Elliot Tomaeno
Founder & CEO
ASTRSK
Elliot is the Founder & CEO of ASTRSK PR. Prior to founding ASTRSK in 2012, Elliot was the Head of Consumer Technology at the Morris + King agency in NYC. Throughout his 15 years in PR, Elliot has held leadership roles at Enloop, Ballou PR and Wyndstrom and has worked in cities on both sides of the pond including San Francisco, Paris, London and NYC.
He has been featured on Business Insider’s Top 50 PR professionals' list 7 years running as well as Adweek’s 30 Under 30 in 2015. In addition, ASTRSK was named Business Intelligence’s PR Agency of the Year 2017 and Best Place to Work in 2016.
Through ASTRSK, Elliot has helped launch and support more than 800+ startups and innovation brands like Groupon, Prime Video, Primary Venture Partners, THINX, Misfits Market, Lemonade, and Squarespace.
5 Things I Wish I Knew……
✶Your best, most creative work will be for clients you truly care about.
Figure out who they are early and seek them out.
✶ Build real relationships with media that go beyond being a 'resource' for them.
Some of my best media relationships have become some of my best friendships.
✶ If you are not leveraging your full weirdness/uniqueness in each pitch, you are not going to leave a mark.
Be unabashedly yourself, some will think you're annoying but at least they won't forget you.
✶ Go small to go big (especially early in your career).
Work for startups or small to mid-size agencies to get the biggest opportunities. The work you do there will be seen and rewarded at a higher rate. If a big agency is where you want to end up that's great too but you can always move over to one once you've gotten a few promotions at a smaller firm!
✶ Have a creative hobby
Something that makes your brain work. Learn a language, write a poem, play an instrument, get into something that creates new neural pathways - not only is this just good for our brains (and can prevent dementia and decrease memory decline) but you'll be more creative across the board because of it.