Inner Circle Labs

Inner Circle Labs is a strategic marketing communications group built on the following tenets:

• People do their best work when they have a personal passion for what they do
• PR people have a bad rep today and for good reason: too many people are peddling crap they don’t even like, let alone love, and selling the same old services to anyone with a budget
• It’s time for a change – time to head to the lab and find a new way to work within the highly engaged, social world to reach the inner circle.

At Inner Circle Labs, we aim to change the world of the PR sell out. Unless we’d tell your story even if we weren’t getting paid, we won’t take on the engagement. Every marketer tells stories of their “favorites” but wouldn’t the world be better (and wouldn’t marketing have a much higher ROI) if you only worked with “favorites”? So yeah, we play favorites. We say “no” more often than we say “yes.” And even though this sometimes leads to an awkward conversation, in the long term everyone’s happier and a real impact is made on the bottom line.

Inner Circle Labs works with companies ranging from consumer startups to enterprise-focused innovators – in industries including music, robotics and crowdsourcing. And we work to reach your inner circle through all mediums available – traditional media, social media, thought leadership, events, network building, collateral creation, digital content, paid placement, etc. There is no “practice area” – there is no “social vs. traditional” – at the Labs, if we love it, we'll do it. And, if you need help that falls outside of our tactical expertise, we’ll tap partners in our network to make it happen.

Julie Crabill, Founder & CEO

Julie Crabill is the founder and CEO of Inner Circle Labs, the un-agency where every project is a passion project. As the CEO, Julie is focused on helping startups build communications into company DNA. She is also responsible for the overall vision and direction of the company and team. Before founding Inner Circle Labs, Julie spent 10 years in agency side PR – most recently as vice president of the Consumer Lifestyle Practice at SHIFT Communications where she led the practice regionally and oversaw all consumer accounts. Prior to SHIFT, Julie worked at Edelman, Weber Shandwick and the Benjamin Group. In addition, she worked in the Global Advanced Technology practice at Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm. Julie has been recognized with numerous industry awards including PR News’ 15 to Watch Under 35 in 2005.

Jonathan Neri, COO

Jonathan Neri started his professional career in the fast paced investments world where he worked for several major banks and financial services firms. He spent 10 years helping a major Bay area investment firm develop internal business processes and created the technology that runs their business.  He left the finance world and joined Inner Circle to start a business from the ground up.  At Inner Circle Labs, he is responsible for all operations, technology and financial reporting.  Jonathan earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting from the University of Oregon.  In 2006, he was awarded the CFA designation by the CFA Institute. 

Melissa Roxas, Manager

Melissa Roxas is a manager on the Inner Circle Labs team leading the day-to-day activities and media outreach for clients. With more than six years agency experience, Melissa has worked on a range of various technology clients from consumer Web to enterprise software and has established relationships with The New York Times, USA Today, ABC Channel 7 News in San Francisco and TechCrunch. Before coming to Inner Circle Labs, Melissa worked at SHIFT Communications where she provided strategic counsel to clients and managed tactical public relations programs consisting of media relations, editorial calendars and speaking and award programs. Additionally, she has managed the PR program for the venerable Churchill Club for the past four years acting as an event programming liaison and media contact.

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