We are a comms and marketing consultancy. We dig deep to find and share untold stories for people and companies who truly believe and invest in what they’re doing.
How we work
As people who understand communities, we value strong relationships—especially the ones we have with our clients.
We get cozy
We immerse ourselves in getting to know you and your vision. We’re dedicated to getting to the heart of who you are, because that means we’ll be able to make the best plan for finding and engaging your community. To us, it’s personal—and we’re never just interested in telling one story.
We act with urgency
We learned how to deliver under pressure from our background in the fast-paced world of crowdfunding. We hustle. When a story angle or branding strategy isn’t working, we help clients pivot and discover the next evolution of who they are.
We get our hands dirty
And we’re honest. If your website needs a makeover, we’ll let you know. If your social media needs a rehaul, we’ll tell you—and we’ll dive in to help you fix it, too. We look at your brand from top to bottom so that you’re set up to succeed.
Smoke & Mirrors
Deliverables-driven transparency
One big media blast
Highly researched & targeted pitch list
One big story
Several targeted story angles
Press releases
Personalized press pitches
Waits for news cycle
Finding new communities
Blitz of excitement
Sustained impact
No one does comms like us.
We come from film, creative writing, social media, and journalism backgrounds, which means we understand what makes a good pitch, a good story, and good comms. And in today’s world of saturated media, that’s important.
But we’re never just interested in telling one story. We’re dedicated to getting to the heart of who you are, so we can tell many powerful stories that reach far beyond your community.
Here’s how we do it:
We create trust
A community that doesn’t trust you doesn’t take action. So we tell stories that people want to read, and find the best journalists to tell them.
We pivot
We won’t oversaturate a loyal community with different versions of the same message over and over. We find new angles and stories—plus new communities to talk to, and new ways to talk to them (through social media, newsletters, website copy, guerilla marketing, and more).
We deliver irresistable pitches
We send super targeted, beautifully constructed pitches that generate results. Put simply: journalists read our emails (and we’re told they really like them). Like we said: we do comms differently.
Real human connection happens offline.
We’re not interested in over-the-top, Instagrammable corporate parties.
We create a chance for your community to gather, share, and connect.
Here’s how we do it:
We curate intimate dinners, cocktail parties, panel discussions, and meetups where people can actually talk to one another. Communities are made up of people, after all. When those people are well connected to one another, that makes for a more powerful, energized community. We think that matters—and can have a big impact. Plus, our parties are a lot of fun.
We consult with teams who are crowdfunding to offer our unparalleled expertise. We want you to get funded, and will position you for success.
Here’s how we do it:
We offer two different models on a flat retainer basis starting a $6,000. The first is a consultation model in which we offer a full project management sheet for your team to use as a guide, along with 10 hours of our service. These 10 hours can be split up across calls where we talk big picture plans and strategy, or time spent diving into the nitty gritty and editing your campaign copy, brainstorming press angles, making introductions to the best crowdfunding platforms, conceptualizing your video script and design assets, and strategizing exciting incentives.
The second option is a robust consultation model, where we offer these same services with the addition of higher-level press support, including building a press kit, brainstorming pitch lists, and even pitching a couple of our own contacts!
From our experience we’ve found these models position creators for success both during the campaign, and well past it.
Team

Alex Daly
Founder
Alex Daly is the founder of Vann Alexandra, DalyPR, and, now, Daly. She is the industry’s “Crowdsourceress,” a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2016, and a frequent speaker at festivals and events for designers, innovators, women entrepreneurs, and big thinkers. Having been referred to in the press as a “Kickstarter queen,” “crowdfunding guru,” and a “wunderkind,” she has managed crowdfunding and PR campaigns for Oscar-winning filmmakers, Pentagram partners, MIT Media Lab inventors, Neil Young, Joan Didion, and the female-led musical sensation TLC.
In 2017, Alex authored her first book, The Crowdsourceress published by Hachette. Originally from Miami, Alex holds degrees in Spanish, Philosophy Honors, and Film from Vanderbilt University.

Ally Bruschi
PR Manager
Ally Bruschi is passionate about creating powerful, well-crafted messages for the companies, products, and people that inspire her. Before joining Daly as PR Manager, she worked as a book publicist at Avery, a division of Penguin Random House, where she led national and local publicity campaigns for acclaimed authors in the health, wellness, food, psychology, and business space. Ally has secured features for her clients in everything from The New York Times and The Atlantic to Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday and national NPR shows. And as one New York Times Magazine article put it, her press release “managed to concentrate the zeitgeist of contemporary female celebrity into its purest form.”
Ally has previously contributed to Bustle, Plated, Borgen Magazine, and The Daily Meal. She received her Bachelor’s degree in political science from Kenyon College.

