Vanessa Camones dishes on the Startup Telenovela
Vanessa Camones, CEO of AnyContext,, #LatinaGeek and boss lady extraordinaire joined us on the latest episode of Popping the Bubbl.
She realized early on a passion for writing and telling people’s stories during her college years where scored an amazing internship that got her high visibility experience with media channels like Telemundo and a number of high profile tech PR agency (Cunningham Communications) that gave her the opportunity to with Pixar, even sitting in on meeting with the Steve Jobs when he was Pixar CEO. As one of the 1st students to participate in this program, it really catapulted her into the place she is today, developing a strong consumer internet focus and participating in early online channels such as podcasting, blogging and social, which at the time were the early intersections to the online age we are in today. Beyond that, it is clear that at an early age Vanessa demonstrated an ambitious desire to learn and grow. It is kind of amazing to think back to being a recent graduate and how those early decisions can impact your future and life.
Having not only seen the evolution of social platforms, but the impact to our everyday lives gave Vanessa a unique perspective into communications between people, companies, customers and products that paved the way to her entrepreneurial journey.
You don’t think the things you do for fun ...are going to end up being what makes you who you are and what you do professionally
Vanessa is a true poster child for doggedly pursuing your passions. For her, communications and new technology was it. One of the keys to her success has always been in embracing the discomfort and she encourages others do to do the same.
Do things that make you uncomfortable..I always embrace what I don’t know.
Vanessa likens Silicon Valley to being its own telenovela, just that the characters are all geeks, passionate about their businesses and their world impact. In working with the startup ecosystem she has learned that her success begins by building trust with founders, which comes through truly caring about what they are building and going deep into their work together to mutually fulfill their desired outcomes.
With her new agency, AnyContext, Vanessa is moving from being primarily PR and content focused to providing clients with a full end-to-end marketing service, encompassing a multi channel approach that covers the entire marketing ecosystem. AnyContext wants to be your partner in any context.
One client she is particularly excited about Socrata, which is activating grassroots movements via tech and cloud based data democratization.
She also recently worked with the Stanford Center on Longevity on a startup challenge to prepare for coming needs of an expanding elderly population. Boomers are getting older and also living longer, we're not prepared as a society to deal with the challenges of an aging population so Stanford developed a design challenge to develop helpful tech for people that are elderly. The winners designed a smart cart that could act as a shopping assistant for the elderly or people with mobility issues.
Vanessa’s advice to the younger generations entering the market and with a passion for marketing, “Be a multi-disciplinarian, don’t just fall into one bucket. The professional world is very competitive and to be able to develop great strategy you need to know how all things work, understand how to leverage social, influencer marketing and also be personally engaged. The sooner you get on board, the more competitive edge you'll have!"
Great words of advice from yet another amazing guest! Thanks Vanessa and Part II coming soon!
