🌱 C-Suite Conversations: Tracy Van Grack

Chief Communications Officer at Revolution

In This Edition

• ⚖️ Apply legal training to a communications career

• 🎧 Listen actively to be effective in your role 

• ⚓ Create a personal board of directors for your career

About Tracy

Tracy Van Grack is Chief Communications Officer at Revolution, a D.C.-based investment firm that was founded by AOL Co-founder, Steve Case.

Prior to joining Revolution, Tracy was a Director at Brunswick Group, a global communications consultancy, where she focused on corporate reputation, public affairs, and crisis management in the technology sector. Tracy also worked in the Office of Corporate Engagement at Goldman Sachs, where she led strategic relationships and partnerships with multilateral organizations, government entities, academic institutions, and advocacy groups. She helped design and implement “10,000 Women,” the bank’s five-year initiative to provide 10,000 underserved women in emerging markets with a business and management education. She began her career as a corporate attorney at O’Melveny & Myers LLP with a focus on media and technology.

Tracy received her B.S. from Cornell University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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What sparked your path into Communications? 

I’ve always had a passion for storytelling and writing that coincided with a deep interest in social justice work. I started my career as a lawyer, but soon left to pursue a career in communications. A lot of people have a hard time understanding why a lawyer would pursue a career outside of a courtroom, but law school doesn’t just train you for a specific vocation, it teaches you how to think critically about an issue, analyze text, evaluate the relevant facts and distill it all into a narrative that resonates. There is no better group of people better trained to craft meaningful stories and persuasive content than lawyers. At the end of the day, being a lawyer is about serving as a trusted voice for your client; I would describe the communications function in the same way. 

Can you tell us more about Revolution and the work you lead?

Revolution is a venture capital firm founded in 2005 by AOL co-founder, Steve Case. His goal was to back the next generation of entrepreneurs building transformative companies outside of Silicon Valley. Having built AOL into a global presence from then-tech empty Northern Virginia, he understood what it was like to try and scale outside of the coastal tech hubs. We have three funds: Revolution Growth, Revolution Ventures, and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. 

In 2011, Steve partnered with the Obama Administration on Startup America, an effort that involved touring the country–visiting cities like Indianapolis, Dallas, and Cleveland–to better understand and support startup ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley. Inspired by that journey, in 2014, Revolution launched the Rise of the Rest Bus Tour, a road trip designed to shine a spotlight on cities with growing startup ecosystems for investors and policymakers. We visit five cities in five days on a campaign-style bus and tour everything that falls under the umbrella of innovation in a community with key civic leaders and startup champions. At the end of the day, there’s a pitch competition where we invest $100K in a local startup. These trips help us understand the strengths of a city’s innovation ecosystem 

Post-2016, when a lot more people started to seriously examine the growing concentration of capital and talent in the coastal tech hubs, we launched Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund—a $150 million fund backed by Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Sara Blakely, Ray Dalio, Tory Burch and other investors and entrepreneurs committed to the idea that the next great start-up could come from somewhere in the middle of the country. We launched our second $150M seed fund in 2019. 

Today, Revolution is invested in more than 200 companies in over 100 cities across the country. We’re industry agnostic, but focused on building an inclusive portfolio that reflects the diversity of this country. While we appreciate that the pandemic and Zoom have opened up the idea of investing outside of Silicon Valley and NYC for many investors, we believe a boots-on-the-ground approach is critical. Through our work, we have our fingers on the pulse of how innovation is evolving in cities across the country. 

What is one project you are particularly proud to have accomplished over the years? 

I worked on the team at Goldman Sachs that developed and launched 10,000 Women, the bank’s five-year $100M initiative to provide 10,000 underserved women in emerging markets with a business and management education. It was a pioneering effort in corporate philanthropy and social responsibility. 

The program grew out of GS research that held that gender equality was an economic imperative. We partnered with major business schools across the globe to design and execute a multi-month business and management certificate program. The effort was accompanied by a robust metrics and evaluation program to analyze the impacts of the initiative. Women who went through the program grew their revenues and added jobs, creating opportunities for other women in their communities.

I worked not only to implement and oversee the program in several regions, but also to tell the stories of the extraordinary female entrepreneurs that were starting and building businesses, often while up against enormous systemic and personal challenges.

What are the skills that are most important for someone to succeed in Communications? 

It might sound counterintuitive, but the most important tool for success in communications is listening. Listen to your leadership, team, and partners. Active listening is more than just comprehending what people are saying. It’s making sure that the party feels heard. This is especially critical when it comes to internal communications.

It’s also important to know your audience, and how they want to receive a message in terms of the content, channel,  and frequency. 

Finally, edit ruthlessly — a first pass should never be your last. Get feedback and be open to stakeholders’ suggestions for your communications strategy. 

In your role, how do you partner with Internal Communications? 

My team leads external and internal communications, and we view them in tandem. Internal communications used to be considered more of an operational necessity–a process to keep employees informed and up-to-date. Today, the best brands recognize that internal communications is a critical tool for building and nurturing your culture and values, which bleeds into your external reputation.

Amidst the upheaval of the last couple of years and the tight labor market, companies know that strong channels of communication with employees are paramount, especially if you look at recruitment and retention. The research is clear: employees today, especially Gen Z,  want to work for purpose-driven organizations that operate with transparency and empathy. Internal Communications is a key part of that. 

How do you continue learning about the field of Communications?

From newsletters like the Switchboard! There are so many great resources for communications professionals today.  I try to look outside my own universe so that I can learn from other industries and functions.

I’ve been lucky to have great colleagues and mentors. And it hasn’t always been individuals that are senior or in the same field. Earlier in my career, I had someone tell me to build a personal board of directors. Her advice was that as you meet with mentors, people you admire or like working with, build a group of people with diverse backgrounds who are generous with their advice and honest with their feedback. I’m incredibly grateful to that group, who have collectively provided invaluable guidance. 

Do you have any other advice you want to share?

Careers often aren’t linear. Some of the best communications professionals I have worked with started out in non-communications roles. Those people brought a critically important perspective and viewpoint. Embrace new opportunities and roles that you enjoy versus looking at your career as a series of lock-step jobs. I also think there is a lot of value to being a tri-sector athlete and collecting experiences in the public, non-profit and private sectors. 

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Thank you for reading The Switchboard. ☎️ Every edition is personally curated by me — Julia Levy. This post is based on a live interview conversation and edited for publication. Learn more about why I write.