Bec Speakman
Coordinator
Bec Speakman is an experienced coordinator with an international perspective. Before joining Daly, Bec worked in film and television production in Australia on notable projects including Amazon’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, and the BBC’s The Cry. At award-winning production company Carver Films, she managed the company’s film and television slates.
At Daly, Bec has worked on a number of successful crowdfunding campaigns for brands including furniture & design brand Dims, Waris Ahluwalia’s botanical company House of Waris, and New Zealand-based Heilala, the latter of which became the most funded vanilla project in Kickstarter’s history. Using her skills, she led the creation of a robust crowdfunding how-to-guide for a Zurich venture capital firm launching a new crowdsourcing site for Middle East-based entrepreneurs.
Bec received her Bachelor’s degree in Media Production from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Allie Reeves
PR Associate
Allie Reeves comes from a mixed background of public relations, brand strategy, and client services and is passionate about working with brands to find and tell their stories. Before joining the Daly team as PR Associate, Allie worked at Blue Hominy in Atlanta, GA helping to secure press and organize events for a variety of food, beverage, and lifestyle businesses. Prior to that, she worked as a strategist at Horizon Media Agency in New York City, planning media and campaign strategies for brands like Burger King, Snyders Lance, Sperry, and more. She also has experience in the television and film space, working on projects such as HBO’s 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide, Project Runway, and Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
She received her Bachelor’s degree in Television, Radio, Film from Syracuse University with a focus in screenwriting and a minor in business.

Julia Nguyen
PR Assistant
Julia Nguyen is experienced in combining the power of communications and strategy to elevate mission-driven brands, companies, and organizations. Prior to Daly, Julia interned at NPR in the marketing, branding, and communications department where she wrote social media copy for live events including Code Switch Live, Tiny Desk Talks, Creative Mornings with Invisibilia, Audie Cornish Live, and the How I Built This Summit with Guy Raz. She also served as the Internal Communications Specialist at Jacht Advertising Agency—a student-run advertising agency that offers a wide-range of creative services including: strategic branding, integrated marketing communications, campaign concepts, videography, photography, social media strategy, content creation, print design, and public relations.
Julia is fluent in Vietnamese and a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.

Claire Rapuano
Operations Assistant
Claire Rapuano is invested in the unparalleled impact of storytelling in reaching key audiences and realizing an organization’s full potential. Prior to joining Daly, Claire served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa, where she taught English, led projects focused on gender equality, and managed Peace Corps Benin’s media strategy. In harnessing the power of compelling digital messaging, she succeeded in telling stories, bridging cultures, and garnering support for Peace Corps initiatives in Beninese communities.
Additionally, she acted as the Public Relations Officer on the Gender Equality Committee and contributed to the success of an annual philanthropic event at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence, which was attended by various diplomats and celebrities and raised funds for female empowerment programs throughout the region.
Claire is fluent in French and received her B.A. in International Relations and Modern Foreign Languages from James Madison University.
People are talking about our clients!
“A cherished piece of history”
Standards Manual × NASA
“A product that chefs around the world find more exciting than what’s typically available on the market”
Heilala
“Her work, consistent with her upbringing, brings a tactile feel to computer code”
Giorgia Lupi
“A bonafide social media movement”
Subway Book Review
“Shows promise in steering itself into a wellness juggernaut”
Girls’ Night In
“Pushing diaspora-inspired streetwear into the spotlight”
DIOP
“One of the first brands to stoke the upcycling craze”
Freitag
“Like Humans of New York, but for book reviews”
Subway Book Review
“The broadcast offers a different luxury: silence”
Tap In
“Turning old graphic design manuals into Kickstarter blockbusters”
Standards Manual
“A mini museum of vintage industrial graphics design”
Standards Manual
“Godfather of design”
Dieter Rams
“An aesthetic and mode of operation”
Order
“Designers have the most organized beauty stash”
Natasha Jen
“The First US Museum Dedicated to Posters is Now Open in New York”
Kasa
“Therapy’s new look”
Two Chairs
“A plant mecca for all your botanical needs”
Greenery
+ show six more
People are talking about us!
+ show three more
Select clients
Our past and present clients range from legacy brands who are looking to tell new stories after years of excellence, to exciting new talent and fast-growing startups that are making a substantial impact in the modern retail, food, health, and design industries.
How we got here
In 2014, Alex Daly founded a first-of-its-kind crowdfunding services company. She has since raised over $20M from 100,000 people worldwide, managing some of Kickstarter’s most groundbreaking campaigns for Neil Young, Oscar-winning filmmakers, New York Times bestselling authors, and music sensation TLC. Dubbed the “Crowdsourceress,” Alex built a team that led the industry in activating communities to launch new ideas (and she wrote a book about it).
After hundreds of successful campaigns, clients began asking for support for their ongoing PR efforts. They knew that to thrive, they needed a way to maintain their communities long after their campaigns ended. At first she said, No, thank you. She didn’t really like PR agencies :) But then she thought: What if we did PR our way? What if we took a quicker, more flexible, and more intimate approach across all areas of comms and marketing to take these companies to the next level? That’s how Daly was born.
The Daly ripple effect
Standards Manual
We managed designers Hamish Smyth and Jesse Reed’s effort in 2014 to reissue the 1970s NYCTA Graphics Standards Manual. It became an overnight sensation, invigorating a niche design community and surpassing its goal by over 700%. Ever since, Daly has overseen the brand’s subsequent campaigns, publicity, and events—witnessing the incredible ripple effect of that very first launch.
September 2014
The NYCTA manual campaign goes viral and is fully funded by lunchtime on Day 1.

