Should brand content be produced in-house or outsourced to agencies?

Zaria Parvez · Jan 19, 2024

Brands should not outsource social content to agencies; the best content comes from internal people who are champions of the brand

Agency staff aren't driven by your mission and are spread across teams; Duolingo's agency content didn't hit and only went viral once an internal team took over

30:22 20VC: How Duolingo Scaled to 8M TikTok Followers, How to Create Viral Content, Why Most Companies Suck at Content Marketing and How to Change & Why You Should Not Work with Content Agencies with Zaria Parvez, Global Social Media Manager @ Duolingo

Luke Harries · May 23, 2025

Companies should bring video production in-house early rather than relying on contractors

Launches require moving within about a week of the product being ready, and their flops came from contractors who weren't set up to execute at that speed and quality

21:10 20VC: ElevenLabs Head of Growth on Why You Do Not Need PMs | The 7-Part Launch Playbook That Gets 700K+ Views Per Product | The Truth About CAC, Payback & Performance Marketing in AI with Luke Harries

Logan Bartlett · Aug 29, 2022

Early-stage founders should in-house PR rather than pay PR firms or consultants

Agencies horse-trade placements across many clients, and doing it yourself builds lasting relationships with the reporters on your beat plus a fast iterative feedback loop on who cares and what message resonates — whereas outsourcing gives you no visibility and no learning when it fails

Scope: accepts that early self-run PR may not get traction initially

42:25 20VC: Is Now Really the Best Time to Be Investing? WTF is Happening at Growth Stage Investing? Why VCs Have Gotten Lazy Over the Last 2 Years? Investing Lessons from Hitting with Braze and Missing with Snowflake with Logan Bartlett, Managing Director @ Re

Harry Stebbings · Aug 29, 2022

Outsourcing press releases to a PR firm is a major founder mistake — PR should be treated with the same craft as core product

Founders would never outsource a core piece of product to an outside house, yet they hand off the release without thought

43:35 20VC: Is Now Really the Best Time to Be Investing? WTF is Happening at Growth Stage Investing? Why VCs Have Gotten Lazy Over the Last 2 Years? Investing Lessons from Hitting with Braze and Missing with Snowflake with Logan Bartlett, Managing Director @ Re