I wanted to get back to covering real news. So I joined the BBC based out of Washington. I served as the Bureau Chief in Lebanon during the war in 2006, and returned to Iraq as the Bureau Chief for part of 2007, which was a very violent time Iraq's recent history. Seeing that up close and personal, having breakfast with people who were dead by lunchtime, really impacted me. I wanted to do something about it, so I made the move and became a U.S. Diplomat based in Afghanistan.
What’s a memorable situation where you’ve had to manage comms / design a narrative?
When I was at TaskRabbit as the Head of Communications, I worked for an incredible CEO, Stacy Brown-Philpot, one of the true icons of Silicon Valley. A few months into my job, Stacy pulled me into a room and said, ‘So we're going to be acquired by IKEA.’ The planning process, as you know, takes several weeks, if not longer, for that type of transaction to close. But at the same time, the news of it has to be kept very close to the chest. I was working with my colleagues and with counterparts from IKEA to help shape the internal and external narratives when the announcement was made. That was certainly exciting. There was a team of one on our side, me, and Ikea had 30 or 40 people on their side. It was tough keeping track of who was saying what exactly, and I couldn’t even tell my wife!
Catch the episode on Apple, Spotify, etc. here!
Catching Fire 🚀 what we’re following 👀
📺 On Screen
Netflix hit Bridgerton casts not one, but TWO South Asian leads + why that’s historically accurate. Mindy Kaling inks a T.V. deal author Sanjena Sathian. Kumail Nanjiani and Indira Varma star in the Star Wars prequel.
💼 In Business
Meesho & Swiggy, two Indian startups, raise major rounds from SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, and others.
🌎 Scenes from South Asia
A Pakistani city suffers a massive HIV outbreak among young children. India records 100K+ new Covid cases.
🎵 Listen to emerging South Asian artists.
Shop South Asian 🛍️ Speaker Series
South Asian entrepreneurs, join Shop South Asian for our inaugural Speaker Series!
#1: Social Media Strategy with Ankita Sankla, Head of Growth Marketing @ Aavrani.
#2: Raising Capital & Building for South Asian communities with YC-backed Riya Collective founders, Sarina Siddhanti & Arian Aggrawal
#3: How to pitch investors with Anarghya Vardhana, an Investor at Maveron, a consumer-focused venture capital firm.
Details + Reserve your spot here.