August 2015
The New York Times Science section showcases the NASA Graphics Standards Manual campaign on its front page.
August 2015
The NASA manual becomes the most successful graphic design campaign on Kickstarter ever.

April 2016
The Standards Manual online shop launches to support the continued demand for the manuals.
May 2016
Vanity Fair runs “Meet the Guys Turning Old Graphic Design Manuals into Kickstarter Blockbusters.”
April 2017
Hamish and Jesse open their own design office, called Order, and New York City’s first graphic design bookstore. New York magazine hails it a “Best of New York.”

May 2017
Fast Company runs “Order: The New Design Office That Spun Off A $1.9M Kickstarter Business.”
October 2018
Standards Manual hosts an oversubscribed book launch for legendary designer Michael Bierut’s Now You See It.

July 2019
Standards Manual becomes the expert voice in the national conversation around the commercialization of the NASA logo, and are notably interviewed for the Los Angeles Times.
August 2019
Standards Manual publishes Parks, a collection of over 300 United States national park maps, ephemera, and brochures spanning over 100 years. Following features in Fast Company, Curbed, and The Atlantic’s CityLab, Parks sells out within days of launching pre-orders.
November 2019
Outside Magazine features Parks in its November print issue and across its digital platforms.
Heilala
We partnered with Heilala—a women-operated, New Zealand-based company that had quietly become the world’s most awarded vanilla—to help them expand into the U.S. market through a crowdfunding campaign, rebrand initiative, and launch of their direct to consumer site.
April 2019
Bon Appetit calls out Heilala in its recipe for the “Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever”.

June 2019
Daly strategizes and coordinates the first of a series of curated events that allow media to experience the brand with a “Vanilla Dinner.” Journalists from The Cut, Bon Appetit, WSJ, and more, enjoy an exclusive three-course dinner featuring delicious Heilala-infused dishes.
June 2019
Heilala launches on Kickstarter, amplified by an exclusive feature in WSJ Magazine calling them the vanilla “loved by Michelin-starred Pastry Chefs.” Heilala sees it’s highest day of website traffic to date.
June 2019
During the campaign, Heilala is featured in New York Magazine’s The Strategist, Here Magazine, Bon Appetit (again!), Bake From Scratch Magazine, and across Kickstarter’s social channels and newsletters.
July 2019
Heilala becomes the most funded vanilla project in Kickstarter history!

October 2019
Daly manages the second event in the series—a baking workshop in partnership with social-impact bakery Ovenly and Erin McDowell. Journalists from Esquire, Bon Appetit, Food52, Food & Wine, and Martha Stewart Living are given a hands on experience making Ovenly’s newest pie with Heilala’s vanilla extract!

October 2019
Forbes publishes a profile feature on Heilala: “Why Some of the Country’s Top Bakers are Swooning over this Vanilla”.
December 2019
Serious Eats features Heilala in their holiday gift guide, and Bon Appetit rounds out its year of Heilala support with a print feature in their November / December holiday print issue.